One-or two-officer cars? A perspective from Kansas City

The relationship of police patrol-car staffing to response time is examined. The first systematic study of police patrol-car staffing, conducted in San Diego in 1977, found that two one-officer cars responded to the scene of an incident faster than one two-officer car. Given the study design, this finding was puzzling. When two one-officer cars are dispatched, at least one of the cars has farther to go, and the extra travel distance should require extra travel time. The present study replicated the previous empirical analysis with data from the Kansas City Response Time Analysis Study. Although it was expected that additional control variables would provide an explanation for the findings, the results were the same. Two one-officer cars are faster than one two-officer car. One explanation for this finding is that peer pressure among officers provides different incentives for rapid response in one- and two-officer cars. The policy implication is that the deployment of two-officer cars cannot be justified by minimized response time.     

Prison size,overcrowding, prison violence,and recidivism

Contrary to a widespread belief about the undesirability of relatively large prisons, a review of the criminological literature yields no empirical evidence that prison size influences behavior inside or after leaving prison. The English prison statistics show that prison offenses, and more specifically assaults, are less likely in larger prisons. However, it was impossible in these analyses to control for the kinds of inmates in each prison. In a more controlled analysis of correctional effectiveness (defined as the difference between predicted and actual reconviction rates), there was a strong tendency for the more overcrowded prisons to be less effective. Size was only weakly related to effectiveness, and this association was reduced further after controlling for overcrowding. It was concluded that an important priority for governmental agencies should be to reduce overcrowding in prisons.     

Assessing the effects of LEAA demise on criminal justice higher education

The historical growth of criminal justice education programs can be directly related to the creation of LEAA and the education incentive program, LEEP. With the demise of LEAA and federal funding, there is the natural question of what effect, if any, this lack of financial support might have on criminal justice education programs. A stratified sample of 125 colleges and universities having such programs was surveyed to determine possible effects in student enrollments, characteristics, research funding, and other perceived changes. The data illustrate that changes in student characteristics appeared to be more significant in relation to enrollment changes than did LEAA/LEEP withdrawal. Program increases have been generally related to increases in full-time, preservice students and larger numbers of minorities and females. Programs which relied heavily on part-time, in-service students declined the most in enrollments. Colleges and universities with growing graduate programs experienced growth in bachelor and associate degrees as well. The demise of LEAA funding appears to have negatively affected most dramatically technical type programs which attracted large numbers of in-service, male, part-time students. Those which broadened their student characteristics appear to have been less affected.