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Police
Terms modified by Police Selected AbstractsPOLICE, MINORITIES, AND THE FRENCH REPUBLICAN IDEAL,CRIMINOLOGY, Issue 4 2003RENÉE ZAUBERMAN This paper examines the strained relationship between French police agencies and ethnic minorities and discusses evidence of ethnic discrimination by the police and the criminal justice system. Until recently, the idea that ethnic composition of a police force ought to reflect, to some degree, the community it polices, seemed odd in France. We argue that there are two main reasons for this viewpoint: first, a conception of the role of the police in the State as accountable to the government rather than to the citizens; secondly, a conception of Republic and citizenship denying any political significance to the personal identities of citizens. We conclude that ethnic diversification of police forces is but one aspect of a more encompassing struggle against discrimination that requires a degree of accommodation with the present legal and statistical invisibility of racial/ethnic groups. [source] A PEOPLE'S POLICE FOR THE TWENTY-FIRST CENTURY: A REPLY TO BLUNDELLECONOMIC AFFAIRS, Issue 4 2007Sara Thornton John Blundell's ideas for structural change could undermine the strengths of British policing. Nevertheless, there is a need for decentralisation and more local control. [source] The Native Police of QueenslandHISTORY COMPASS (ELECTRONIC), Issue 4 2008Jonathan Richards The European colonisation of Queensland largely depended on the armed and mounted men of the Native Police , a brutal force which killed many Indigenous people on the frontier. Detachments of mounted Aboriginal troopers led by European officers would surround Aboriginal camps and fire into them at dawn, killing men, women and children. The bodies were often burned to destroy the evidence. Jonathan Richards has spent many years researching this controversial and distressing subject, finding his way through the secrecy, misinformation and supposed ,lost' files. In this article, based on the first comprehensive study of the force's history in Queensland, he argues that the Native Police was a classic example of ,divide and rule' practices. This colonising tactic, successfully used by the British and other imperial powers, was approved by government and by most European settlers. [source] Relations between characteristics of workplace practices and types of informal work-related learning: A survey study among Dutch PoliceHUMAN RESOURCE DEVELOPMENT QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2008Anja J. Doornbos Some organizations seek to promote informal work-related learning to stimulate organizational performance. This study focuses on six types of work-related learning in relation to personal, relational, and work characteristics of the workplace practice. A survey was conducted to identify types and levels of work-related learning for executive Dutch police officers in terms of intentionality, developmental relatedness, and interaction partner's professional practice and hierarchical position. Analysis of the data found that police officers frequently learn from their peers and together. They learn from new and less-experienced colleagues infrequently. Of the nine characteristics of workplace practices researched in this study, some seemed to individually facilitate work-related learning; in particular, the individual's value of workrelated learning, possibilities for collegial feedback, and a relatively high level of work pressure seemed to stimulate informal work-related learning. Implications of the findings for HRD research and practice are discussed. [source] In Search of the Audit Society: Some Evidence from Health Care, Police and SchoolsINTERNATIONAL JOURNAL OF AUDITING, Issue 1 2000Mary Bowerman Claims that we are moving towards an ,audit society' (Power 1994, 1997) are fuelled by the emergence of a wealth of audit and other performance monitoring initiatives. To date, however, very little empirical evidence has been gathered on the precise nature, role and scope of this ,society'. This paper draws on academic literature, official and unofficial reports and interviews with auditors, inspectors and auditees across three major public service organisations. The paper argues that audit is just one aspect of a broader, but rapidly evolving, ,performance measurement society'; other important elements of which include the growth of inspection and self-assessment. Public sector audit emerges as an increasingly questionable function. The remainder of the paper dismantles some of the myths associated with its practice, particularly regarding its public visibility and contribution in terms of enhancing processes of public service delivery, management and accountability. [source] Designing Police: Interpol and the Study of Change in International OrganizationsINTERNATIONAL STUDIES QUARTERLY, Issue 4 2005Michael Barnett On those rare occasions when scholars of international organizations (IOs) consider the issue of change, they typically highlight the centrality of states. Although states are important for understanding when and why there is a change in the tasks, mandate, and design of IO, IOs themselves can initiate change. Drawing from sociological institutional and resource dependence approaches, in this article we treat IOs as strategic actors that can choose among a set of strategies in order to pursue their goals in response to changing environmental pressures and constraints that potentially threaten their relevance and resource base. We delineate six strategies,acquiescence, compromise, avoidance, defiance, manipulation, and strategic social construction, and suggest that the strategic choice by IOs is contingent on the level of both organizational insecurity and the congruence between the content of environmental pressures and organizational culture. We emphasize how IOs must make a trade-off between acquiring the resources necessary to survive and be secure, on the one hand, and maintaining autonomy, on the other. We apply this framework to the case of Interpol, investigating how different calculations of these trade-offs led Interpol staff to adopt different strategies depending on its willingness to accept, resist, or initiate changes that demand conformity to external pressures. [source] Policing a complex community; political influence on policing and its impact on local and central accountabilityJOURNAL OF COMMUNITY & APPLIED SOCIAL PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 3 2005Robin Fletcher Abstract During the 1970s a series of events irrevocably changed the way in which policing was carried out in England and Wales. This paper describes how the police became politicized as it enforced government policies that resulted in violent police/public confrontation. It then explores how the Metropolitan Police Service began a process of re-engagement with the highly complex society of London, by community-focused policing models. The theoretical and practical difficulties of community policing are discussed in relation to legislation that required greater community involvement in policing. A theme of accountability is generated throughout the paper showing how political extremism challenged a bi-partite system of police governance, unique to the Metropolitan Police in the context of the UK, by demanding local accountability. This resulted in conflicting legislation that promotes both localized and centralized forms of accountability. The paper concludes with a speculative theory of how policing may develop in London as a department of a local government. Copyright © 2005 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Facilitating police,minority youth attitude change: The effects of cooperation within a competitive context and exposure to typical exemplarsJOURNAL OF COMMUNITY PSYCHOLOGY, Issue 2 2002Dana Rabois Previous community programs have been unsuccessful in changing youths' attitudes toward police, and have thus far not addressed police attitudes toward youth. In this pilot study, police (n = 26) competed together with minority youths (n = 51) on heterogeneous basketball teams. Pre- and postintervention attitudes toward youths/officers and posttest attitudes toward team members were examined. Police reported positive ratings of out-group team members, and demonstrated a positive shift in attitude toward minority youth in general. Generalization of positive attitude was more likely when officers perceived their team members as typical exemplars of minority youth. Minority youths did not show a significant improvement in attitude toward police but reported favorable attitudes toward team members. Results suggest that a short-term competitive tournament exposing individuals to typical exemplars may be effective for addressing hostile police attitudes toward minority youths. A controlled study is recommended to replicate and expand on our findings. © 2002 John Wiley & Sons, Inc. [source] Methyl 3-[3,,4,-(methylenedioxy)phenyl]-2-methyl glycidate: An Ecstasy Precursor Seized in Sydney, AustraliaJOURNAL OF FORENSIC SCIENCES, Issue 4 2007Michael Collins Ph.D. Abstract:, Five 44 gallon drums labeled as glycidyl methacrylate were seized by the Australian Customs Service and the Australian Federal Police at Port Botany, Sydney, Australia, in December 2004. Each drum contained a white, semisolid substance that was initially suspected to be 3,4-methylenedioxymethylamphetamine (MDMA). Gas chromatography,mass spectroscopy (GC/MS) analysis demonstrated that the material was neither glycidyl methacrylate nor MDMA. Because intelligence sources employed by federal agents indicated that this material was in some way connected to MDMA production, suspicion