Robin S. Engel

University of Cincinnati | UC · School of Criminal Justice

Objective: The purpose of this study was to estimate the behavioral impacts of training police officers in implicit bias awareness and management. Hypotheses: Training police in implicit bias reduces racial and ethnic disparities in stops, arrests, summonses, frisks, searches, and/or use of force. Method: A cluster randomized controlled trial using...

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...

This study examines racial and ethnic disparities in the use of force by the Fairfax County, VA Police Department using post-Ferguson data and after the adoption of modern training and use of force policies on de-escalation. White civilians were overrepresented as subjects of force compared to a variety of benchmarks, while Hispanics were underrepr...

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...

Objectives This randomized experiment explored the impact of hot spots policing (HSP) strategies on criminal offenses and calls for service within chronic, persistent violent crime clusters in Las Vegas, NV. Methods Forty-four street segments were randomized into treatment (N = 22) and control (N = 22) conditions across nine chronic, persistent vi...

The most fitting way to celebrate Joan Petersilia’s numerous advancements within the field of criminal justice is to deliberately practice the two most important lessons that perhaps best define her legacy. First, embedded research should drive collaborative partnerships to foster real-world change based on science. Second, such real-world change s...

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...

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...

In the early 1990s, crime—and violent crime in particular—peaked in many cities across the USA. This left many cities across the nation searching for new ways to combat violent crime. We describe one of the most prominent strategies used to address this increase in violence, initially referred to as “pulling levers,” the “Boston Gun Project” or “Op...

Research Summary Despite significant national reductions in crime during the past three decades, a comparable reduction in adult arrest rates has not occurred. In addition, scant attention has been paid to the role of the police in pretrial justice and other criminal justice reform efforts, despite their role as gatekeepers to the criminal justice...

This study tested the hypothesis that investments in early childhood schools have short-term crime reducing effects in neighborhoods. Time series data from the city of Tulsa, Oklahoma, were analyzed to evaluate the effects of an early childhood school built in the neighborhood of Kendall-Whittier as part of a larger neighborhood revitalization plan...

In 2006, the city of Cincinnati, Ohio had the worst year for traffic crash fatalities in more than one decade, with 36 fatal crashes and 37 people killed. Five years later, Cincinnati had the fewest traffic fatalities in fifteen years and fewer than any large city in the state of Ohio. This transformation did not occur by accident. It is attributed...

In a recent paper, researchers reported increases in the risk of citizen injury associated with police use of conducted energy devices (CEWs), a finding that is contrary to that reported in most previous studies. These authors speculate that the differences in findings when compared to other similar studies may be due, in part, to the exclusion of...

Research Summary The use of focused deterrence to reduce lethal violence driven by gangs and groups of chronic offenders has continued to expand since the initial Boston Ceasefire intervention in the 1990s, where prior evaluations have shown relatively consistent promise in terms of violence reduction. This study focuses on the capacity of focused...

We examine the distribution of crime across street segments in Cincinnati (proximal places), and then proceed to look at the distribution of crime at addresses (proprietary places) within the segments. We find that for a substantial proportion of the proximal places, crime is concentrated at a few proprietary places. This indicates that the address...

In a recent paper, researchers reported increases in the risk of citizen injury associated with police use of conducted energy devices (CEWs), a finding that is contrary to that reported in most previous studies. These authors speculate that the differences in findings when compared to other similar studies may be due, in part, to the exclusion of...

Recent research has demonstrated that minority drivers receive disparate traffic stop outcomes compared with similarly situated White drivers. This research, however, is often not grounded within a theoretical framework and fails to examine specific combinations of driver demographics. This study addresses those shortcomings by examining research q...

Focused deterrence initiatives, including the most famous, Boston’s Operation Ceasefire, have been associated with significant reductions in violence in several U.S. cities. Despite early successes, some cities have experienced long-term sustainability issues. Recent work in Cincinnati, Ohio, has focused on institutionalizing focused deterrence in...

