Turk's theory of norm resistance describes how authority relations can be structured in ways that hold different probabilities of overt conflict between subjects and authorities. His theory is premised on social norms of deference. This article develops Turk's argument by advancing hypotheses about how deference by race and age reinforces or undermines the positional authority of police and affects the probability of conflict with citizens. Domestic disturbance cases in which police-citizen conflict occurred are contrasted with a systematic sample of domestic cases in which no conflict is recorded. The authors find that resistance is more likely when race and age deference norms counter the positional authority of officers. These reversals predict conflict even after controls are introduced into a multivariate model.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Bannon, James. 1976. “Assaults upon Police Officers: A Sociological Study of the Definition of the Situation.” Ph.D. dissertation, Wayne State University.
2.
Bayley, David
, and James Garofalo. 1989. “The Management of Violence by Police Patrol Officers.”Criminology27:1-23.
3.
Blumberg, Mark. 1983. “The Use of Firearms by Police Officers: The Impact of Individuals, Communities and Race.” Ph.D. dissertation, State University of New York.
4.
Croft, Elizabeth. 1985. “Police Use of Force: An Empirical Analysis.” Ph.D. dissertation, State University of New York.
5.
Donahue, Michael. 1983. “Halt...Police! An Analysis of the Police Use of Deadly Force in a Large Midwestern City.” Ph.D. dissertation, Michigan State University.
6.
Friedrich, Robert
. 1980. “Police Use of Force: Individuals, Situations and Organizations.”Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science452:82-97.
7.
Fyfe, James. 1978. “Shots Fired: An Examination of New York City Police Firearms Discharges.” Ph.D. dissertation, State University of New York.
8.
Fyfe, James
. 1981. “Who Shoots? A Look at Officer Race and Police Shootings.”Journal of Police Science and Administration9:367-382.
9.
Fyfe, James
. 1988. “Police Use of Deadly Force: Research and Reform.”Justice Quarterly5:165-196.
10.
Fyfe, James
. 1989. “Police/Citizen Violence Reduction Project.”FBI Bulletin, May, 18-23.
11.
Geller, William
and Kevin Karales. 1981. “Shootings of and by Chicago Police: Uncommon Crises, Part I: Shootings by Chicago Police.”Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology4:1813-1866.
12.
Greenleaf, Richard G.
, and Lonn Lanza-Kaduce. 1995. “Sophistication, Organization, and Authority-Subject Conflict: Rediscovering and Unraveling Turk's Theory of Norm Resistance.”Criminology33:565-586.
13.
Konstantin, David
. 1984. “Homicides of American Law Enforcement Officers, 1978-1980.”Justice Quarterly1:29-37.
14.
Lanza-Kaduce, Lonn
, and Richard G. Greenleaf. 1994. “Police-Citizen Encounters: Turk on Norm Resistance.”Justice Quarterly11:605-623.
15.
Major, V.1991. “Law Enforcement Officers Killed, 1980-1989.”FBI Law Enforcement Bulletin, May, 2-3.
16.
Margarita, Mona
. 1980. “Killing the Police: Myths and Motives.”Annals of the Academy of Political and Social Science452:63-71.
17.
Martin, Susan
. 1993. “Female Officers on the Move.” Pp. 326-347 in Critical Issues in Policing, 2nd ed., edited by Roger Dunham and Geoffrey Alpert. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland.
18.
Mastrofski, Stephen
, James Snipes, and Al Supina. 1996. “Compliance on Demand: The Public's Response to Specific Police Requests.”Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency33:269-305.
19.
Nevitte, Neil
. 1996. The Decline of Deference. Peterborough, Ontario: Broadview.
20.
Norusis, Marija
. 1986. The SPSS Guide to Data Analysis for SPSSX. Chicago: SPSS.
21.
Reiss, Albert
. 1974. The Police and the Public. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
22.
Smith, Doug
, and Christy Visher. 1981. “Street-Level Justice: Situational Determinants of Police Arrest Decisions.”Social Problems29:167-177.
23.
Stokes, Larry D.
1997. “Minority Groups in Law Enforcement.” Pp. 31-51 in Contemporary Policing: Personnel, Issues and Trends, edited by M. L. Dantzker. Boston: Butterworth-Heinemann.
24.
Swanton, Bruce
. 1985. “Shootings of Police Officers: American and Australian Hypotheses.”Police Studies4:231-240.
25.
Turk, Austin T.
1969. Criminality and Legal Order. Chicago: Rand McNally.
26.
Turk, Austin T.
1979. “Conceptions of the Demise of Law.” Pp. 12-26 in Structure, Law, and Power: Essays in the Sociology of Law, edited by P. Brantingham and J. Kress. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
27.
Turk, Austin T.
1982. Political Criminality: The Defiance and Defense of Authority. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
28.
Van Maanen, John
. 1980. “Street Justice.” Pp. 296-311 in Police Behavior: A Sociological Perspective, edited by Richard J. Lundman. New York: Oxford University Press.
