Jennifer C. Gibbs

Trends in Police Research: A Cross‐Sectional Analysis of the 2003 Literature

This review represents the fourth in an annual special feature in Police Practice and Research: An International Journal. It provides a cross‐sectional analysis of the police literature for the year 2003, highlighting the substantive categories of the literature as well as the distribution of publication medium and methodological typology. In doing so, the authors provide a ‘snapshot’ of the current research trends in policing and, using the results of Beckman et al.’s (2003) review as a baseline, state both the substantive and methodological research patterns of this specific field of criminology.

Race and attitudes toward police: the mediating effect of social distance

Purpose – Given the consistent finding in the literature that members of minority groups hold less favorable views of the police than white citizens, social distance may be an important, yet untested, mediator. The purpose of this paper is to examine the mediating effect of social distance net of other established correlates. Design/methodology/approach – A sample of students attending a university in the northeastern USA completed an online survey in 2013. The survey was about their contact with the police, attitudes toward the police, and lifestyles, among others. Findings – Race, along with other predictors, significantly influenced confidence in police. However, race is the only factor that turns nonsignificant when social distance is included in the model. Mediation tests confirmed that social distance mediates the relationship between race and confidence in the police. Research limitations/implications – To maximize confidence in the police, administrators should focus on closing the social distance...

Support for Restorative Justice in a Sample of U.S. University Students

Theories of restorative justice suggest that the practice works best when offenders are enmeshed in multiple interdependencies or attachments to others and belong to a culture that facilitates communitarianism instead of individualism. Restorative justice principles and practices are thus believed to be incongruent with the individualistic culture and legal system of the United States, especially compared with that of nations like Australia and Japan. Using a nonprobability convenience sample of students enrolled in a large public university in the United States, our study examines attitudes toward restorative justice as a fair and just process for reintegrating offenders and meeting the needs of victims. Results indicate that our sample holds less punitive attitudes than citizens in either Australia or Japan. Our findings are discussed in light of recent policy shifts in the United States that suggest a concerted move toward decarceration following the 2008 recession.

Comparing Student Self-Assessment to Individualized Instructor Feedback.

The literature confirms the commonsense belief that feedback promotes learning. However, personalized feedback, especially in an online environment, can be exceedingly time-consuming for the instructor and may not improve student learning. To test this, a non-random sample of students in three sections of an online statistics course received individualized feedback on weekly homework assignments that were graded solely on completion as pass/fail; students in another three sections of the course were responsible to assess their own homework (but not other projects or examinations) via posted answer keys. A total of 47 students voluntarily completed objective questions testing their knowledge of the subject matter at the end of the course. Overall, there was no difference in learning between the two groups, nor were there any differences in student satisfaction of the course or the instructor. Caveats and implications are discussed.

Sugar and spice … and a badge and a gun A cross-national descriptive comparison of women’s involvement in policing

Women’s involvement in policing has been an area of study in the United States, but research in other countries has been sporadic. Comparative research, in particular, is scant in the literature on women’s involvement in policing. To address this gap in knowledge, this study explores differences between countries with high and low proportions of officers who are female. Qualitatively comparing these countries, several distinctions emerged between countries with a small percentage (< 5%) of female police (Albania, Bangladesh, India, Indonesia and Japan) and countries with a high percentage (> 18%) of female police (Estonia, Slovenia, Sweden, the Netherlands and the United Kingdom). Four of the five low percentage countries are located in Asia, with a higher population density, homicide rate and economic inequality (as measured by the Gini Index) than most of the countries with a high percentage of female officers. These low percentage countries also have yet to abolish capital punishment, whereas all high percentage countries have done so. In addition, two of the low percentage countries, but none of the high percentage countries, were involved in a civil war during the data collection period; two of the high percentage countries, but no low percentage countries, were involved in interstate war. Implications and suggestions for future research are discussed.

