The Crime Numbers Game

Eterno, John A.; Silverman, Eli B.

doi:10.1201/b11477

Cited by 62 publications

(25 citation statements)

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“…To be brief, we find minimal scientific evidence to support the claims that police agencies systematically distort their figures or that differences in recording practices make comparing clearances across agencies a fruitless endeavor. Although there is anecdotal evidence and some weak statistical evidence of manipulation (Eterno & Silverman, 2010, 2012; Seidman & Couzens, 1974), the evidence does not come close to indicating that clearance rates are biased to the point Mosher and colleagues suggest.…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Variability of Crime Clearance Among Police Agencies

et al. 2018

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Average crime clearance rates have remained remarkably stable in the United States since the 1980s, despite many advances in investigative technologies or fluctuations in crime. Taking these average trends at face value, some have suggested that this stability indicates that police departments can do little to alter their clearance rates. However, in this study, we find that the average trends mask substantial long-term variation in crime clearance among police agencies. Using group-based trajectory modeling, we test whether large U.S. police departments have reported uniquely different long-term clearance rate trends from 1981 to 2013 and what organizational factors might contribute to different trends. As we discuss, this method has attractive qualities that provide for a more rigorous analysis compared with past comparative work. Our results show diverse levels and patterns of clearance both within individual crime types and across multiple crime types that appear to covary with organizational factors. We explain how finite mixture modeling can advance both quantitative and qualitative research by identifying departmental differences in performance for further study.

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Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 92%

Variability of Crime Clearance Among Police Agencies

et al. 2018

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“…The Compstat programme, developed by the New York Police Department, was notorious for exposing police commanders to management review events where ‘their’ performance was subjected to hostile examination (Eterno and Silverman, 2012; Moore, 2003). In our research we did not find evidence of performance events of the intensity of the Compstat regime; however, we did find that ‘rituals of performance’ (see Manning, 2008; see also Manning, 1997 for policing ‘rituals’) were a key part of contemporary police performance, whereby individuals are exposed to particular events at which the performance of themselves or relevant others is presented, examined, challenged and at which they are called to account.…”

Section: Translating Targets Downwards: the Ambivalence Of Managerialmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…First, policing becomes overly focused on measurable activities, such as criminal detections, rather than other forms of problem-solving which may have no directly measurable outcomes but which are nevertheless socially beneficial, such as ‘partnership policing’ (for England and Wales, Beattie and Cockcroft, 2009; Crawford et al, 2005; de Maillard and Savage, 2012; Hough, 2007; Loveday, 2006; for Australia, Fleming and Scott, 2008). Second, the pursuit of standardized and uniform performance indicators for policing has been associated with the rigidities of the centralization of policing through ‘top–down’ performance governance frameworks (for England and Wales, de Maillard and Savage, 2012; Fitzgerald et al, 2002; Loveday, 2006; for the USA, Eterno and Silverman, 2012; Sparrow, 2015; for France, de Maillard and Mouhanna, 2016). Third, performance management has reinforced a culture of cynicism within police organizations (‘ticking boxes’), increasing the divide between managers and frontline officers (Fitzgerald et al, 2002).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

“…Third, performance management has reinforced a culture of cynicism within police organizations (‘ticking boxes’), increasing the divide between managers and frontline officers (Fitzgerald et al, 2002). Fourth, pressures to demonstrate achievement of performance can lead to ‘juggling’ practices, such as the tactical under-recording of crimes, thus challenging police integrity (see Patrick, 2011, for Britain; de Maillard and Mouhanna, 2016, for France; Eterno and Silverman, 2012; Sparrow, 2015, for the United States).…”

Section: Introductionmentioning

confidence: 99%

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Policing as a performing art? The contradictory nature of contemporary police performance management

Maillard

Savage

2017

Criminology & Criminal Justice

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Performance management in criminal justice organisations has become a prominent issue in many countries and has faced increasing criticisms by scholars and practitioners. In this regard it is important to examine empirically how performance frameworks work concretely. We do so through the empirical examination of "performance regimes", i.e. the sets of performance indicators, internal procedures, instruments and processes of internal accountability through which performance is defined, assessed and monitored work in police organisations.By using the categories of traditional (target-based, top-down and short-term) and advanced (processes, more deliberative and creative and long-term) performance regimes, we have charted a process of evolution illustrated by the experience of two police forces in England. We argue that police performance management is a contradictory and hybrid process containing elements of both traditional and advanced regimes and in constant flux between them. Problem-solving and a focus on the quality of processes coexist with cascading pressures, an emphasis on numerical targets and other features of more traditional regimes.

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“…Statistical data are derived from police files, often in instances where there have been witness statements, interviews with victims, and the collection of at least some evidence. Because of these factors, statistical data are generally more accurate than call data (data derived from incidents as reported to the police), although statistical crime data have their own serious deficiencies (Yung, 2014;Eterno & Silverman, 2012;Lomell, 2011). Statistical data typically lack both the realtime dimension and the geographic precision necessary for this type of crime map.…”

Section: The Datamentioning

confidence: 99%

Police Service Crime Mapping as Civic Technology

Scassa

2016

International Journal of E-Planning Research

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It is increasingly common for municipal police services in North America to make online crime maps available to the public. This form of civic technology is now so widely used that there is a competitive private sector market for crime mapping platforms. This paper considers the crime maps made available by three Canadian police forces using platforms developed by U.S.-based private sector corporations. The paper considers how these crime maps present particular narratives of crime in the city, evaluates the quality of the mapped data, and explores how laws shape and constrain the use and reuse of crime data. It considers as well the problems that may arise in using off-the-shelf solutions – particularly ones developed in another country. It asks whether this model of crime mapping advances or limits goals of transparency and accountability, and what lessons it offers about the use of private sector civic technologies to serve public sector purposes.

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The Crime Numbers Game

Cited by 62 publications

References 0 publications

Variability of Crime Clearance Among Police Agencies

Variability of Crime Clearance Among Police Agencies

Policing as a performing art? The contradictory nature of contemporary police performance management

Police Service Crime Mapping as Civic Technology

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