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40 Law & Hum. Behav. 1 (2016)

handle is hein.journals/lwhmbv40 and id is 1 raw text is: Law and Human Behavior 2016. Vol. 40. No. 1. 1-10 © 2015 American Psychological Association 0147-7307/16/$12.00 http://dx.doi.org/10.1037/lhb0000164 The Alleged Ferguson Effect and Police Willingness to Engage in Community Partnership Scott E. Wolfe University of South Carolina Justin Nix University of Louisville In response to increasing violent crime rates in several U.S. cities over the past year, some have pointed the finger of blame at de-policing, a result of the so-called Ferguson Effect. Although the Ferguson Effect on crime rates remains an open question, there may also be a Ferguson Effect on other aspects of police officers' jobs, such as willingness to partner with community members. This study used data from a cross-sectional survey of 567 deputies at an agency in the southeastern U.S. to accomplish 2 objectives: (a) to determine whether the Ferguson Effect is associated with de-policing in the form of decreased willingness to engage in community partnership, and (b) to determine whether such an effect persists upon accounting for perceived organizational justice and self-legitimacy. Ordinary least squares (OLS) regression equations revealed that the Ferguson Effect (as operationalized by reduced motivation stemming from recent negative publicity) was associated with less willingness to engage in community partnership (b = -.10; 95% CI = -.16, -.05). However, upon accounting for organizational justice and self-legitimacy, the Ferguson Effect was rendered insignificant (b = .01; 95% CI = -.05, .07). The findings suggest that officers who have confidence in their authority or perceive their agency as fair are more willing to partner with the community to solve problems, regardless of the effects of negative publicity. Keywords: community partnership, Ferguson Effect, organizational justice, self-legitimacy After an unprecedented decline in crime experienced in the U.S. over the past 25 years or so, alarm bells warning of an impending crime wave have started (Mac Donald, 2015; Mar- tinez, 2015; Sutton, 2015). Such a trend appears to materialize from time to time. Recall in the mid-1990s when DiIulio (1995) predicted a crime epidemic fueled by an uprising cohort of teenage superpredators. Although such proselytization gained widespread media and political attention, the predictions failed to materialize and DiIulio himself later acknowledged his false forecast. This time around, however, an apparent violent crime increase in several major U.S. cities has led some to point the finger of blame at the so-called Ferguson Effect in refer- ence to the deadly police shooting of Michael Brown in Fergu- son, MO that triggered public protest and negative international media attention. The Ferguson incident was followed by a string of highly publicized police-involved deaths of unarmed African Americans in cities such as Baltimore (MD) and North Charles- ton (SC). These events have placed police and community race relations at the center of public policy debates once again perhaps to a greater degree than what was seen in the early 1990s after the Rodney King beating (Weitzer, 2015). The This article was published Online First October 12, 2015. Scott E. Wolfe, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Uni- versity of South Carolina; Justin Nix, Department of Criminal Justice, University of Louisville. Correspondence concerning this article should be addressed to Scott E. Wolfe, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice, University of South Carolina, Columbia, SC 29208. E-mail: swolfe@mailbox.sc.edu Ferguson Effect hypothesis suggests that officers are conscious of the negative publicity surrounding their profession, under- stand that their actions could be recorded by the public at any given time, and become less willing to do their job as a way to avoid being accused of racial profiling or excessive force. In turn, this de-policing leads to increases in crime. At this point, however, the Ferguson Effect has only been supported by anecdotal evidence and guesswork. Although the Ferguson Effect on crime rates is an empirical question await- ing research scrutiny, early indicators suggest that observing such a relationship is unlikely (Rosenfeld, 2015; Zimring, 2015). Indeed, such a Ferguson Effect on violent crime rates would be quite large if de-policing has become so widespread that officers are less likely to enforce laws concerning murder, rape, robbery, and the like. Importantly, however, lack of empirical evidence to date regarding the Ferguson Effect on crime rates does not necessarily imply that the phenomenon is not real. Rather, if de-policing has occurred post-Ferguson it may manifest in areas of police work not directly observable in indicators such as the violent crime rate. For example, working with the community to address local problems is an integral component of policing. However, the relentless negative cov- erage of incidents such as Ferguson in news outlets and on social media presents a social climate whereby the legitimacy of law enforcement (i.e., regardless of the jurisdiction of the incident) is being challenged. It is likely that such a situation may make it difficult for some officers to be motivated to work in law enforcement and, as a consequence, be less willing to engage in community partnership. Evidence of such a Ferguson

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