Personal perceptions and organizational factors influencing police discretion: Evidence from the Turkish National Police

Abstract

Unsupervised police decisions taken under stress inherently involve the exercise of discretion and remain questionable when considering the legitimacy of police behavior. Law enforcement agencies seek ways to control discretion to avoid the undesirable consequences of police discretion and maintain organizational legitimacy. Drawing on expectancy and value-based approaches, this study examines the role of extrinsic motivation, intrinsic value orientation and selective enforcement attitudes on the responsiveness of Turkish patrol officers. The findings of the study suggest that reward expectancy which represents the extrinsic motivational perspective, did not have a statistically significant relationship to responsiveness. Public service motivation representing the intrinsic motives of respondents, on the other hand, indicated a strong, positive, and statistically significant relationship with responsiveness. Officer attitudes toward selective enforcement negatively influenced officer responsiveness. © The Author(s) 2013 Reprints and permissions: sagepub.co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav.