By University of Chicago Law School - Global Human Rights Clinic

This Report is being published in the midst of a long series of horrifying incidents of police abuse of power in the United States. The deaths of George Floyd, Lacquan McDonald, Eric Garner, Michael Brown, Ahmaud Arbery, Tony McDade, Regis Korchinski-Paquet, Breonna Taylor and many others, have echoed throughout the communities of this nation and prompted protests across the country. The video and testimonies from these incidents provide grim illustrations of the power law enforcement officers have over the people they are sworn to serve and protect, and the deadly consequences when they abuse that power. Society vests law enforcement with the responsibility to protect public safety and enforce the law when necessary. For these reasons, and these reasons only, law enforcement officers are granted the immense power to use force, including lethal force. This authority—state sanctioned violence—necessarily comes with limits and obligations to ensure those who enforce the law do not abuse it. These limits and obligations require that police use their power in a manner that protects and serves the entire community that has vested them with this privilege. The exercise of this authority also requires accountability when abuses occur. Without accountability, state sanctioned violence is nothing but the exercise of arbitrary brute force, a common tool of tyrannical and despotic governments.

Chicago: University of Chicago Law School - Global Human Rights Clinic. 2020. 105p.

By Jonas Hansson, Miguel Inzunza and Isabelle Stjerna Doohan

From an international perspective, recent years have seen an increase in the use of conducted energy weapons (CEWs), which are used to control potentially dangerous and uncooperative people. In 2019 the Norwegian National Police Directorate launched a two-year trial of CEWs in daily police work. The purpose of the current study was to evaluate the National Police Directorate’s CEW trial and to explore the public’s perceptions of police use of CEWs. The current study found that CEWs are mainly used against individuals who are mentally unstable and exhibit aggressive and dangerous behaviour. The findings showed that CEWs fill the gap between pepper spray or batons and firearms and complement other forcible means. The findings from the interviews showed that the officers could resolve the situations before the introduction of CEWs, but with CEWs they could do so with less intrusive force and a lower risk of injury. … The citizen survey results indicate that citizens believe police officers can be trusted with decisions related to the use of force. The survey also showed that citizens who had received some information on CEWs were significantly more positive towards CEWs than those who had no information. Further, the group with information on CEWs also stated that they would feel more secure if police in their vicinity were equipped with CEWs

Umeå, Sweden: Umea University, 2021. 59p.

By Ryan Cotter

This study, the seventh in the recidivism series, examines the relationship between length of incarceration and recidivism. In 2020, the Commission published its initial comprehensive study on length of incarceration and recidivism. In that study, which examined offenders released in 2005, the Commission found that federal offenders receiving sentences of more than 60 months were less likely to recidivate compared to a similar group of offenders receiving shorter sentences. This study replicates the prior analysis, however, it examines a more current cohort of federal offenders released in 2010. This study examines the relationship between length of incarceration and recidivism, specifically exploring three potential relationships that may exist: incarceration as having a deterrent effect, a criminogenic effect, or no effect on recidivism.

Washington, DC: United States Sentencing Commission, 2022. 56p.

By Stuart Winchester and Hilary Jackson

Residential burglary is generally regarded as a particularly serious crime both because of the financial and material losses to victims and because of the psychological upset which may follow a break-in (Maguire, 1982). It is also a fairly common crime and accounts for a substantial part of the load on the police, the courts and the prison system. In 1980, about 295,000 burglaries to residential property were recorded by the police in England and Wales and these accounted for some 11% of what in official statistics are now called 'serious offences recorded by the police' (Criminal Statistics, 1980). Only 29% of these residential burglaries were 'cleared up' compared with a clear-up rate of 41 % for all serious offences. Yet, in 1980, burglars receiving prison sentences for offences against residential and non-residential properties still accounted for nearly half of all receptions into prison of males under 21 and nearly a quarter of those over 21 (Prison Statistics, 1980). On the basis of offences recorded by the police in 1980 and the numbers of households recorded in the 1971 census, a rough estimate of the average risk of burglary to households in England and Wales was 1 in 55. Risk figures however are higher when account is taken of offences not reported to the police. According to recent evidence from the General Household Survey (see Criminal Statistics, 1980) these represent some 40% of all residential burglaries which occur. On the basis of both reported and unreported crimes, then, the average risk of burglary to households in 1980 may have been closer to 1 in 35 than 1 in 55.

London: Home Office Research and Planning Unit, 1982 47p.

This guide begins by describing the problem of illicit public sexual activity and the factors that contribute to it. It then identifies a series of questions to help you analyze your local problem. Finally, it reviews responses to the problem, and what is known about them from evaluative research and police practice. Public sexual activity includes a range of behaviors, such as solitary nude sunbathing, flashing, streaking, solitary or mutual masturbation, fellatio, and vaginal or anal intercourse.

