Constrained but not transformed: Civilian-led certification reform and officer misconduct
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Na stiahnutie
Dátum
2026
Autori
Názov časopisu
ISSN časopisu
Názov zväzku
Vydavateľ
SAGE Publications : Thousand Oaks
ISBN
ISSN
1065-9129
1938-274X
1938-274X
Abstrakt
In the wake of national protests against police violence, Massachusetts established a civilian-led certification regime to institutionalize external oversight of law enforcement. This study evaluates the short-term behavioral effects of that reform on officers with documented histories of misconduct. Leveraging the alphabetically phased rollout of recertification, we use a natural experiment and difference-in-differences design to estimate the causal impact of POST participation. While our quantitative analysis does not reveal sweeping changes in the frequency of officer misconduct, it uncovers suggestive evidence of behavioral recalibration: officers appear less likely to engage in misconduct at all following exposure to external review. To contextualize these findings, we draw on semi-structured interviews with officers, supervisors, and oversight officials. These interviews reveal how officers often reject the legitimacy of POST while simultaneously adjusting behavior in response to reputational risk and the threat of sanction. Taken together, the results suggest that externally adjudicated, procedurally binding reforms can induce modest, short-term behavioral change through instrumental compliance.
Popis
In: Political Research Quarterly. Thousand Oaks : SAGE Publications, 2026. ISSN 1065-9129. Vol. 79, no. 1 (2026), pp. 110-125.
Kľúčové slová
policajné pochybenie, police misconduct, reforma certifikácie, certification reform, civilný dohľad, civilian oversight
Výstup z projektu
VAIA 09I03-03-V04-00609 MICRO-SCOPE: Unraveling Micro-Foundations of Challenges to Democracy through the Applications of Smart Repression and Polarization
Horizon 2020 101000385 Variation in Institutional Oversight of Police Misconduct
Citácia
Práva a licenčné podmienky
CC BY Creative Commons Attribution 4.0. International
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess
info:eu-repo/semantics/openAccess