A video observational study of citizen self-presentation types in contested police-citizen encounters

• In Event: Police-citizen encounters and perceptions: procedural justice, crime reporting, contested encounters and bystanders

Abstract

In every contact between police officers and citizens, there is a risk that the interaction can escalate into verbal or physical conflicts or even violent incidents. Although numerous research investigated the explanatory factors of force escalation in such interactions, we know little about how officers and citizens behave in contested encounters and how the behavior of both parties influences the course of the interaction. Research into interactions between passengers and ticket inspectors suggests that the risk of aggression towards inspectors is related to passenger behavior that categorizes into five self-presentation types, namely the innocent, honest, wronged, defiant, and superior passenger (Friis & Lindegaard, 2020). Interestingly, aggressive passengers do not hold onto the same behavior but shift between multiple self-presentation types, whereas nonaggressive passengers express one or two self-presentation types. However, we do not yet know if these self-presentation types translate to different types of frontline encounters and how the behavior of the frontline employee initiates or prevents these self-presentation shifts from happening. Building on the study of Friis and Lindegaard (2020), the current research examines the different citizen self-presentation types in another context, namely police-citizen encounters. Drawing on an analysis of body-worn camera footage, we investigate whether the self-presentation types translate to police-citizen interactions and add how officer behavior triggers the citizen to shift their self-presentation type. This yields insight into how aggressive incidents unfold and what officers can do to prevent this.

Authors

• Lenneke van Lith, NSCR

• Vana Hutter, Netherlands Institute for the Study of Crime and Law Enforcement (NSCR), Amsterdam, the Netherlands Department of Human Movement Sciences, Faculty of Behavioural and Movement Sciences, Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam, the Netherla

• Marie Rosenkrantz Lindegaard, NSCR and University of Amsterdam