Officer Decision Making During Traffic Stops: Examining Driver-Passenger Gender Dyads

• In Event: Examining Police Officer Decision-Making

Abstract

Policing scholars have devoted significant attention to understanding disparate traffic enforcement practices. More recently, research on traffic enforcement has begun to examine the influence of passengers on officer decision-making during these interactions. This work, however, has focused namely on how the presence, number of passengers, and the race of passengers influence search decisions. The following paper seeks to build on the current literature on officer decision-making during traffic stops by examining passenger gender. Specifically, the current paper investigates how driver gender and passenger gender work together to influence an officer’s decision to issue a citation versus a warning in traffic stops. Research and practical implications will also be discussed.

Authors

• Kelsey L. Kramer, Sam Houston State University

• Danielle Wallace, Arizona State University