In the Face of Perceived Sexual Victimization: Why Some People Comply with Stop and Frisk Searches

• In Event: Sexual Victimization

Abstract

Reports of harmful and unwarranted sexual behavior on the part of police officers during stop and frisk encounters have surfaced. Despite the consent of the individual being frisked, the officers went above normal stop and frisk protocol; this begs the question, why didn’t the individual being frisked withdraw consent? This question is enhanced when it is perceived that sexual victimization may be occurring. Preliminary regression results indicate that participants perceiving police officers and other authority figures as being sexually motivated show higher levels of compliance than those who did not. However, it is unclear the nuanced pathways in which perceived sexual motivation leads to compliance or non-compliance. The present analyses will address this question of compliance using survival analysis to determine how the survival function varies as a function of perceived sexual motivation. We finally address other factors influencing compliance in the face of perceived sexual motivation (i.e., gender, race, authority type). Additional research findings, policy implications, and limitations will be discussed.

Authors

• Jennifer L. Klein, University of Texas at Tyler

• Danielle Tolson Cooper, University of New Haven

• Adrianne Gilbert Pettiford, EEOC