Jihong Zhao

Social integration, individual perceptions of collective efficacy, and fear of crime in three cities

Several rival explanations have been advanced to account for fear of crime among neighborhood residents. Social integration is the least developed concept in this regard. We assess the mediating role that perceptions of neighborhood collective efficacy, defined as the trustworthiness of neighbors and their willingness to intervene as informal social control agents, have in the relationship between social integration and fear of crime. Our data were obtained from random sample surveys of residents conducted in three cities. Structural equation models indicate that social integration operates through perceptions of collective efficacy in predicting fear of crime, and similar results appear across three cities.

Prison disciplinary tickets: A test of the deprivation and importation models

Abstract Competing models of prison rule violation exist in criminology. The deprivation model proposes that inmate rule infraction is the product of the stressful and oppressive conditions within the prison itself. In contrast, the importation model argues that characteristics of individuals that predate confinement, such as race and gender, are critical factors in determining modes of inmate adjustment. Individual-level data from the Ohio correctional bureau are used to evaluate the efficacy of these two models. The results of analyses support the importation model over the relative deprivation model. The implications of the study are discussed within the limitations of the data.

Community policing: is it changing the basic functions of policing?: Findings from a longitudinal study of 200+ municipal police agencies

Abstract This article examines change in the organizational priorities of the three core functions of American policing — crime control, order maintenance, and service provision — in an era of community policing. The nature of contemporary organizational change in policing is analyzed using panel data from national surveys of 200+ municipal police departments conducted in 1993 and 1996. Two competing perspectives, contingency theory and institutional theory, are tested for their ability to account for survey findings. The primary findings indicate that police core function priorities have remained largely unchanged during this period. Rather than represent a systematic adaptation to a changing environment, in many police agencies, community-oriented policing (COP) seems to represent a method of strategic buffering of a largely unaltered core police operation reflective of the professional model.

The status of community policing in American cities

“Community policing” has become the watchword for organizational change among law enforcement agencies across the USA over the past several years. In particular, concerted efforts to internalize this new policing philosophy have intensified with the passage of the Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act in 1994, and since the strong endorsement of the community policing concept by the Clinton administration. Our analysis of data collected from a representative sample of 281 American police agencies in 1993 and again in 1996 permit a compelling examination of the community policing movement in this country over time. Our findings suggest that there has been a significant increase in community policing activities in recent years. Further, the level of interest in community policing training has intensified and impediments to the adoption of the community policing philosophy have become more easily identifiable. In addition, the results reported here also suggest that this change process has been quite dynamic, but the ultimate and widespread institutionalization of community policing still remains somewhat uncertain.

Community‐oriented policing across the US: facilitators and impediments to implementation

Reviews the rise of community‐oriented policing (CP) in the USA. Analyses data from a survey of police chiefs across the USA which investigated the extent of organizational change and CP implementation. Explores the extent of current CP training and identifies some facilitators and impediments to its implementation, e.g., education; training; middle‐management resistance; maintenance of adequate response time to calls for service while pursuing CP goals. Calls for further study on strategies for balancing the outcomes of a traditional approach against the expected benefits of CP; identification of agencies which have achieved this balance; comparison of employees’ value orientation over time. Notes that successful CP requires a change in officers’ values.

Determinants of minority employment in american municipal police agencies: The representation of african american officers

Abstract This paper attempts to identify and empirically test the important factors broadly assumed to be associated with the noteworthy increase in African American officers in U.S. municipal police agencies. Using data collected on a representative sample of police departments serving populations of 25,000+ residents across the country ( N = 281), a path analysis statistical method was employed in order to assess both the direct and indirect influences of these hypothesized explanatory variables. The primary finding is that the size of the African American population is the predominant contributor to a statistical model accounting for substantial variation in the representation of African American officers in U.S. cities. Other hypothesized factors are far less important than generally believed.

Race, Ethnicity and the Female Cop: Differential Patterns of Representation

This article examines factors hypothesized to be associated with the employment of female police officers in US municipal law enforcement agencies. Female officer representation is investigated within three primary racial or ethnic groups—Caucasians, African Americans, and Hispanics. This study utilizes data collected from a representative sample of police departments serving populations over 25,000 residents across the US during the period of 1993 to 1996. The primary findings of the research suggest that a small but noteworthy increase in the number of female officers occurred during this three-year period. In addition, it was found that variation in the proportion of female police officers hired in each racial or ethnic group was influenced by different sets of external and internal explanatory variables. Previous research treating female officer representation as a single aggregate group is misleading to the extent that it hides the observed cross-racial and ethnic differences observed here.

Value change among police officers at a time of organizational reform: a follow‐up study using Rokeach values

This paper examines evidence of value change among police officers in a medium‐sized police department which has been selected as a demonstration site for community‐oriented policing (COP). Relying primarily upon two survey data collections with a period of three years’ separation, the aim of this paper is to provide a follow‐up to a previously published article in this journal to investigate two issues. First, was there a change in the value orientations among police officers between 1993 and 1996?; and second, was any change noted favorable to the COP organizational culture that the department is attempting to promote? The primary findings of this paper strongly suggest that the value orientations among police officers did indeed change over this time period. However, the direction of the change noted may not be consistent with the goal of enhancing COP organizational culture. These findings help explain how the institutionalization of COP is properly seen as a very difficult, long‐term task facing American police today.

Police Organizational Structures During the 1990s: An Application of Contingency Theory

Organizational structures within police agencies have been of center-stage interest to the advocates of reform and professionalization since the inception of modern American policing in the early 20th century. The purpose of this article is to test the utility of contingency theory in its application to police organizational structures during the 1990s. Three waves of data from 280 municipal city governments and their respective police departments were collected in 1993, 1996, and 2000. Use of the random-effects panel data method of statistical analysis enables the authors to assess the relationship between structural changes in police organizations and three hypothesized factors, namely, environmental complexity, organizational size, and adoption of new technology. This article’s principal findings suggest that they have remained stable. Moreover, only a few independent variables are consistently correlated with the adoption of structural arrangements in American municipal police departments during the 1990s.

Political Culture Versus Socioeconomic Approaches to Predicting Police Strength in U.S. Police Agencies: Results of a Longitudinal Study, 1993 to 2003

A variety of theories have emerged that offer plausible explanations, one from the political institutional perspective and others from sociological perspective. There has been renewed interest in the effect of local political structure on police strength in the policing literature. The purpose of this study, therefore, is to assess the two main competing approaches that can explain variation in police employment across cities. The authors used a longitudinal data set collected from the same 280 cities in 1993, 1996, 2000, and 2003. A two-way fixed-effects panel model, used in the statistical analysis, indicates that the political culture approach, which focuses on local government structures, largely fails to contribute to the variation of police strength. The alternative socioeconomic approach better predicts police force levels across U.S. municipal police departments.