Explaining Suspect Resistance in Police-Citizen Encounters

Abstract

The authors analyzed police records to explore why suspects resist arrest. The analysis was based on a sample of 400 police reports from a mid-size urban police department in Southern California. Two hundred cases involved suspects who were charged with resisting arrest. The remaining 200 cases involved arrested suspects who did not resist. The authors used logistic regression to explore the association between several demographic factors and a binary outcome measuring suspect resistance. They found that suspects arrested in police beats characterized by a disproportionate number of calls for service were more likely to resist. They further found that Black suspects were more likely to resist relative to their White and Hispanic counterparts. The authors also explored interaction effects.