fell on the various MDMA precursor chemicals. Using a number of techniques including proton nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (1H NMR), carbon nuclear magnetic resonance spectroscopy (13C NMR), GC/MS, infrared spectroscopy, and total synthesis, the unknown substance was eventually identified as methyl 3-[3,,4,(methylenedioxy)phenyl]-2-methyl glycidate. The substance was also subjected to a published hydrolysis and decarboxylation procedure and gave a high yield of the MDMA precursor chemical, 3,4-methylenedioxyphenyl-2-propanone, thereby establishing this material as a "precursor to a precursor." [source] The Fate of Former East German Police in Reunified Germany, 1990,1996: The Dialectics of Inclusion and ExclusionJOURNAL OF HISTORICAL SOCIOLOGY, Issue 2 2010KATY A. CROSSLEY-FROLICK This article analyzes the vetting of former East German police in Berlin and Brandenburg in the context of the former East Germany's transition to democracy and German unification. Police are one of the most critical and sensitive sectors of the civil service and typically, along with teachers, among the first groups to be vetted in the context of democratic transitions. The German case illustrates the often unpredictable and inconsistent approaches to vetting that led to very different outcomes throughout the East. It identifies several factors that influenced vetting and employment prospects for former East German police officers. These included political geography, who did the vetting, how a candidate's past was interpreted (whether aggravating or mitigating circumstances were weighed), the institutional arrangements for vetting, state-mandated guidelines or criteria for determining suitability, and timing. [source] Violence in the City of Women: Police and Batterers in Bahia, Brazil by Sarah HautzingerJOURNAL OF LATIN AMERICAN & CARIBBEAN ANTHROPOLOGY, Issue 2 2009Cecília MacDowell SantosArticle first published online: 19 NOV 200 First page of article [source] Patterns of Policing and Policing PattenJOURNAL OF LAW AND SOCIETY, Issue 3 2000Paddy Hillyard In September 1999 the Independent Commission on Policing in Northern Ireland, chaired by Chris Patten, published its recommendations. This article examines the political context of policing reform, the contents of the report and the rejection of its core ideas in the Police (Northern Ireland) Bill published in May 2000. The central argument of the paper is that the Commission's radical model of policing , a network of regulating mechanisms in which policing becomes everyone's business , failed, because it gave insufficient attention, like much modern writing on policing, to the role of the state and the vested interests within policing. The overall outcome is that the Patten Commission has been effectively policed and Northern Ireland will be left with a traditional, largely undemocratic and unaccountable model of policing with most of the control resting with the Secretary of State and the Chief Constable. [source] Early case conferences shorten length of stay in children admitted to hospital with suspected child abuseJOURNAL OF PAEDIATRICS AND CHILD HEALTH, Issue 9-10 2005J Anne S Smith Objective: To compare the outcomes of two models for the management of children admitted to hospital with suspected child abuse: routine early case conferencing versus standard evaluation. Methods: Between March 2001 and February 2002 professionals from the Royal Children's Hospital, Melbourne, Victoria Police and Child Protection services collaborated on a randomized controlled study involving children admitted to hospital with suspected child abuse. The intervention group (n = 13) received a case conference within 24 h of the child's admission to hospital. The control group (n = 12) were managed according to standard procedures whereby each organization conducted their own evaluation (and a case conference might or might not have been held). Patients were followed for 3 months with data collected from all three professional groups. Results: The process of evaluation, the eventual diagnosis of child abuse and the confidence with which professionals made this diagnosis was not significantly different between the groups. Case conferences were judged to be useful regardless of their timing. Mean length of stay in the intervention group was significantly less than in controls (42.4 h vs 99.7 h, P = 0.01). Conclusion: Early case conferences appear to shorten the period of time children spend in hospital when child abuse is suspected. This has significant implications for reducing costs for all organizations involved in the evaluation of suspected child abuse. [source] The Identification of Alcohol Intoxication by PoliceALCOHOLISM, Issue 6 2001John Brick Background: The identification of alcohol intoxication by police, bartenders, social hosts, and potential passengers is an important