Policing and the Focal Concerns Framework: Exploring How its Core Components Apply to the Discretionary Enforcement Decisions of Police Officers

The Decision to Arrest in Sexual Assault Case Processing: A Test of Black’s Theory of the Behavior of Law

“…Moving beyond sexual stratification, much of the recent literature on arrest decisions in sexual assault cases has been based on the focal concerns framework. This focus is consistent with previous calls to extend the focal concerns framework to earlier decision points in the criminal justice system (Curry, 2014; Ishoy & Dabney, 2018). Originally developed to assess sentencing disparities, the focal concerns perspective has been applied to studies of arrest and charging decisions in sexual assault cases due to their highly discretionary nature vis-à-vis other offenses (Hartley, Madden, & Spohn, 2007; Kaiser, O’Neal, & Spohn, 2016; O’Neal & Spohn, 2017).…”

Police decision-making with young offenders: Examining barriers to the use of diversion options

“…Arcuri, Gunn, & Lester, 1979) and this study appeared to show the same. Ishoy and Dabney (2018) found that demonstrations of remorse were associated with a softer approach and this was also the case here – with remorse being a signal that the young person has learned something and of potential future compliance. NDM scholarship emphasises how schemas such as these facilitate rapid decision-making by experts (Klein, 2008).…”

“…age, race and demeanour) (Gaines & Kappeler, 2011). Policing research has given increased attention to the values, skills and experience police bring to their work (Schulenberg, 2010), and some recent work has investigated values such as ‘blameworthiness’ in relation to discretionary decision-making with adults (Ishoy & Dabney, 2018). However, there has been less attention to investigation of the values that inform decision-making with young people (see Richards, 2019; Richards et al., 2019).…”

“…Consistently, the police discretion literature highlights that discretionary assessments are based on combinations of complex factors including situational variables (especially seriousness of the offence), systems variables (legislation; the officer’s perceptions of the law and community expectations, departmental culture, individual workload) and offender variables (age, race, socio-economic status and demeanour) (Gaines & Kappeler, 2011). In their recent study of decision-making among 25 police officers in the United States, Ishoy and Dabney (2018) found that discretionary decision-making was affected by perception of blameworthiness, with the primary determinants of blame being the seriousness of the offence and personal responsibility of the offender. Blameworthiness was also considered alongside the offender’s attitude and demeanour.…”

A Sign of the Crimes: Examining Officers’ Identification of, and Arrest for, Stalking in Domestic Violence Complaints

“…Focal concerns theory has generally been supported as a theory of criminal justice actor decision making (Hartley et al, 2007;Huebner & Bynum, 2006;Kaiser et al, 2017;Pierce, 2012;Steffensmeier et al, 1998). While research has begun to investigate its utility as an explanation of decisions made by police officers (Crow & Adrion, 2011;Higgins et al, 2012;Ishoy & Dabney, 2018;Johnson et al, 2015;Vito et al, 2018), measurements of key constructs have either been ambiguous or inconsistent across studies and decisionmakers (Pierce, 2012). For instance, prior criminal history has been used as a measure of both blameworthiness (Hartley et al, 2007; and community protection (Higgins et al, 2012).…”