Profit-motivated Police Crime in the United States

• In Event: Posters I

Abstract

This study is part of a larger research project on police crime in the United States. Police crimes are those criminal offenses committed by nonfederal sworn law enforcement officers who have the general powers of arrest. Profit-motivated police crime involves sworn law enforcement officers who use their authority of position to engage in crime for personal gain. Profit-motivated police crime is a quantitative variable that helps explain the nature of police crime across the life course of officers’ law enforcement careers in a variety of contexts. This poster reports the findings on 1,592 arrest cases where a law enforcement officer was arrested for one or more profit-motivated crimes during the seven year period 2005-2011. The profit-motivated arrest cases involve 1,396 individual officers employed by 782 state, local, special, constable, and tribal law enforcement agencies located in 531 counties and independent cities in 47 states and the District of Columbia. Specific findings and policy implications are discussed.

Authors

• Philip Matthew Stinson, Bowling Green State University

• Steven L. Brewer, Penn State Shenango