Intro to Law Enforcement Quiz 7

For the most part, the general public tends to view the police

positively

Benefits of Good Relations

Greater cooperation and harmony between the police and all the people of the community

A decrease in the rate of crime and delinquency

Better control of crime and delinquency through more effective enforcement

Establishment of communication lines into the community

Improved working relationships with citizens and official groups

A large number of persons interested in police careers

Increased governmental support in terms of higher salaries and resources for new programs

Public Attitudes Toward Police Factors

Age,race, gender, socioeconomic status, contact with the police, major incidents

Age

older persons tend to view the police more positively

Race

white citizens tend to view the police more positively than minority citizens

Gender

we cannot say for certainty how females view the police relative to males

Socioeconomic Status

persons from a lower socioeconomic background are less likely to view the police positively

Contact with Police

positive vs negative

Primary Crime Prevention

consists of efforts to identify and manage the conditions within the social and physical environment that provide opportunities for or precipitate crime

Secondary Crime Prevention

focuses on persons and the community in an effort to identify potential criminals and high-crime areas and to address problems that cause crime

Tertiary Crime Prevention

deals with individuals who have committed criminal acts

Crime prevention through environmental design was developed from

Newman’s 1972 “defensible space”

Defensible Space concept

posits that creating a physical expression that society is appropriately defended from victimization reduces crime

The physical decline of a neighborhood

invites crime

Broken Window Thesis

a neighborhood in physical decline gives the appearance that no one cares about the neighborhood or what happens therein, once potential criminals sense this situation, they are less inhibited and tend to commit many more serious offenses

Categories of Environmental Design Activities

access control, surveilance, activity support and motivation reinforcement

Neighborhood Watches, Block Watches, Citizen Patrol

primary methods used by the police for activity support and motivation reinforcement—once the police initiate or help start these activities, citizens begin to develop more cohesive relations

The effectiveness of neighborhood watch programs is

mixed

Juvenile Curfews

form of secondary crime prevention—not effective in reducing crime

Cole (2003)

found that curfews did not reduce crime in Washington, D.C.

McDowell, Lofton, and Wiersema (2000)

examined the effects of juvenile curfew laws in 57 juridictions and found that they did not result in a decrease in crime

Community policing is implemented operationally through

reoriented police operations, problem-solving and situational crime prevention, community engagement

Reoriented Police Operations

involves identifying and targeting problems using COMPSTAT and implementing effective solutions

Problem-Solving and Situational Crime Prevention

the SARA model

Community Engagement

community policing dictates that the community become involved in protecting itself

Challenges to implementing community policing programs

Departments do not always have a vision and mission that emphasize cooperative relationships with the community

Organizational goals are not always consistent with community policing

Police departments do not always have an organizational structure that is conductive to community policing

The organizational climate must change

The community must understand that crime and disorder will not be eradicated or reduced until the conditions that cause crime and disorder are addressed

Community Policing at the Neighborhood Level

police must have positive relations with people in the neighborhoods they police

Police Legitimacy

people recognize and accept the authority of the police to the point that they willfully obey the law—when they respect and trust the police, they are less likely to violate the law

Legitimacy occurs when

there are credible sanctions for those who break the law (risk)

there is effective control crime (performance)

services are fairly distributed across people and communities (distributive fairness)

Factors that affect legitimacy are

individualistic as well as socialization

Individualistic

people evaluate police legitimacy and procedural justice based on the quality of interactions they have with the police