Awareness of community-oriented policing and neighborhood perceptions in five small to midsize cities

Although past research in large urban areas showed that community-oriented policing (COP) had a positive effect on citizens' views of the police and their neighborhood, very little was known about its impact on citizen perceptions in smaller cities. In the present study, multiple-regression was used to analyze survey data from 524 respondents in five small cities or towns in North Carolina to examine the success of local police departments in disseminating information about their COP program. The association between resident awareness of COP and their ratings of police/community relations, self-protection strategies, fear of crime, and community integration was also assessed. Police agencies in each city implemented COP at least one year before the survey. Results indicated that 20-50 percent of residents were aware of community policing efforts in their neighborhoods, but most did not participate in these efforts. Awareness of COP was associated with greater self-protection efforts, lower fear of crime, and stronger feelings of community attachment, controlling for demographic, perceptions of neighborhood problems, and victimization. Awareness of COP also had a stronger association with the outcome variables compared to a more traditional policing strategy, perceived visibility. The implications of these findings for COP programs, especially for small to midsize cities, are discussed in the Conclusion.     

Discrepancies Between Crime Reports and Crime Surveys:

The absence of strong zero-order associations between victimization and official crime rates for cities has been a puzzle for social scientists since the data for making such comparisons became available. Using the 26 large central cities for which data on both types of rates are available, we analyze the extent to which discrepancies between the rates can be accounted for by aspects of urban social structure that differ from city to city. After introducing such structural controls, we find a much closer correspondence between the two types of rates for motor vehicle theft, robbery, burglary, and forcible rape, but not for aggravated assault and larceny-theft. These results are explained by citing evidence that we have identified some critical "suppressor" variables for the former crimes (i.e., variables that are positively associated with one type of rate and negatively associated with the other). By contrast, the heterogeneous nature of the phenomena subsumed by the latter two crime categories may preclude identification of a similarly parsimonious list of suppressors. One implication of these conclusions is that cross-sectional analyses of intercity variation in official rates may produce results that are in reasonably close correspondence with what would be obtained with victimization rates for certain index crimes, provided that sufficient structural control variables are utilized.     

Accounting for Variation in Distrust of Local Police

This paper tests a variety of explanations for variation in distrust of local police in the US. As with other attitudes toward the police, there is a substantial race gap in distrust of the police. Our analysis is based upon citizen survey data from 33 cities and data on policing characteristics and the city context for those same cities. It reveals that individual‐level factors representative of a psychological model are of substantial importance in accounting for variation in distrust of the police. City‐level attributes tapping differences in police performance are also important predictors of citizen distrust of the police, even once individual‐level attributes are controlled; and there are important racial differences in the impact of these police performance variables as well, resulting in a largely full accounting of the initial race gap.     

Police patrol and the deterrence of crime

A nonrecursive model of the deterrent effect of police presence was formulated and tested for 26 cities. Victimization data were employed as measures of crime, unpublished FBI data on the number of police patrol units as the measure of levels of police presence, and data for 11 exogenous variables were derived from FBI and census reports. It was found that per capita, police are a positive function of rates of violent crime and that clearance rates are a positive function of police presence. However, some offenses that have traditionally been thought to be deterrable are not inversely related to clearance rates. The equations were re-estimated using official measures of crime and found to be more consistent with the deterrent hypothesis. It is suggested that official data may generate a spurious correlation. Finally, caution is suggested in consideration of alternative forms of police presence.     

Variation in Adult and Juvenile Arrest Rates: The Influence of City Size and Metropolitan Environment

Since the mid-1990s, the index crime rate has steadily decreased while the rate for Part II offenses has increased. The current study examines these differences from 1990 to 2004 using arrest rate data from the 35 largest cities in the state of Texas. Cluster regression analyses is employed to examine the effect of city size and city location, whether the city is part of a larger metropolitan area or “stand-alone,” to explain variation in juvenile and adult arrest rates by category of offense (violent, property, Part II) while controlling for the influence of social disorganization variables. Findings indicate that differences exist in the arrest rates for almost all types of offenses in mid-size versus very large cities. Contrasting adult versus juvenile arrest rates, city size and city location offer limited explanation for variation over time. Implications of these findings are discussed in the context of suggested policy and research directions.     

