Testing Coercive Explanations for Order: The Determinants of Law Enforcement Strength over Time

Local politics and police strength

“…Consistent with this reasoning, Jacobs and Helms (1997), in a national-level analysis of law-enforcement strength over time, found that the national party in power affected the number of police employed. Sever (2001) addresses this issue by examining the percent of the city that voted for Clinton in 1992 -presumably capturing the public's desire for law and order policies.…”

“…Yet, conventional wisdom suggests that the kinds of public policies pursued depend, in part, on the political and ideological leanings of those occupying public offices, particularly in the realm of criminal justice policy (e.g. Caldeira & Cowart, 1980;Jacobs & Helms, 1997). Traditionally, the Republican Party has been considered the law and order party.…”

Killings of Police in U.S. Cities since 1980: An Examination of Environmental and Political Explanations

“…Criminologists have expended considerable effort testing explanations for social control efforts including arrest rates (Gove, Sullivan, & Wilson, 1998), the size of prison populations (Chiricos & Delone, 1992;Jacobs & Helms, 1996), police force size (Jacobs & Helms, 1997;Kent & Jacobs, 2005;Stucky, 2005), and the use of deadly force by the police (Sorenson, Marquart, & Brock, 1993;Jacobs & O'Brien, 1998;Smith, 2003). These studies assessed variations in the application of social control as a result of shifts in the economic and racial factors, but few have considered whether such politically based factors affect reactions to authorities who are responsible for social control.…”

The Conditional Effects of Race and Politics on Social Control

“…Greenberg and West 2001); police strength (e.g. Cureton 2001;Jackson 1986Jackson , 1989Jackson and Carroll 1981;Jacobs 1979Jacobs , 1997Kane 2003;Jacobs 2004, 2005;Sever 2001Sever , 2003Stults and Baumer 2007), deadly force by police (Jacobs and O'Brien 1998), police misconduct (Kane 2002), and arrests (Brown and Warner 1990;Liska and Chamlin 1984;Liska, Chamlin, and Reed 1985;Ousey and Lee 2008;Stolzenberg, D'Alessio, and Eitle 2004), as well as informal social control such as lynchings (Corzine, Huff-Corzine, Creech 1988;Creech, Corzine, and Huff-Corzine 1989;Olzak 1990). Much of this research relies on racial threat arguments (see Blalock 1967;Blauner 1972;Horowitz 1985), which posit that formal social control efforts are an attempt by the racial majority to maintain its dominance in the face of (real or perceived) threat or competition from racial minority groups (see D'Alessio and Stolzenberg 2003;D'Alessio, Stolzenberg, and Eitle 2002;Eitle, D'Alessio and Stolzenberg 2002).…”