A Meta-analysis of the Correlates of Police Officer Search Decisions

• In Event: Police Discretion in Stops and Searches

Abstract

A growing body of literature has attempted to identify the strongest correlates of police officer decisions to search citizens, and a few manuscripts have attempted to condense the findings of these studies through narrative literature reviews. Considering that the amount of research that has been published since the most recent review (National, Research Council, 2004), an update is now necessary. Furthermore, the present meta-analysis improves upon previous narrative reviews by minimizing potential subjectivity, and finds that encounter and suspect characteristics are the strongest correlates of officer search decisions. The more important finding, however, is the strong influence of methodological differences across studies on variation in findings.

Author

• Philip Colin Bolger, Miami University, Middletown