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Expectancy Theory and Police Productivity in DUI Enforcement

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Stephen D. Mastrofski ,
R. Richard Ritti  and
Jeffrey B. Snipes
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Abstract

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This article drew on expectancy theory in industrial/organizational psychology to explain arrest productivity for driving under the influence (DUI) in a sample of Pennsylvania police officers. Expectancy theory is a cognitive model of motivation and performance based on workers' perceptions of their situation. Its major elements are estimated in a regression model: the officer's capability and opportunity for DUI enforcement (performance-reward expectancy), the instrumentality of DUI enforcement behavior for the officer, and the reward-cost balance associated with making DUI arrests. These factors account for 26% of the residual variance in the number of DUI arrests made annually once organizational effects have been removed. The relationships revealed are as expectancy theory predicts, except for instrumentality variables, which show a negative relationship to arrest productivity. This is due largely to the orientation of a small number of “rate busters,” whose exceptionally high arrest rate and negative attitudes toward their peers and the department hierarchy make them a distinct group accounting for a disproportionate number of arrests.

Type
Organizational Theory and Police Arrests
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 28 , Issue 1 , 1994 , pp. 113 - 148
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 by The Law and Society Association.

Footnotes

This work was sponsored by the Pennsylvania Department of Transportation. The contents of this report reflect the views of the authors, who are responsible for the facts and the accuracy of the data presented herein. The contents do not necessarily reflect the official views or policies of the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania at the time of publication. This report does not constitute a standard, specification, or regulation. The authors are grateful for anonymous reviewers' helpful comments on earlier versions.

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