A Comparative Perspective of Community Policing in Taiwan and Washington State

This study explores the attitudes and behaviors of Taiwanese police officers regarding community oriented policing (COP) by comparing their attitudes and behaviors with those of officers in Washington State. Data used in the study were collected from 375 Taiwanese line officers assigned to the city of Tainan and 167 American line officers from various police and sheriffs’ departments in Washington State. The study finds that (1) Taiwanese and American officers hold similar opinions of COP’s potential to reduce crime; (2) both groups are similarly involved in implementing the various strategies of COP; yet (3) American officers are more involved in formulating (planning/devising) COP strategies; and (4) are more receptive to citizen involvement in COP; while (5) Taiwanese officers are more receptive to civilian oversight, and (6) are more amenable to applying COP outcomes for evaluative purposes than are their American counterparts. Policy implications and areas for future research are discussed.

Insights from Ted Palmer: experimental criminology in a different era

Objectives  

Report insights from the career of the noted evaluation researcher, Ted Palmer, on emerging issues in correctional research and correctional treatment.     

Challenges of conducting field experiments in correctional settings: boot camp prison study as an example

Objectives

The challenges of conducting a field experiment in a correctional setting.

Methods

This paper discusses the issues related to planning, design, and completion of a randomized control study of a correctional boot camp including the difficulties confronted and how these were or were not overcome.

Results

At the beginning, correctional administrators were interested in and supportive of the study and this greatly facilitated our initial work. However, as described in this paper, during the course of the research obstacles and difficulties arose. Using the boot camp experiment as an example, we review the trials and tribulations of trying to do a field experiment in corrections. The importance of collecting quantitative and qualitative in order to understand the experiences of both the control and experimental groups is emphasized, as is the need to examine the theoretical mechanisms hypothesized to lead to changes in outcomes.

Conclusion

Some of the challenges confronted in this randomized control trial are those facing anyone attempting to conduct a field experiment, others relate to the particular issues faced by those who are conducting experiments in correctional settings. The paper concludes with a discussion of the issues confronting researchers who are doing field experiments in corrections.     

Kontingenzprobleme sozialer Interventionen

Welfare state moderated social interventions into private life are faced with high expectations, which are often unrealistic, as this article shows for the case of child endangerment. A multidimensional analysis of this field, in which the diagnosis of institutional malfunction was put forward recently, shows considerable problems of contingency for such interventions. This results from field specific institutional regulations and organizational arrangements as well as peculiarities of the private sphere, at which the interventions are aiming. Due to those problems of contingency, optimal intervention trajectories cannot be taken for granted. The article develops this hypothesis on the basis of a scattered (and only marginally sociologically reasoned) technical literature and preliminary findings of an empirical field research currently undertaken. It highlights the restrictions, tensions and contradictions which render the interventional dynamic as a process remarkably governed by chance.     

Who is better for handling domestic violence? A comparison between Taiwanese female and male Officers

This study examined Taiwanese female and male police officers’ perceptions of handling domestic violence. Specifically, it assessed officers’ attitudes toward whether female officers, male officers, or a combination of female and male officers are more suited for handling cases of battered women, offenders, and domestic violence overall. Survey data were collected from 96 female and 156 male officers from two police departments in Taiwan. Frequency distributions showed that a combination of male and female officers were most preferred by officers for handling abused women, offenders, and domestic violence overall. Regression analysis found that female officers were significantly more likely than male officers to favor a combination of male and female officers over female officers alone for handling battered women. Female officers were found to be more likely than male officers to favor male over female officers and a combination of male and female officers for handling offenders. Police supervisors’ attitudes toward domestic violence also influenced officers’ attitudes toward who is more suited for handling offenders. Implications for future research and policy are discussed.     

Long-term evaluation of a bimodal universal prevention program: effects on antisocial development from kindergarten to adolescence

Objectives

Only a handful of studies on developmental crime prevention contain very long-term evaluations and all these addressed high-risk groups in English-speaking countries. In contrast, this article investigates long-term outcomes of a bimodal universal prevention program within the Erlangen-Nuremberg Development and Prevention Study (ENDPS) in Germany.

Methods

The ENDPS is a combined prospective longitudinal and experimental project that originally consisted of 675 kindergarten children from 609 families who were nearly representative for the local area. In the prevention part of the project, a group-wise randomization and matched pairs design was used to evaluate a training of children’s social problem solving skills, a parent training on positive parenting behavior, and a combination of both programs. Originally, 239 children were each in the program group and control group. Outcomes were measured after ca. 3 months, and 2, 5, and 10 years. The outcome measures varied over time and contained, inter alia, reports on child behavior in the Social Behavior Questionnaire (SBQ) from kindergarten teachers, school teachers, mothers, and the youngsters themselves. The overall retention rates in the ENDPS were satisfactory (e.g., 90 % after 10 years), but missing data from various informants further reduced the groups over time. The outcome evaluation was mainly carried out by causal regression models.

Results

There were various desirable effects of the program not only in the short and medium term but also after 5 and 10 years, i.e. on externalizing behavior, property offences, and total behavioral problems. The significant effects were mostly small (d?=?.23–.59) and significances became rare over time. As a trend, the combined parent and child training and the child training alone were more effective; however, this was not consistent across all follow-ups. The outcomes did not only vary with regard to time but also between different measures and informants. The youth self-reports and teacher reports were more suitable to detect effects than the mothers’ reports. Children at higher risk seemed to benefit most from the intervention; however, this was also not fully consistent across measures and times.

Conclusions

The various desirable effects of a relatively short and inexpensive universal program are in accordance with a public health approach in developmental crime prevention. However, it should not be seen as an alternative to selective and indicated approaches, but as a ‘foot in the door’ for high-risk children and families that need more intensive and costly programs. The variations in results across time, outcome measures, informants, and program components confirm the heterogeneity of meta-analytic findings in the field. Therefore, one must be aware of ‘fishing for significances’ and research on ‘what works’ should go beyond the content of programs. More studies should investigate how characteristics of program delivery, contexts, participants, and evaluation methods contribute to effectiveness.