The purpose of this paper is to use expectancy motivation theory to test the influence of organizational work environment on aggregate patrol officer arrest activity with regard to domestic violence incidents.
According to expectancy motivational theory, the aggregate frequency of an individual officer's arrests at domestic violence incidents should be explained by the expectation to make domestic violence arrests, the capability to do so, the opportunity to do so, and the likelihood that these arrests will be rewarded. The present study used survey data from a sample of 401 municipal police officers representing 23 suburban police agencies in one metropolitan area in the midwestern USA. Multivariate analysis was used to investigate correlations between the officers' perceived work environment characteristics and their aggregate domestic violence arrest activity.
As predicted, officers who, in the aggregate, resolved the largest proportion of domestic violence incidents with an arrest, were more likely to perceive that domestic violence arrests were rewarded by their agency; operated under a departmental mandatory arrest policy; had received specialized training in domestic violence investigations; were patrol officers, and worked a night shift.
The limitations of this study include the fact that the sample is limited to suburban police officers in one metropolitan area, and the reliance on primarily self‐reported data on officer arrest outputs.
The present study lends further support to the use of expectancy motivation theory as a viable framework for managing officer work outputs in a law enforcement organization.
The paper holds value for police administrators who seek to better manage officer behavior in the field. It holds value for scholars of policing who seek to better understand how the organizational work environment influences general tendencies in officer arrest behavior. Finally, it holds value for domestic violence reformers who are interested in policy reforms that would increase police enforcement efforts against domestic violence.
