Hannah D. McManus

National Policing Institute

While a significant amount of literature has emphasized the identification and explanation of disproportionate minority contact (DMC) in the juvenile justice system, less research has examined racial disparities in postdisposition outcomes. This study seeks to address this gap through its examination of the experiences of youths in custody. Specifi...

Given the complicated historical and contemporary relationship between law enforcement and African Americans, academic and popular commentary have focused intently on the existence of conflict between the police and the Black citizenry in the United States. The current project, however, seeks to broaden understanding in this area by exploring the e...

This insightful volume examines key research questions concerning police decision to arrest as well as police-led diversion. The authors critically evaluate the tentative answers that empirical evidence provides to those questions, and suggest areas for future inquiry. Nearly seven decades of empirical study have provided extensive knowledge regard...

The integration of evidence-based policy into criminal justice reform – and into police reform specifically – is a daunting but necessary endeavor. In this essay, we examine police reform, including a review of the literature, which is summarized and guided by our experiences and thoughts into a broad conceptual framework for what we believe is nee...

Objectives Longitudinal studies from the criminology of place suggest crime hot spots are repeatedly found in the same locations within cities over extended periods of time. Program evaluations of hot spots policing interventions often use much shorter temporal windows to define hot spots. This study examines if stability of patterns is still found...

Research summary Changing police use of force policies and training to incorporate de‐escalation tactics is one of the most routinely recommended police reform measures. Despite widespread promotion and proliferation of de‐escalation trainings, to date, no research has empirically demonstrated that these trainings reduce use of force in the field (...

Despite calls for police reform that include changes to use of force training and field supervision, evidence regarding their impact is sorely lacking. This study examines survey data collected from first-line supervisors in the Louisville (KY) Metro Police Department after department-wide de-escalation training. Presented as part of a larger rando...

Based on a 2017 national survey of 1,000 Black Americans, perceptions regarding the implications of Donald Trump’s election as President on race relations, police-minority relations, and police treatment of Black citizens in the United States were examined. Findings suggest the existence of a “Trump Effect.” With minor variation across demographic...

Research Summary De‐escalation training has been widely implemented by U.S. police agencies in the wake of adverse public reaction to recent controversial police use‐of‐force incidents. Despite vast promotion from politicians, academics, expert panels, and the public, we know little about the effects of de‐escalation training on officers and police...

In post-Ferguson America, police departments are being challenged to implement evidence-based changes in policies and training to reduce fatal police-citizen encounters. Of the litany of recommendations believed to reduce police shootings, five have garnered widespread support: body-worn cameras, de-escalation training, implicit bias training, earl...

Chapter Three considers the police decision to arrest, including a thorough discussion of the factors that influence this decision. Identifying the factors that influence arrest (and the relative strength of their influences) is a logical first step that provides the foundation upon which evidence-based strategies must be developed. While there are...

Arrest has several substantial direct and collateral consequences for individuals and communities. Given these costs, it is important to consider the utility of alternatives to arrest. This chapter focuses on two primary forms of arrest alternatives: police-led diversion and citations in lieu of arrest. For police-led diversion, three sup-topics ar...

This chapter considers the important and unanswered questions from existing research examining the police power to arrest and highlights directions and questions for future research studies related to this area. We argue that the most critical research needed should focus on police-decision making, as we need a better understanding regarding how an...

The police decision to arrest is impacted by several areas, including policy, community, and law. This chapter discusses the need to better understand the long-term and unintended consequences of the decision to arrest as well as alternatives to arrest. Well-designed evaluations, particularly through the use of systematic social observation and pol...

This chapter considers the different definitions of arrest and the reasons for the difficulty in creating a universally standard term. However, a singular definition is offered, which is used to guide discussions throughout this review. This chapter considers the historical use of arrest, including the evidence for the general and specific deterren...

In light of growing concern regarding the policing of inner-city communities—including questionable incidents of use of force—equipping officers with body-worn cameras (BWCs) has emerged as a salient proposal for reform. Based on a national-level survey of African Americans (n = 1,000), this project shows that wide consensus exists among Black citi...

In response to the recent crisis in police-community relations, police researchers, practitioners, and policymakers have presented the procedural justice model of policing as the key to police reform. This chapter explores the generalizability of the procedural justice model of policing to police relations with Black communities. It begins with a d...

Research on the targeted enforcement of weapons and drug offenses suggests that policies and street-level decisions around those offenses may play a role in disproportionate minority involvement with the justice system. Little research has directly examined the relative influence of these types of offenses on juvenile justice decisions. The analyse...