issue in the prevention of alcohol-related driving accidents. This study examines the ability of police officers to correctly identify and make ratings of the sobriety of target drinkers presented on video. Methods: Raters were asked to determine (1) whether the target drinker had been drinking alcohol, (2) whether it was "okay" to serve the target another drink, and (3) whether the target drinker was "okay" to drive. A rater confidence score for each target evaluated, as well as demographic characteristics about the raters, was obtained. Results: Drinkers were accurately targeted to low (0.08,0.09%), medium (0.11,0.13%), and high (0.15,0.16%) blood alcohol concentrations (BACs) by using a method previously described. At lower BACs, most police officers were unable to identify whether or not targets had been drinking. Raters were "pretty sure" that targets in the 0.15,0.16% range had been drinking and "not sure" whether or not they should be served another drink or drive a car. Conclusions: The ability of raters to reliably identify target drinkers who were too intoxicated to drive safely was not obtained until the BACs were relatively high. These results suggest that prevention measures must focus on improving behavioral observations made of potential drunk drivers. Implications for bartenders and social hosts are discussed. [source] Out of Place and Out of Line: Positioning the Police in the Regulation of Financial MarketsLAW & POLICY, Issue 3 2008JAMES W. WILLIAMS In November of 2003, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police launched a major initiative to combat securities fraud in Canada. Spurred by the Enron scandals in the United States, this involved the establishment of a series of specialized white-collar crime units with the express mandate of investigating serious cases of securities fraud and protecting investors from the worst of the market's abuses. After four years of activity, these units have produced little in the way of tangible results and have been widely criticized in legal, financial, and regulatory communities. Drawing on thirty-five interviews with members of these units, as well as outside stakeholders including Crown Attorneys and private litigators, this article examines the activities of these Integrated Market Enforcement Teams and highlights a number of barriers to the successful execution of their designated mandate. While factors such as procedural restrictions and limited expertise are certainly relevant, this analysis reveals that the IMET teams are more fundamentally constrained by their position in a broader regulatory field. Understanding this field, and its unique structure and politics, is essential in coming to terms with both the possibilities and limitations of securities enforcement in an increasingly complex financial world. [source] Civilians Versus Police: Mediation Can Help to Bridge the DivideNEGOTIATION JOURNAL, Issue 3 2000Vivian Berger The increasing frequency of notorious cases of conflicts between police officers and members of the general public (which in New York City has led to incidents of death, battery, and sexual assault) is cause for alarm. At the root of many police-community conflicts are an incomplete understanding of the work of the police, poor communication on the part of the police and the public, or simple misunderstanding. A number of communities, including New York City, are turning to mediation to provide a forum for the potential resolution of complaints made against police by citizens. After a brief survey of the work of such programs nationally, the author focuses on three New York cases in which she served as a mediator, using them to illustrate the pitfalls and special rewards of mediating in this context. The author believes that the mediation process itself can work in a transformative way, improving strained relations between police and the general population [source] Embedding HPT: Improving police performance by implementing human performance technology in the Royal Canadian Mounted PolicePERFORMANCE IMPROVEMENT, Issue 3 2009William Pullen Good police performance enables social capital, strengthens communities, and helps build civil society. Since 2003, Canada's national police force, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), has used human performance technology to improve performance in more than 300 sites across Canada and also as a core part of the RCMP leadership talent pipeline. The lessons learned may be of interest to others contemplating a large-scale distributed use of this powerful methodology. [source] LOOKING DIFFERENT, ACTING DIFFERENT: STRUGGLES FOR EQUALITY WITHIN THE SOUTH AFRICAN POLICE SERVICEPUBLIC ADMINISTRATION, Issue 3 2008MONIQUE MARKS This descriptive paper tells the story of the daily difficulties that members of the Public Order Police (POP) unit in South Africa experienced in their