Indonesian Men's Contrasting Perceptions of How to Deal with Local Violence

This paper reports on data from a 2009–2010 project on masculinity and violence, part of which was conducted in Indonesia. The data here come from semi-structured interviews with 86 men in five cities, with minor reference to survey findings. Using a Foucauldian interpretive framework, we focus primarily on how these Indonesian men view police intervention in comparison to resolving the problem of violence within their community through mediation. The issue here is that while community mediation approaches are regarded positively, at present, it only seems to be religious leaders who are trusted to resolve conflicts effectively through this approach. Suspicion of mediation interventions and other measures that are tied to the authority of the state means that the promise of service-oriented policing reforms may not be effectively implemented.     

DOES GUN PREVALENCE AFFECT TEEN GUN CARRYING AFTER ALL?*

Previous research suggests that American adolescents usually have ready access to guns, and that the extent of misuse of guns by adolescents is not much affected by local gun prevalence or regulation. This “futility” claim is based on one interpretation of survey data from several cities, but has not been tested directly. Here we do so using microdata from a nationally representative survey, the 1995 National Survey of Adolescent Males. Using the restricted geo‐coded version of these data, and conditioning on an extensive set of covariates, we find (among other results) that the likelihood of gun carrying increases markedly with the prevalence of gun ownership in the given community. We also analyze the propensity to carry other types of weapons, finding that it is unrelated to the local prevalence of gun ownership. The prevalence of youths carrying both guns and other weapons is positively related to the local rate of youth violence (as measured by the robbery rate), confirmatory evidence that weapons carrying by youths is motivated in part by self‐protection.     

论人类心理普遍性假设的检验策略

根据跨文化心理学的研究,人类的心理呈现出不同的普遍性水平.因此,心理学家在研究中,不应笼统地把人类的心理具有普遍性作为研究的前提,以此推论在单一文化中得到的研究结果,而要对人类心理的普遍性加以文化检验.两种文化比较策略、三种文化比较策略、多元文化调查策略等跨文化比较研究策略是确定人类心理的普遍性水平的不可缺少的概念性工具.此外,非文化研究策略也可以用来检验人类心理的普遍性.     

A LITTLE HELP FROM OUR FRIENDS: Citizen Predisposition to Intervene in Spouse Abuse

Since victims' opportunities to seek help are constrained, observers can play an important role in aiding vicitims of spouse abuse. Many witnesses, however, are reluctant to act. By examining some of the reasons for this reluctance, this paper attempts to provide information that can be used to structure attempts to increase the propensity of observers to intervene—either personally or by summoning outside help. Hypotheses derived from a review of the literatures on crime reporting and helping behavior were tested in a random-digit dialed general population telephone survey of 1, 208 Chicago households. Measures of perceptions of crime, experiences with and opinions of the police, community ties, and standard demographic variables were included. In conjunction with census data on respondents' neighborhoods, this permitted an examination of the individual and joint influences of experiential, attitudinal, structural, and contextual effects on observer responses. Following presentation of findings, research and policy implications are discussed.     

The impact of situational factors, officer characteristics, and neighborhood context on police behavior: A multilevel analysis

While a considerable number of studies had been conducted to examine the effects of various variables on police behavior, very few studies had simultaneously analyzed factors that accounted both for police coercive and noncoercive behaviors. Equally limited is the research on the influences of officer characteristics and neighborhood context on police behavior controlling for all individual situational factors. Using observational and survey data collected by a large-scale project and hierarchical linear modeling techniques, this study assessed the effects of situational, officer, and neighborhood variables on police coercive and noncoercive actions, as well as the cross-level effects between these variables. Findings showed that situational characteristics played a strong role in determining officer coercive behavior, but not noncoercive activities. Similarly, officer-level predictors explained better officers' variation in coercive behavior than noncoercive behavior. Meanwhile, socially disadvantaged neighborhoods were more prone to receive coercive activities than were other neighborhoods. Implications for policy and future research are discussed.     

