The Political Dimension of Community Policing: Belief Congruence Between Police and Citizens

O'Shea, Timothy C.

doi:10.1177/109861110000300403

Cited by 15 publications

(8 citation statements)

References 36 publications

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“…Analyses in this study included correlations, a series of analysis of variance (ANOVA) tests, and several ordinary least squares (OLS) regression models. OLS is commonly used to study both adult and youth perceptions of the police in the United States (see Nofziger & Williams, 2005; O’Shea, 2000; Reisig & Lloyd, 2009; Rosenbaum, Schuck, Costello, Hawkins, & Ring, 2005; Schafer, Huebner, & Bynum, 2003; Weitzer & Tuch, 2005).…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Kids and Cops: Juveniles’ Perceptions of the Police and Police Services

Sanden

Wentz

2017

Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice

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This study examined the impact of four categories of variables (demographics, neighborhood context variables, contact with the police, and vicarious influence variables) on juveniles’ perceptions of the police and police services. Data analyzed in this study were collected as part of a larger research evaluation that examined the impact of law enforcement efforts in relation to violent crime. Survey responses collected from 423 middle school students were analyzed using a series of OLS regression models. The study found significant results for both dependent variables within all four categories of independent variables. Findings emphasize the importance of including influences from multiple sources into studies that examine juveniles’ perceptions of the police. Policy implications and suggestions for further research are discussed.

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Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

Kids and Cops: Juveniles’ Perceptions of the Police and Police Services

Sanden

Wentz

2017

Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice

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“…This is problematic, as police officers working in high crime neighborhoods generally have biased perceptions of crime and disorder (Skogan, 2004). Studies indicate police perceptions of crime in a community are higher than citizens' perceptions and actual crime (Bohm, Reynolds, & Holmes, 2000;O'Shea, 2000;Sun & Triplett, 2008). Officers are also likely to be biased toward the people who live in the area, making the implementation of successful community programs difficult.…”

Section: Community Policingmentioning

confidence: 99%

Resident and Police Perceptions of the Neighborhood

Stein

Griffith

2016

Criminal Justice Policy Review

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The successful implementation of community policing programs is dependent on police and residents understanding the needs of their communities. Differences between resident and police perceptions can affect the success of crime prevention strategies. Much neighborhood research highlights residents' perceptions of their neighborhoods; the perceptions of police officers are often not taken into account. The current research examines police and resident perceptions of three high crime neighborhoods in a Midwestern city in the United States. Results indicate residents and police have different interpretations of the neighborhoods. Resident perceptions of neighborhood measures are relatively consistent across the three neighborhoods. Police perceptions of their relationship with residents and the close-knit structure of the community, however, are more positive in the primarily White neighborhood that has an active crime prevention program. The findings suggest that what the officers see in the neighborhood is driving perceptions, while actual problems might play a secondary role.Community policing programs focus on a proactive strategy to curb crime, rather than the reactive methods used in traditional policing. Many of these programs highlight the interaction of residents and police officers (Bullock, 2010;Goldstein, 1990;Weisel

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“…Of course, there may be many steps a law enforcement agency could take or tools an agency could use, despite racial disparities, to mitigate any potential or resulting animosity. Indeed, community policing is a tool often cited as helping the police see themselves as the protectors of due process and helping the policed see themselves as represented and protected by the agency and its officers (Fisher-Stewart, 2007;Lemieux, 2014;O'Shea, 2000;Ray, 2012). Some legal scholars have challenged the alleged existence of this democratic policing paradigm in America, holding instead that the insular nature of American policing renders it mostly unanswerable to democratic norms and immune from effective public oversight (Friedman & Ponomarenko, 2015, p. 1907.…”

Section: Nature Of the Research Problemmentioning

confidence: 99%

Confidence in Law Enforcement When African-Americans are Underrepresented on the Force: An Exploratory Study

MacLean

2019

SSRN Journal

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This dissertation explores the prediction that when African-Americans are underrepresented among sworn officers in a community's local law enforcement agencies compared to the African-American proportions in that community's overall population, African-American civilians' confidence in their local law enforcement agencies may suffer, leading to impaired respect for law, reduced civilian cooperation with law enforcement, and civilian impressions of weakened procedural justice and fairness. With low civilian confidence, the argument goes, one could expect an enhanced sense of disenfranchisement among the underrepresented sub-populations. The purpose of this study is to consider the impact of underrepresentation of African-Americans among sworn officers serving a local community, explore the key correlates of civilian confidence viewed through the lens of African-American perceptions and attitudes, and confront the superordinate roles that procedural justice and police effectiveness play in forming African-American civilian attitudes of confidence, trust, and satisfaction in local law enforcement. To quantify representativeness, this study expresses relative racial compositions of the police and the policed as a Racial Mirror Index ("RMI"). If the percent of a community's police, who are African-American, exactly matches the percent of the policed in that community, who are African-American, the RMI-AA ("Racial Mirror Index-African-American") would equal 100. RMI-AAs over 100 indicate African-Americans are overrepresented on the local law enforcement agency compared to the African-American share of the general population; RMI-AAs under 100 indicate African-Americans are underrepresented among sworn officers on the force. Despite expectations, as this study makes clear, RMI-AA is not a significant predictor of African-American civilian confidence, trust, and satisfaction in local law enforcement. Instead, African-American attitudes about local law enforcement are overwhelmingly driven by African-American perceptions of procedural justice and police effectiveness. African-American confidence, trust, and satisfaction in law enforcement remains far lower than for Whites regardless of RMI-AA and the degree of underrepresentation on the force. Thus, law enforcement agencies cannot hire their way out of this confidence gap through minority recruitment. Instead, improving African-American confidence in local law enforcement will require the agencies to engage with the far more substantive work of ensuring their officers deliver both procedural justice and effective policing.

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The Political Dimension of Community Policing: Belief Congruence Between Police and Citizens

Cited by 15 publications

References 36 publications

Kids and Cops: Juveniles’ Perceptions of the Police and Police Services

Kids and Cops: Juveniles’ Perceptions of the Police and Police Services

Resident and Police Perceptions of the Neighborhood

Confidence in Law Enforcement When African-Americans are Underrepresented on the Force: An Exploratory Study

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