attempts to create a more diverse (in terms of race and gender) and representative police organization. This story is told through recordings of observations and conversations that span a 4-year ethnographic journal. The paper demonstrates that despite affirmative action and equity legislation and programmes, Durban POP by the year 2001, six years after the transformation process within the unit began, was still plagued by deep racial and gender divisions. These divisions were reinforced by the structural make-up of the unit and the inability of middle management to challenge entrenched practices, as well as deep-seated assumptions, schemas and values associated with race, ethnicity and gender. By means of a ethnographic journal I was able to discover some of the daily dilemmas of the police in their change efforts and also the difficulties of getting police practice to meet new policy agendas. [source] Police, Probation and the Bifurcation of CommunityTHE HOWARD JOURNAL OF CRIMINAL JUSTICE, Issue 3 2010WENDY FITZGIBBON Abstract: The police and probation services are agencies that have traditionally had close relations with the communities in which they work. Both agencies exhibit tensions in their relations with the community: in policing, in the relation between centralised targets and community needs, and in probation in the role of the community in the process of rehabilitation and desistance. We argue that these tensions mirror deeper contradictions within current urban and social policy concerning the role envisaged for community in the process of urban renewal. [source] Disproportionate and Discriminatory: Reviewing the Evidence on Police Stop and SearchTHE MODERN LAW REVIEW, Issue 6 2007Ben Bowling Eight years after the Lawrence Inquiry, the question of police powers to stop and search people in public places remains at the forefront of debate about police community relations. Police are empowered to stop and search citizens under a wide range of legislative acts and the power is employed daily across Britain. Far from laying the debate to rest, the Lawrence Inquiry prompted new research studies and fresh theories to explain the official statistics. We argue that the statistics show that the use of the powers against black people is disproportionate and that this is an indication of unlawful racial discrimination. If stop and search powers cannot be effectively regulated , and it seems that they cannot , then their continued use is unjustified and should be curtailed. [source] Policing: Continuity, Consensus and Controversy The Political Quarterly Lecture 2010THE POLITICAL QUARTERLY, Issue 2 2010IAN BLAIR While British policing has an unparalleled worldwide reputation for excellence, its system of governance has not been formally examined for almost fifty years. Known as the tripartite system, giving overlapping but compatible powers and duties to the Home Secretary, to local Police Authorities and to Chief Officers of Police, it is now long overdue for reconsideration and adjustment. More than one political party is suggesting significant reform but only of individual parts of the system. Given other issues concerning the police, particularly the number of United Kingdom forces and the fixation with the number of police officers as an indication of political success, there is now an urgent need for agreement that policing in Britain should have a holistic and cross-party re-examination, possibly but not necessarily in the form of a Royal Commission. [source] Royal Dutch Military Police Campus Zvi Hecker's Landscape UrbanismARCHITECTURAL DESIGN, Issue 1 2008Rafi Segal Abstract Situated close to Schiphol Airport, Zvi Hecker's new police campus for the Royal Dutch Military Police is located in the Randstad area; the ,rim city' conurbation that comprises the four biggest Dutch cities - Rotterdam, Amsterdam, The Hague and Utrecht - and has come to epitomise the most intensive European condition of dispersal. As Rafi Segal describes, Hecker chooses to address this context by providing the campus with ,a notion of the urban' that creates ,a city within a wall'. Copyright © 2008 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd. [source] Differences in licensee, police and public opinions regarding interventions to reduce alcohol-related harm associated with licensed premisesAUSTRALIAN AND NEW ZEALAND JOURNAL OF PUBLIC HEALTH, Issue 2 2009Nathan Hawkins Abstract Objectives: To determine the level of support by licensees, police and the general public for interventions to reduce alcohol-related harm associated with licensed premises and to identify differences between the three groups. Methods: Participants were 108 licensees of premises licensed to sell alcohol; 132 police officers; 200 members of the public. Questionnaires were administered either through work settings or by mail. Respondents' levels of agreement