Explaining Procedural Conflict Between Officers and Citizens During Encounters

• In Event: Comparative Perspectives on Police-Community Relations

Abstract

In a recent mixed-methods study of police officers in New Zealand and South Australia, it was found that officers from South Australia used ‘control’ behaviour more often, and for a longer proportion of time during routine police-citizen encounters, than officers from New Zealand. Curiously, New Zealand officers used ‘verbal control’ behaviour more frequently during encounters with victims than during encounters with suspects. This paper explores one possible explanation for these phenomena, one that proposes that officers experience strain when their procedural goals are disturbed or blocked: officers used ‘control’ behaviour as a corrective action to overcome goal disturbances or blockages. With connection to the social behaviourist application of General Systems Theory (Sykes & Brent 1983) and General Strain Theory (Agnew 1992), a new theoretical framework is proposed to explain procedural conflict arising between officers and citizens. Thus ‘Procedural Conflict Theory’ explains how conflict arises due to procedural blockages and suggests opportunities to prevent, alleviate, and resolve conflict.

Author

• Ross Hendy, New Zealand Police