IN SEARCH OF A LINKAGE

Previous research has produced conflicting findings concerning the relationship between police evaluation by citizens and unreported crime rate. Data for thirteen large American cities indicate a weak positive relationship between the two variables. Strong negative relationships are evident between unreported crime rate and variables measuring police systems activities and demographic characteristics. Cities with the highest levels of police expenditures and manpower have the lowest levels of unreported crime, as do cities with high percentages of nonwhites and dense populations. Further analysis reveals that controlling for percentage of nonwhites and police manpower severely attenuates the original correlation between unreported crime rate and police evaluation. We conclude that future research should endeavor to explain the linkage between police systems activities and unreported crime.     

Index Based Regional Analysis: The Case of the Former Soviet Union and Russia

This paper presents a methodology for analysing inter-regional differences and identifying a suitable combination of policies for a set of regions. The methodology is based on the development of a composite index and is applied to compare (i) the members of the Former Soviet Union (FSU) and (ii) the regions of Russia. All variables considered and incorporated in the relevant index are (1) scaled from 0–100, so that the index is independent of units of measurement, and (2) weighted using survey results. According to the adapted regional development index Lithuania is on the top of the ranking followed by Latvia, Estonia, Ukraine, Belarus, Georgia, Russia, Armenia, Moldova, Azerbaijan, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, and Tajikistan. The FSU countries are positioned on a regional development index – per capita income mapping to investigate whether emphasis should be placed on regional, environmental or sustainable development policies. Finally, an index that incorporates various socioeconomic components is computed for the regions of Russia which are subsequently classified based on the value of this index. This classification shows that the regions with the best index values are in the Central–Southern part of the country (with the exception of Sackha Republic, which is in the West). The regions with the lower index values are in the Western part of the country and in parts of Central Russia (Mariel republic, Moldovia Republic, Perm region).     

Earnings prospects,matching effects,and the decision to terminate a criminal career

This study represents an effort to investigate the age pattern of criminal involvement from an economist's perspective. It presents a dynamic stochastic model of sequential search and match evaluation which is used to explain the reasons for, and the timing of, the decision to terminate a criminal career. The behavioral implications derived from the theoretical model are tested using individual National Longitudinal Survey of Youth data. Estimation results strongly support the prediction of a negative relation between theoption value of retaining a criminal career and desistance decisions. More specifically, the effects of current and future expected criminal earnings are shown to be negative, substantial, and statistically significant in determining desistance probabilities. Retiring behavior is also significantly responsive to variables measuring personal costs of punishment and the availability and attractiveness of a legal income-generating activity in ways consistent with theoretical expectations.     

College students' alcohol-related problems: A test of competing theories

This study examined binge drinking, drinking-driving, and other negative behaviors among college students. Specifically, this study tested the explanatory power of three criminological theories: self-control, social bonds, and routine activities. Data used in this research were collected from a survey of 558 students in a state university. Findings indicated that college students with low self-control were significantly more likely to engage in binge drinking, drinking-driving, and negative behaviors. Students who rarely participated in university-organized events or frequently attended parties were more likely to have problems of binge drinking, drinking-driving, and negative behaviors. Several control variables, such as gender and location of residence, were also predictive of alcohol-related problems among college students. Implications for future research are discussed.     

Is tougher better? The impact of physical prison conditions on inmate violence

Physical conditions of prisons have been at the center of long-standing debates in correctional policy and research. Many argue prisons should be unpleasant to deter future offending and motivate prosocial change among inmates. Others believe harsh conditions inhibit effective treatment and, perhaps, make offenders worse. Little progress in these debates has emerged, primarily because few studies exist that have tested propositions coming from either camp. This study draws on survey data collected from a random sample of staff at each of the 114 federal prisons operating in 2007. Staff perceptions of noise, clutter, dilapidation, and privacy were combined to reflect physical conditions of each prison (aggregated to the prison level). Operational data measuring serious violence was used to create a count of serious assaults at each prison over the same time period referenced in the staff survey. Utilizing a Poisson framework, the data showed that poor physical conditions of prisons correspond to significantly higher rates of serious violence. Implications for theory and policy are discussed.     