Influential research has reported racial disparities in drug arrests in Seattle, Washington, that could not be explained by race-neutral factors such as crime rates or community complaints. Based on new data, measures, and methods, we reexamine racial disparities in drug arrests in Seattle and find contradictory evidence. Our analysis, using drug-r...

Disproportionate minority contact during traffic stops has been a consistent source of commentary and study in recent years. While various theoretical perspectives have been employed to explain these empirical findings, the differential offending hypotheses has been largely ignored as a viable alternative explanation. Building on existing empirical...

Understanding police decision making has been a priority for policing scholars since the middle part of the 20th century. Recent emphasis has focused on examining the decision to search drivers and vehicles during pedestrian and traffic stops. The current study contributes to this body of literature by testing a series of hypotheses based on Skolni...

Previous research has consistently reported that gang members are more likely to experience violent victimization compared to non‐gang members. Recently, however, a study challenged this conventional wisdom using the Gang Resistance Education and Training (GREAT) data. Employing propensity score matching (PSM), this study reported no significant di...

Research indicates that focused deterrence interventions are associated with violence reductions, although levels of success vary across sites. It is unknown if these strategies can produce sustained reductions over time, and if the variation in success is due to differences in program activities and dosages. This study provides a detailed descript...

Over the past 60 years, a substantial body of research has considered the influence of citizens’ demeanor on police behavior; and more recently, the correlates of citizens’ demeanor. This study advances our understanding of the demeanor construct by measuring officers’ perceptions of citizens’ disrespect, non‐compliance, and resistance during traff...

This chapter explores the post-stop arrest decision in traffic stops conducted by Cleveland police officers to determine why racial disparities might exist. The study pays close attention to citizen demeanor by examining more than forty-two thousand traffic stops by Cleveland police; as part of their study, officers were also asked to rate citizen...

Purpose Within the last 15 years, law enforcement agencies have increased their collection of data on vehicle stops. A variety of resource guides, research reports, and peer‐reviewed articles have outlined the methods used to collect these data and conduct analyses. This literature is spread across numerous publications and can be cumbersome to sum...

The decision by a police officer to use deadly force is among the most difficult, pressure-filled, and consequential of any required in a civilian occupation. Except for the rare case of the police sniper who lies in wait for the command to engage his target, police shootings almost always unfold suddenly and under conditions of fear, panic, and ch...

There has been a significant increase in the litigation of selective enforcement cases based on racial profiling claims. This trend has resulted in two legal issues that are problematic for racial profiling research. First, selective enforcement claims that rely on statistical evidence must successfully measure “similarly situated persons” who were...

In racial profiling research, four different research perspectives - legalistic, criminological, economic, and normative - have emerged. The analytical techniques of two of these perspectives, the legalistic and criminological, have been thoroughly detailed in prior research. More recently, the economic perspective has presented an alternative anal...

Based on Engel's critique of the outcome test and Persico and Todd's response, the underlying assumptions critical to the outcome test are summarized and discussed. It is argued that many of these assumptions are not met when applied to police search data. The key underlying assumption - the principle of equilibrium - is examined in detail, and sev...

Recent studies demonstrated a consistent research finding that compared to Caucasian motorists, Black and Hispanic motorists were significantly more likely to be subjected to personal and/or vehicle searches during traffic stops, but significantly less likely to be found in possession of contraband. Explanations for these findings were typically ba...

This paper examines the influence of officers' and supervisors' attitudes and priorities toward community policing and problem solving over the time officers spend conducting problem-solving activities. Analyzing data collected for the Project on Policing Neighborhoods, a multi-method study of police patrol in two police departments, results show t...

This article examines the hypothesis that citizen's perceptions of injustice are based on normative factors (i.e., perceptions of equity and fairness) rather than instrumental factors (i.e., the outcomes received) by examining citizen's perceptions of injustice are assessed using data collected for the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)-sponsored P...

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to understand the factors that influence officer behavior when encountering suspects of crime who are perceived to have a mental disorder. Design/methodology/approach This paper utilizes data collected from systematic social observations of street officers during 617 encounters with suspects, including 49 that...

