Paul C. Friday

Impact of pepper spray availability on police officer use‐of‐force decisions

Use of “less than lethal weapons” by police has generated extreme review and controversy in some highly publicized cases. Confronting hostility and aggressiveness, police officers cannot turn away and flee from a dangerous situation, forcing them to select the best available option for controlling the individual. Among the officers’ choice of responses, oleoresin capsicum (OC) pepper spray has proven to be extremely effective. However, this is not a risk‐free weapon, and due to a number of suspect deaths following its use, it has become controversial. Investigates if OC spray reduced the frequency and level of use of force, and if its availability affected the number of suspect and officer injuries.

What Really Influences Officer Attitudes Toward COP? The Importance of Context

This research examines the extent to which actual implementation influenced how officers felt and the reasons for their feelings particularly about community-oriented policing (COP)-related activities, procedures, and COP philosophy in general. A pre- and post-implementation survey was conducted and followed up by a set of focus groups. The primary areas of difference between the pre- and post-COP expectations and experience were in the following areas: (a) less communication with other officers; (b) belief that they have less independence and discretion; (c) less participation in departmental decision making; and (d) more meetings with agencies and businesses, but less informal contacts with citizens. In addition, problem-oriented policing projects are considered too formal and time-consuming, given all their other responsibilities. These findings suggest that the local context of policing is an important element in the success of COP implementation.

A Chinese Birth Cohort: Theoretical Implications

Research on delinquency has shown consistent results across Western industrialized countries. Few studies have been done in non-Western cultures. This study reports on the results of a birth cohort study in China, which was started by Marvin Wolfgang but never completed. The cohort, born in 1973, was traced through official and community files. The amount of delinquency is significantly low. However, significant differences were found between delinquents and nondelinquents in terms of peer influences, family influences, and school. Regression results show that the most important school factors associated with offending are those relating to level of education completed and dropout status and interactions between students and teachers. Offenders were found to be approximately five times more likely than nonoffenders to associate with delinquent peers. This study reinforces previous findings—there are critical sociological variables related to social integration, family, and school experiences that significantly differentiate between those who become offenders and those who do not.

Crime and Crime Prevention in China: A Challenge to the Development-Crime Nexus

Since Chinas new open door policy, major economic and social changes have occurred as well as a demonstrated increase in official and victim survey reports on crime. The patterns of crime and characteristics of offenders parallels that of Western societies, but the rate of crime is still very low. A major increase in crime is not necessarily an outcome of development, where cultural and social history and philosophy have established strong prevention roots. The most recent literature on changes occurring in China are reviewed within theoretical perspectives linking development and crime: Durkheimian Modernization, Marxist, and Victimological. Chinese programs and crime-prevention policies are discussed and evaluated based on individual and systemic correlates of crime and the theoretical needs for prevention. Chinese culture and tradition are seen as preventive mechanisms in and of themselves and, therefore, need to be reinforced as China experiences major social change.

Early Release from Incarceration: Race As a Factor in the Use of Shock Probation

In July, 1965, the Ohio General Assembly enacted a statute providing a means for the early release of incarcerated felons from a correctional institution.3 The statute permitted * Revision of a paper presented at the Southern Sociological Society Annual Meeting, Atlanta, Georgia, April, 1973. This paper was supported in part by a grant (380-00-J-70) from the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration through the State Planning Agency of the Ohio Department of Economic and Community Development to the Ohio State University Center for the Study of Crime and Delinquency. Such support of funding agent does not necessarily indicate concurrence with the contents or recommendations within.

Residential probation: A seven-year follow-up study of halfway house discharges

Nonexperimental studies of halfway houses have generally focused on isolating correlates of resident success or failure in the program, with minimal attention given to whether correlates of in-program success/failure are also predictive of postprogram performance. Moreover, the question of how successful program completion relates to postprogram recidivism has received little attention. This study analyzes predictors of successful discharge and recidivism over a seven-year period following the discharge of 156 subjects from a probation halfway house known as the Kalamazoo Probation Enhancement Program (KPEP). Findings reveal that while relatively few residents received successful discharges from KPEP, those who did were less likely to recidivate than those who received unsuccessful discharges. Additionally, despite various controls, African-American subjects were significantly more likely to have rearrest records over seven years. The findings are discussed in the context of the halfway house literature, and their implications are considered.

