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Is corrections officers' use of illegal force networked? Network structure, brokerage, and key players in the New York City Department of Correction

Accepted version
Peer-reviewed

Type

Article

Change log

Authors

Goldrosen, Nicholas 

Abstract

Purpose Recent research on police misconduct has adopted a network perspective, while recent work on correctional officer (CO) use of force has similarly framed it as an organizational behavior, learned through socialization and deployed with considerable discretion. This paper leverages the network paradigm in police misconduct research to study the use of force by COs.

Methods Using data on lawsuits involving the New York City Department of Correction from 2013 to 2022, this paper forms a co-offending network of those COs who have been sued for excessive force. This paper then uses descriptive social network analysis and key player selection and community detection methods.

Results After describing the basic network structure of COs who use force together, this paper identifies brokers who connect disparate parts of the CO network; it also uses a community detection algorithm to identify clusters of COs involved in force incidents. Finally, the paper compares this network to an analogous network of police use of force, finding structural similarities.

Conclusions This analysis bridges disparate work on correctional officer use of force and police misconduct; for policymakers who seek to curtail COs' excessive use of force, this paper might provide a blueprint for identifying key players and clusters.

Description

Keywords

4407 Policy and Administration, 4402 Criminology, 44 Human Society

Journal Title

Journal of Criminal Justice

Conference Name

Journal ISSN

0047-2352
1873-6203

Volume Title

Publisher

Elsevier
Sponsorship
Gates Cambridge Trust (OPP1144)

Version History

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2024-08-22 14:23:55
Published version added
1*
2024-05-03 23:31:51
* Selected version