Ni He

Youth Gangs and Definitional Issues: When is a Gang a Gang, and Why Does it Matter?:

The recent explosion in gang research has highlighted the importance of consistent definitions for gang affiliation and gang-related crime. Definitional questions have assumed greater significance in the wake of broad-ranging prevention and intervention strategies. In this article, the authors utilize a sample of approximately 6,000 middle-school students to examine the youth gang phenomenon using five increasingly restrictive membership definitions. The least restrictive definition includes all youth who claim gang membership at some point in time. The most restrictive definition includes only those youth who are current core gang members who indicate that their gang has some degree of organizational structure and whose members are involved in illegal activities. The authors examine the differentially defined gang and nongang youths on various demographic characteristics, theretical factors, and levels of self-reported crime. The authors also address the theoretical and policy implications of shifting definitions of gang membership.

Gender and police stress

This study explores the impact of work environment, work‐family conflict, and coping mechanisms on physical and psychological stresses of police officers. Using survey data from a large police department located in the New England area, we pay specific attention to analyzing similar and dissimilar results while comparing across gender groups. Our research indicates that for both gender groups, work‐family conflict (spillover) and destructive coping mechanisms are among the strongest and most consistent stressors, regardless of the measures of dependent variable employed (i.e. somatization, anxiety and depression). On the other hand, we also find divergent impact of exposures to negative work environment, camaraderie, and constructive coping mechanisms on different measures of work related stresses across the two gender groups. Implications of these convergent and divergent effects are discussed.

Differential Attrition Rates and Active Parental Consent.

Active parental consent in survey research poses ethical and practical concerns. One common argument against the requirement of active consent procedures is its effect on participation rates. There is additional concern that higher risk groups may be underrepresented in the final sample. Empirical support of differential attrition, however, is lacking. In the current multisite longitudinal study, passive consent procedures were approved for the collection of pretest data. For subsequent years of data collection, active parental consent procedures were required. In this article, we use the pretest data to examine demographic, attitudinal, and behavioral differences between those students for whom active consent was provided and those for whom active consent was either denied or for whom no response was received. The results indicate that active consent procedures produce deleterious effects on participation rates and lead to an underrepresentation of at-risk youth in the sample.

Self-Control and Variability Over Time: Multivariate Results Using a 5-Year, Multisite Panel of Youths

Gottfredson and Hirschi claimed, as part of their general theory of crime, that a child’s criminal propensity, what they called level of self-control, is fairly fixed by age 10. Low self-control children, they further claimed, exhibit greater proclivities for delinquency and analogous behaviors than children with high levels of self-control. They see self-control levels for children at both ends of the spectrum—and their propensities for crime and analogous behaviors—as immutable over the life course. The authors explore the self-control levels, self-reported illegal behavior, and supporting attitudes exhibited by a panel of youths from in six cities at five points in time. Some of our findings substantiated Gottfredson and Hirschi’s claims (e.g., claims linking self-control, sex, and race or ethnicity); however, other findings are at odds with their theory (e.g., the unchanging nature of self-control). The authors review the implications of these findings for self-control theory.

Predicting Five Dimensions of Police Officer Stress: Looking More Deeply Into Organizational Settings for Sources of Police Stress

Research on police officer stress has focused primarily on the rather atypical nature of police work and extent of adherence by law enforcement agencies across the nation to the Weberian bureaucratic form of organization and management practices. This study explores the effect of individual perceptions of work environment on male officer stress. Survey data from two large police departments in the northwestern United States are used in the analysis. The findings observed suggest that the levels of five dimensions of workplace stress are similar to adult males in the U.S. workforce and that an individuals perceptions of their work environment do have a significant impact on police officer stress.

Community policing: Did it change the basic functions of policing in the 1990s? A national follow-up study

This article examines changes in organizational priorities related to the three core functions of American policing—crime control, the maintenance of order, and the provision of services—during the era of community-oriented policing (COP). The change in priorities is analyzed using panel data from three national surveys of more than 200 municipal police departments conducted in 1993, 1996, and 2000. The primary finding is that police core-function priorities remained largely unchanged during this period. However, the systematic implementation of COP programs reflects an all-out effort to address all three core functions of policing at a higher level of achievement.

Individual value preferences among American police officers

This paper examines the value orientation of American police officers in a major municipal police department. Relying primarily on survey data, the aim of this paper is to utilize Milton Rokeach’s theory of human values to investigate the following three issues: What are the value orientations of police officers today? Have such value orientations among police officers changed over time? Is there a consensus on values among officers? The primary findings of this paper strongly suggest that value orientations among American police officers have remained relatively stable over recent decades. Moreover, there is a high degree of consensus on value priorities among police officers across years of service, level of education and gender.

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.

Pursuing Gender Diversity in Police Organizations in the 1990s: A Longitudinal Analysis of Factors Associated With the Hiring of Female Officers

This article examines the relevance of a number of factors presumed to be associated with the employment of female police officers in U.S. municipal law enforcement agencies. Female officer representation is investigated with respect to three primary race/ethnic groups in mind: Caucasians, African Americans, and Hispanics. This study utilizespanel data collected during the period from 1993 to 2000 on a representative sample of police departments serving populations of 25,000+ residents distributed across the United States. A noteworthy increase in the number of female officers did occur during the decade of the 1990s, and both internal departmental and external environmental influences on the hiring of female police officers were investigated. The major finding observed is that different sets of external and internal features have an influence on the hiring of women officers in each race/ethnic group.

Criminal Defense in Chinese Courtrooms: An Empirical Inquiry

Scholars in the field of Chinese criminal procedure law study have long decried the meager legal protection afforded to criminal defendants on trial and the hapless status of Chinese criminal defense attorneys in the courtroom. Unfortunately, very little empirical evidence was available to shed light on how criminal defense was carried out in Chinese courtrooms. Based on observations of 325 actual criminal trials from 55 District People’s Courts in J province, this study provides an opportunity to understand the mundane work performed by Chinese criminal defense attorneys. In particular, this study describes how criminal defense attorneys prepare and present their cases (as measured in terms of bail request, overall trial preparation, examination of defendants and witnesses, presentation of evidence, and overall defense strategy), and analyzes the outcomes of their performance. In addition, this study examines the discernible impact of criminal defense work due to types of legal representation utilized (legal aid vs. privately retained attorneys), numbers of attorneys representing the client, and the gender composition of the attorneys.