Risk and Protective Factors Related to Offending: Results from a Chinese Cohort Study

Recent research has illustrated the importance of risk and protective factors on offending. The current study examines survey data from a sample of 81 offenders and 81 nonoffenders residing in Wuhan, China, in 1991/92 to determine how the accumulation of risk and protective factors in various domains differentiates offenders from nonoffenders. Specifically, we examine the importance of multiple causation and cumulative effects of risk and protective factors as they apply in a Chinese context. Results suggest that the risk and protective factor approach often used in studies of western offending also holds promise in studies of Chinese offending. Specifically, our findings support the importance of examining multiple causation and cumulative effects of risk and protective factors as related to offending. The findings also suggest that the risk and protective factors found to be important in China may be somewhat different to those identified through studies conducted in the West, illustrating the importance of recognising historical and cultural context in the risk and protective factor paradigm.

Small city community policing and citizen satisfaction

Purpose – This paper aims to examine the impact of the implementation of community‐oriented policing and problem solving in a small city.Design/methodology/approach – Citizen surveys that measure perceptions and activities of the police are completed before and three years after broader implementation of community policing. Because the existing literature supports the influence of a number of individual, neighborhood, and situational characteristics, several variables are included and controlled.Findings – The results show that although the police invest a great deal of time building partnerships with and problem solving in neighborhoods, there are no significant differences over time in citizen satisfaction with police or in fear of crime. Personal contact with police mediates the influence of individual and neighborhood characteristics on citizen satisfaction. Police presence remains a common significant predictor of citizen satisfaction.Research limitations/implications – Ensuring anonymity of subjects...

Weapon Ownership and the Willingness to Respond to Threats with Violence: The United States and Japan

Using data collected in Tokyo and Mito, Japan, and in Charlotte, North Carolina, the impact of weapons on the willingness to use violence in a variety of defined scenarios was analyzed. The American sample was twice as likely as the Japanese sample to say they would use a weapon when confronted by a stranger, by a known acquaintance, or if someone illegally entered their homes. The major finding is that the stated willingness to use a weapon is significantly tied to whether one owned a weapon for personal safety and being male in both countries. Logistic regression shows the likelihood of responding to a threat by physical force to be twice as great in Japan and nearly eight times as great in Charlotte if the respondent owned a weapon. These data support the thesis of a weapons effect that influences one’s definition of the situation.

THE NEED TO INTEGRATE COMPARATIVE AND INTERNATIONAL CRIMINAl, JUSTICE INTO A TRADITIONAl, CURRICULUM

Fifty years ago there were no college courses in criminal justice. No direct link existed between the educational process and the criminal justice system. This situation changed in the 1960s, however, with the passage of LEAA legislation that made postsecondary school training available for criminal justice personnel. For the past 30 years the number of universities offering criminal justice programs has increased, as has the number of students majoring in those programs. By 1990 there were 18 doctoral academic programs, 157 masters degree programs, and between 600 and 1,000 undergraduate-level program (Flanagan 1990; Southerland, 1991). Criminal justice and criminology have two principle loci: the study of offenders and the etiological correlates of offending, and the critical study of the relationship of social institutions as they react to the violations of law (Friday 1988). Early in the evolution of criminal justice education, the course of study still was somewhat separated from traditional sociological criminology; criminal justice was more practical and more oriented to training, while criminology retained a more theoretical and research orientation. Over the past 15 years, however, the distinctions have faded, and at most institutions the curricula are integrated into a common core. The process of integrating the two orientations sets a precedent for integrating international and comparative materials into an otherwise nationalistic course of study. Theoretically, criminology had an eclectic origin; the principal pioneers came from the diverse disciplines of philosophy, medicine, law, and sociology (Martin, Mutchnick, and Austin 1990). Its roots were principally European and were easily identified with the works of Beccaria and the classical school, Lombroso and the positivists, and Sigmund Freud. In the Mid-twentieth century the theoretical and empirical focus shifted to the United States, with the classic works of scholars such as Park and Burgess, Sutherland, and Reckless.