Does police contact increase or decrease the likelihood that youths will offend in the future?

One of the main arguments for having more police is that they act as a deterrent. With more officers on the street, more would-be criminals can be stopped and questioned; more wrong-doers can be arrested. But what if police contact actually has the effect of making it more likely that young people will offend in the future? Criminologists call this theory "labelling" based on the idea that police encounters catalyse in young people a criminal identity, encouraging association with their deviant peers and estranging them from mainstream society. To test whether police contact acts as a deterrent or a catalyst for future offending Stephanie Wiley and Finn-Age Esbensen used data gathered over several years from seven US cities as part of the Gang Resistance Education and Training Program. Data were available for 2614 children and teenagers (aged 9 to 15; 49 per cent were male) collected at baseline (time one), again six to nine months later (time two), and then again a year after that (time three). The researchers used the survey data to identify the children and teens' "propensity" for offending at time one based on the demographic factors age, sex and race, as well as many other risk factors including impulsivity, risk seeking, school commitment, parental monitoring, unsupervised time with peers, substance use and more. Then they looked to see which of their participants had contact with the police by time two - including being stopped for questioning (14 per cent) or arrest...
Source: BPS RESEARCH DIGEST - Category: Psychiatrists and Psychologists Authors: Source Type: blogs