Exploring the neighbourhood context of serious assaults on police

ABSTRACT While evidence of social structural factors influencing violence against police (VAP) exists, few studies spatially explore this phenomenon with geographical aggregations smaller than the city level. The purpose of this study is to contribute to filling this gap in the literature. Using the census tract as the unit of analysis, the number of incidents per tract where Baltimore police officers were injured or assaulted with firearms in the line of duty was compared with theoretical indicators drawn from census data: concentrated disadvantage, residential mobility, immigration concentration and racial diversity. Maps show that incidents of VAP tend to cluster spatially, and multivariate analyses suggest that concentrated disadvantage and calls for service, but not other indicators, were significantly related to violence against the police. Future studies of violence against the police should include measures of routine activities theory, as such indicators may be mediating the relationship between community-level factors and VAP. Additionally, future research should attempt multilevel modelling to account for situational factors as well as structural characteristics of the location. Further, theory would significantly move forward if researchers could identify the processes by which structural conditions affect VAP. To decrease injurious assault on police, police administrators may want to refocus community policing efforts. While police are unable to eradicate poverty and other structural social problems, they are in a unique position to work with a variety of local government agencies to alleviate community concerns.

Terrorist attacks targeting the police: the connection to foreign military presence

Abstract Terrorist attacks – suicide attacks in particular – targeting police have increased worldwide over the past decade in both number and relative to other targets. One plausible explanation for this is the presence of a foreign military on a country’s soil, which is theorized to increase terrorism in that country. Terrorist attacks targeting the police may be more likely in these countries because police typically are tasked with assisting the foreign military. The primary research question asks whether there is a relationship between foreign military presence and terrorist attacks on police. This is assessed using a cross-sectional sample of 82 countries, with data drawn from several sources between 1999 and 2008. Because the dependent variables – terrorist attacks targeting the police – are proportions, Tobit and Cragg’s double-hurdle analyses were used. Analyses were confirmed using zero-inflated negative binomial regression models, with the outcomes measured as counts. Foreign military presence significantly increased the proportion of suicide terrorist attacks targeting the police, terrorist attacks using any tactic targeting the police and fatal terrorist attacks targeting the police. Greater economic inequality, involvement in civil war and greater regional terrorism were related to the proportion of attacks targeting police, but each was inconsistent across the outcome measures. To avoid being viewed as an occupying force and, thus, to decrease the proportion and count of terrorist attacks targeting police, administrators and officers alike may wish to reflect on public perception of their image. Future research should expand the dependent variable to include additional target types and a longer time period.

Terrorist Attacks Targeting Police, 1998–2010: Exploring Heavily Hit Countries

With over 14% of all terrorist attacks since 1970 targeting law enforcement, terrorist attacks on police is a problem in need of scholarly attention. Police serve as symbolic targets of the government and strategic targets of terrorist attacks, yet we know little about such attacks. This article explores terrorist attacks targeting police in heavily hit countries, drawing from the Global Terrorism Database. While Iraq and India have the most terrorist attacks targeting police, these countries also have a high number of terrorist attacks against all targets. To account for the total number of terrorist attacks, proportions are explored, finding Macedonia, Russia, and Georgia have the highest proportions of terrorist attacks targeting police between 1998 and 2010. A common thread among these heavily hit countries is a rapidly changing governing regime coupled with societal schism—in other words, these countries seem to share low governmental legitimacy. Implications for future research are discussed.

The Importance of Discussing Crime Victimization in Criminal Justice Courses: An Empirical Assessment of a New Curriculum to Enhance Student learning

Victimization and the costs of crime sometimes can be an afterthought in courses on crime and criminal justice, which often are focused on offenders. However, shifting attention to victims of crime potentially motivates students to better understand the causes and consequences of criminal victimization, thereby improving the learning of course concepts and producing better-prepared criminal justice practitioners. A new curriculum kit on understanding crime victims was implemented in two of three sections of a criminological theory course, with the third section acting as a control group having a unit on “offenders” instead of “victims.” In short, the kit did improve student knowledge of crime victimization, but so did a lecture on offenders. Interestingly, students exposed to the kit coupled with a service learning component continued to improve knowledge of crime victimization throughout the course, while the control group did not. Implications are discussed.

State Legitimacy and Terrorism: Implications for Counterterrorism Policy

Originality/value This chapter organizes counterterrorism policies into a recently developed framework as a tool for researchers, practitioners, and policymakers.