with interventions to reduce alcohol-related harm associated with licensed premises: responsible service of alcohol; security and crowd control; policing; patron transport; and linking of alcohol-related harm to licensed premises and communication. Results: Police and members of the public were significantly more likely than licensees to agree with strategies under licensee control, such as subsidising patron transport and training staff to deal with intoxicated patrons. Police were more likely than licensees and members of the public to agree with strategies requiring community action and changes to liquor licensing laws. Licensees had significantly lower levels of agreement than the other groups about licensees' responsibility to reduce alcohol-related harm as a consequence of drinking at their premises. Conclusions: While there was good agreement between police officers and members of the public about strategies for reducing alcohol-related harm at licensed premises, licensees held divergent views about strategies within their control. Licensees were less likely than police and members of the public to agree they were responsible for reducing alcohol-related harm resulting from drinking at their premises. [source] Police Pay and Bargaining in the UK, 1978,2000BRITISH JOURNAL OF INDUSTRIAL RELATIONS, Issue 1 2003Laurie Hunter Police pay and conditions in the UK are governed by a unique mechanism, the Police Negotiating Board. This paper reviews the circumstances in which it was set up and examines the outcomes, relative to other public service workers, over the first twenty years of its operation. Recent developments highlight the role of ministerial intervention and raise questions about the relationship between the PNB negotiating system and working practice at police force level. [source] Police Reform and the Peace Process in Guatemala: the Fifth Promotion of the National Civilian PoliceBULLETIN OF LATIN AMERICAN RESEARCH, Issue 4 2001Marie-Louise Glebbeek After 36 years of mostly authoritarian rule and often bitter civil conflict in Guatemala, the December 1996 Peace Accords prepared the ground for a new phase of reconstruction, democratisation and social and institutional reform. Prior to the Peace Accords, policing in Guatemala had been often violent, repressive and subordinated to the counterinsurgency logic of the military. Security sector reform intentions included the abolition of existing police forces and the creation of a new National Civil Police (PNC). The PNC was meant to give substance to a new way of policing in tune with the building of democratic governance and effective law enforcement. This paper examines the general background of the reforms, discusses the limitations of the results so far, and takes a particular and critical look at one of the key components of the police reform: the recruitment and training of PNC aspirants, using the case of the 1999 Fifth Promotion that entered the Academy of the PNC. [source] The Fate of the Concept of Medical Police 1780,1890CENTAURUS, Issue 1-2 2008George Rosen First page of article [source] Characteristics of spousal homicide perpetrators: a study of all cases of spousal homicide in Sweden 1990,1999CRIMINAL BEHAVIOUR AND MENTAL HEALTH, Issue 2 2004Professor Henrik Belfrage PhD Background In Sweden 20 000 cases of assault against women are reported to the police every year. Method All data on the perpetrators of spousal homicide in Sweden between 1990 and 1999 were investigated (n = 164). A control group of all other perpetrators of homicide in Sweden during the same period, i.e. cases of homicide not committed in the context of spouse violence (n = 690) was used. All verdicts, as well as all material in the police investigations, including interviews with all of the police investigators, were analysed. Copies of police examinations of the suspects, and forensic reports from the autopsies, were also examined. Data on all registered criminality were collected from the National Police Register, and in cases where the perpetrators had been subject to forensic psychiatric examinations, those reports were obtained from the Swedish National Board of Forensic Medicine. In addition, the Psychopathy Checklist: Screening Version scores were rated from the forensic psychiatric examinations. Results There was a four times higher suicide rate among the spousal homicide perpetrators (24%, n = 40) compared with the perpetrators in the control-group (6%, n = 39, chi-squared = 55,42df = 1 , p < 0.001). Consequently, suicidal ideation must be considered as an important risk factor for spousal homicide. In 79% of the cases the spousal homicide perpetrators were subject to forensic psychiatric examinations. All except 5% were diagnosed with at least one psychiatric diagnosis, and 34% were sentenced to forensic psychiatric treatment. If it is assumed that the psychiatric