The European Sourcebook of Crime and Criminal Justice Statistics: A New Tool in Assessing Crime and Policy Issues in Comparative and Empirical Perspective

Theories which suggest a relationship between crime or criminal justice variables on the one hand, and variables related to criminal justice policies on the other hand, cannot be tested without reference to historic or comparative data. Since international comparisons offer the most powerful test of such theories, policy-related research in Europe has suffered, so far, from a lack of valid comparative data. Whether crime data from different countries are comparable, has always been subject to controversies. In the case of the European Sourcebook of Crime and Criminal Justice, a network of specialists was established under the auspices of the Council of Europe in order to assess the validity of the data. Although some problems in cross-country level comparisons could not be settled, the European Sourcebook offers comparative data on 36 Member States of the Council of Europe on a variety of subjects (offences and offenders known to the police; prosecution, convictions, sentences, and corrections; survey data; and indications on manpower and budgets of police forces, prosecutors, and corrections).     

When Territory Matters: Parliamentary Profiles and Legislative Behaviour in Italy (1987–2008)

This paper ponders the question of whether Members of Parliaments' (MPs) previous experiences and personal attributes may have any impact on the way they behave once elected. In agreement with a recent stream of literature, the authors hypothesise that MPs with strong territorial roots might behave as agents of the local community, promoting its interests and demands in their parliamentary activity. The assertion that individual biographies influence legislative activity in parliamentary democracies runs counter to the commonly held view that in this kind of institutional setting, legislative assemblies are dominated by parties, leaving little room for individually oriented behaviour and little incentive to do anything that is not coordinated by party organisations. The article builds an original ‘index of localness’, the main independent variable, based on the place of birth and previous political experience at local level of MPs. Then, taking into account territorially targeted Private Members' Bills as a proxy for the territorial behaviour of each legislator, the hypothesis is tested by looking at both aggregate evidence and individual-level data. Aggregate data support the hypothesis, as they show a monotonically increasing relationship between the two variables: the more a legislator is linked to his/her territory, the more (on average) he/she will sponsor bills concerning the local area. Individual-level data confirm this finding, as the correlation between the two variables also holds when entering a number of control variables.     

A new approach to measuring time-lags in technology licensing: study of U.S. academic research institutions

This paper contributes to measurement of licensing performance of U.S. research institutions by suggesting an approach for identifying time-lags in the licensing process. Licensing is a multi-state process starting with a disclosure, and resulting in intermediate outcomes such as patents, licensing agreements, and licensing income. The time duration among these variables is critical in understanding which investment is responsible for which outcome. This study develops a statistic procedure estimating time-lag coefficients among licensing variables using an unstructured regression model (OLS). The procedure is applied to 46 U.S. academic research institutions using the licensing survey data from 1991 to 2007 by Association of University Technology Manager. The results present individual time-lag relationships between each pair of licensing variables.     

A city-level analysis of property crime clearance rates

Theft, burglary, and vehicle theft are among the most frequently committed and least commonly cleared Part I offenses in the United States, but have received disproportionately little attention in the clearance literature. This study contributes to recent efforts to remedy this shortage by presenting offense-specific analyses of burglary, larceny, and vehicle theft clearance rates in a sample of 110 large US cities. Data were gathered from the Uniform Crime Report, the Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics survey, and the American Community Survey. Independent variables comprised social disorganization measures (e.g. residential instability, poverty, etc.) and policing variables, including the use of broken windows policing. Although broken windows policing is related to higher clearance rates in a few prior studies, that effect was not observed in the present work. Racial diversity and police spending per capita (which were negatively associated with clearance rates) were the only variables that were significantly associated with the clearance of all three crimes.     

Official incidents of inmate-on-inmate misconduct at a women’s prison: using importation and deprivation theories to compare perpetrators to victims

Importation and deprivation theories have long been used to explain prison misconduct and victimization among male inmates. However, the key variables from these theories have rarely been tested on female inmates. In addition, many of these existing studies use combined samples of males and females, while ignoring female-only samples of prisoners. Using data from official misconduct reports collected from 2007 to 2012 from a large women’s prison in Ohio, the current study sought to compare the characteristics of perpetrators of inmate-on-inmate misconduct to their victims. Findings reveal that variables from both importation (age, race, and current violent offender status) and deprivation (mental health status and prior violent disciplinary reports) theories were significant in predicting perpetrator vs. victim likelihood. Policy implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.