Potential Sources of Observer Bias in Observational Studies of Police. Final Report

摘要

Very little research has focused on the potential for observer bias in observational studies of police because there are almost no systematic data with respect to observer effects in observation studies in natural settings (Reiss 1968:358). The purpose of this paper is to synthesize fragmented accounts of observer bias in the field research literature by: (1) defining and describing four types of observer bias; (2) operationalizing one type of observer bias (reactivity) by identifying key independent and dependent variables; and (3) deriving hypotheses which can be tested using qualitative and quantitative data from a large scale observational study of police (Project on Policing Neighborhoods, or POPN). An in-depth review of POPN qualitative data on reactivity for patrol officers revealed that reactivity is often embedded within social exchanges with observers which include: (1) social cues from patrol officers; or (2) explicit changes in officer behavior. POPN descriptive data was also converted into a coding scheme in order to document the prevalence of social cues which were potential sources of reactivity.