morbidity was high in the 24% of the perpetrators who committed suicide, then 80% of all perpetrators of spouse homicide during the study period can be characterized as mentally disordered. ,Psychopathic' perpetrators, who generally are over-represented in most violent criminality, were comparatively uncommon. Only seven (4%) in the study group met the diagnostic criteria for psychopathy as measured with the PCL:SV. Discussion The group of spouse killers studied here fits the dysphoric/borderline group of spouse assaulters. This is a group that may benefit from treatment. Perhaps police officers could help identify this kind of spouse assaulter before a fatality occurs. Copyright © 2004 Whurr Publishers Ltd. [source] Mental health patients in criminal justice populations: needs, treatment and criminal behaviourCRIMINAL BEHAVIOUR AND MENTAL HEALTH, Issue 3 2003J. Keene PhD Professor of Primary Care Background Government policy requires that health and social care agencies work more closely together and in partnership with the criminal justice system. There is a well-established relationship between crime and mental disorder. Method The Tracking Project provides for the first time in England the means of collating and analysing data on mental disorder (defined as receiving secondary care as patients of a Mental Health Trust) and crime (defined as all those charged with an offence). Data were collected over a three-year period for all individuals who had contact with the criminal justice system and mental health services in an English county. Results In a county population of 800,400, some 30,329 were offenders. More than a third had used a health or social care service during the three-year period; 8.0% were mentally disordered. Those offenders aged 25,64 and who contacted the police more than once were significantly more likely to be mentally disordered. Type of offence was also a relevant variable. The probation service showed broadly similar results. Discussion The research has provided for the first time substantive quantitative evidence of the relationship between crime and mental disorder. The results can be used as the basis for further work to target assessment and risk reduction measures at those most at risk. Copyright © 2003 Whurr Publishers Ltd. [source] DIRECTLY INTERVENE OR CALL THE AUTHORITIES?CRIMINOLOGY, Issue 1 2007A STUDY OF FORMS OF NEIGHBORHOOD SOCIAL CONTROL WITHIN A SOCIAL DISORGANIZATION FRAMEWORK Informal social control is a central concept in the contemporary social disorganization literature, and much attention has been directed at examining community characteristics related to variation in the quantity of informal social control across communities. However, considerably less attention has been paid to variation in forms of informal social control. This study examines the extent to which neighborhood characteristics are related to residents'likelihood of using two different forms of informal social control: direct informal social control (i.e., through direct intervention) and indirect informal social control (i.e., through mobilizing formal authorities). Data for this study are based on surveys of residents in 66 neighborhoods. The analysis uses hierarchical modeling to examine whether neighborhood characteristics central to contemporary social disorganization theory have similar effects on these two forms of neighborhood social control. Findings indicate that social ties increase the likelihood of direct informal social control but not indirect informal social control, whereas social cohesion and trust decreases indirect informal social control but does not have a significant effect on direct informal social control. Faith in the police is not found to affect either form of informal social control. These findings are discussed in terms of current issues in contemporary social disorganization theory. [source] POLICE INTERVENTION AND THE REPEAT OF DOMESTIC ASSAULTCRIMINOLOGY, Issue 3 2005RICHARD B. FELSON We use the National Crime Victimization Survey to examine whether domestic violence is less likely to be repeated if it is reported to the police and if the offender is arrested. Our longitudinal analyses suggest that reporting has a fairly strong deterrent effect, whereas the effect of arrest is small and statistically insignificant. We find no support for the hypothesis that offenders retaliate when victims (rather than third parties) call the police or when victims sign complaints. We also find no evidence that the effects of reporting or arrest depend on the seriousness of the offense, a history of violence by the offender or sociodemographic characteristics. Our results suggest that the best policies for deterrence will be those that encourage victims and third parties to report violence by intimate partners to the police. [source] | ||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||||