This article examines the hypothesis that citizens' perceptions of injustice are based on normative factors (i.e., perceptions of equity and fairness) rather than instrumen-tal factors (i.e., the outcomes received) by examining citizens'perceptions of injustice after traffic stops by police. The factors that predict citizens' perceptions of injusti...

Differences in official crime rates by race, class, and gender are usually explained by the differences in offending behavior and/or the differences in official processing, where differential processing usually is interpreted as resulting from prejudice by criminal justice officials. In recent decades there have been large reductions in prejudice-b...

The political and social pressure for police departments to collect race-based traffic and pedestrian contact information has led to the accumulation of abundant sources of police-citizen contact data. Many of the current data collection efforts, however, do not include accurate benchmarks for data comparisons. The strengths and limitations of the...

The factors that influence officer decision making after a traffic stop is initiated are examined using the Police-Public Contact Survey data collected in 1999. This investigation of police behavior is framed with an understanding of the organizational roots of racial profiling tactics and policies. The findings show that young black and Hispanic m...

The importance of suspects' resistance toward police officers has almost always been described in terms of its influence on police behavior. Given the centrality of citizens' resistance in the literature on police behavior, it is surprising that so little attention has been focused on explaining suspects' resistance independent of its influence on...

The volatile political environment that surrounds the issue of “racial profiling” has led local and state police agencies across the nation to start collecting information about traffic and pedestrian stops. The controversy over this issue is overwhelmed by the unsupported assumption that all race-based decision making by police officers is motivat...

Scholars have speculated that in an era of community policing, the role of first-line patrol supervisors has changed. Given this change, can patrol supervisors effectively influence their officers' behavior? This question is addressed by examining data collected for the Project on Policing Neighborhoods (POPN), a systematic observational study of p...

During the past 30 years, an expanding body of literature has evolved that examines the correlates of officers'decisions to arrest. This study extends this line of inquiry by investigating the influence of situational- and community-level variables on the arrest decisions of officers in an agency that has implementedcommunity policing. Using data c...

Scholars across academic disciplines have advanced theories identifying leadership styles. While these theoretical approaches have been used in a variety of settings, few police scholars have adapted these frameworks for a comprehensive study of patrol supervision. The present study uses these frameworks to identify underlying attitudinal construct...

The criminalization hypothesis is based on the assumption that police inappropriately use arrest to resolve encounters with mentally disordered suspects. The current study uses data collected from two large-scale, multisite field studies of police behavior-the Project on Policing Neighborhoods (POPN) conducted in 1996–1997 and the Police Services S...

In an attempt to advance the development and generalization of criminal justice theory as a whole, we propose a framework for classifying specific criminal justice theories. We then present an interpretive history of the academic field of criminal justice to demonstrate how the field can be organized within that framework. We conclude by describing...

Do patrol sergeants' supervisory styles influence patrol officer behavior? This question is addressed by examining data collected for the Project on Policing Neighborhoods, a systematic observational study of patrol officers and first-line supervisors in two metropolitan police departments in 1996 and 1997. Using four distinct supervisory styles cr...

Recent research has reexamined the hypothesis that suspects' demeanor affects police behavior. Reanalyses have supported this demeanor hypothesis, but none have considered the possible interaction effect of demeanor with other extralegal variables. Utilizing systematic observational data collected in 24 police departments in three metropolitan area...

Using data from a study with prospective-cohorts design in which children who were physically abused, sexually abused, or neglected about 20 years ago were followed up along with a matched control group, accuracy of adult recollections of childhood physical abuse was assessed. Two hour in-person interviews were conducted in young adulthood with 1,1...

The abstract for this document is available on CSA Illumina.To view the Abstract, click the Abstract button above the document title.

Recent research has called into question the seemingly well-established conclusion that the likelihood of arrest by the police rises when suspects display a disrespectful or hostile demeanor toward the police. In this article we reanalyze data collected for the Police Services Study, on which a substantial body of supporting evidence for this concl...