Read more at the Center for Problem Oriented Policing

This guide addresses homeless encampments, also known as transient camps. It begins by describing the problem and reviewing factors that contribute to it. It then identifies a series of questions to help you analyze your local problem. Finally, it reviews responses to the problem and what is known about them from evaluative research and police practice. Homeless encampments are only one aspect of the larger set of problems related to homelessness, street life, and public disorder.

Read more at the Center for Problem Oriented Policing

This guide begins by describing the problem of home invasion robbery and reviewing factors that increase its risks. It then identifies a series of questions to help you analyze your local home invasion robbery problem. Finally, it reviews responses to the problem and what is known about these from evaluative research and police practice. Home invasion robbery is but one aspect of the larger set of problems related to residential and violent crime. This guide is limited to addressing the particular harms created by home invasion robbery.

Read more at the Center for Problem Oriented Policing

This guide addresses effective responses to the problem of graffiti—the wide range of markings, etchings, and paintings that deface public or private property. In recent decades, graffiti has become an extensive problem, spreading from the largest cities to other locales. Despite the common association of graffiti with gangs, graffiti is widely found in jurisdictions of all sizes, and graffiti offenders are by no means limited to gangs.

Read more at the Center for Problem Oriented Policing

This guide deals with “gas drive-offs”—a form of theft in which motorists intentionally drive away from a convenience store or gasoline service station without paying for gas they have pumped into their vehicle’s tanks. The guide reviews factors that are correlated with an increased risk of this crime. It also covers employee theft related to gas sales; for example, when attendants make false reports of drive-offs and pocket the money the driver paid. The guide then identifies a series of questions to help you analyze your local gas drive-off problem. Finally, it reviews responses to the problem and what is known about these from research and police practice.

Read more at the Center for Problem Oriented Policing

By Dennis Cheng

Extortion has become an endemic problem in Central America. To provide a comprehensive response to this crime, the countries of the region have begun to make use of asset forfeiture, a tool that reduces the financial assets available to organized crime.

This paper describes how this legal procedure has evolved and been applied in the region, sets out the advantages it offers in the fight against organized crime and proposes strategies for better implementation.

Geneva, SWIT: Global Initiative Against Transnational Organized Crime, 2021. 18p,

By Kim Shayo Buchanan, Hilary Rau, Kerry Mulligan, Tracie Keesee, and Phillip Atiba Goff

Whether a group is dedicated to racism (a “hate group”), or advocates the overthrow of elected governments (a “paramilitary gang”), or both—no police officer or law enforcement agency should support or affiliate with it. Officers who support or affiliate with hate groups and paramilitary gangs undermine the mission of their law enforcement agency by allying themselves with lawbreakers and by undermining the department’s efforts to ensure equitable policing and earn community trust. These guidelines aim to assist law enforcement to 1) identify, discipline, and remove officers who intentionally affiliate with hate groups or paramilitary gangs, and 2) adopt institutional values, policies, and rules that will allow for no mistake about the department’s position: it is not appropriate for a law enforcement agency or a police officer to support or affiliate with hate groups or paramilitary gangs. We recommend that law enforcement agencies (“LEAs”) adopt the rules and best practices set out below, and make them public.

West Hollywood, CA: Center for Policing Equity, 2022. 24p.

By James R. Gillham

This book evaluates the newest efforts and initiative aimed at preventing burglary, discusses their merits and short- comings, and suggests how improvements might be incorporated in burglary prevention programs.

New York: Springer Verlag, 1991. 203p.

By Andromachi Tseloni, Rebecca Thompson and Nick Tilley

This work provides an overview of the scope of the problem and what can be done about it, drawing on extensive research evidence from projects funded by the Economic and Social Research Council (ESRC) Secondary Data Analysis Initiative (SDAI), and other sources. It reports detailed findings about which interventions are most effective for different population groups and how these measures can be implemented. It includes burglary prevention advice for homeowners, law enforcement and other public agencies, and makes recommendations for future research. In addition to being relevant to concerned citizens, police, policy-makers and crime prevention practitioners, this book will also be of interest to researchers in criminology and criminal justice particularly those working on security and crime prevention, as well as urban planning and public policy.

Cham: Springer, 2018. 308p.

By Robin Cuypers, Pieter Raymaekers and Steven Van de Walle

The goal of this report is to provide policymakers with an overview of behavioural insights and interventions that aim to increase citizens’ awareness of domestic burglary prevention and encourage them to take prevention measures. In the report, we construct an evaluation framework and provide recommendations for four policy measures: neighbourhood watch groups; security surveys; police advice and police labels. We evaluate these measures using behavioural models, the Taxonomy of Choice Architecture Techniques and the EMMIE framework…..We recommend the simultaneous use of behavioural and traditional prevention measures, targeting both the intuitive and the reflective, the conscious and the unconscious, and the rational and emotional underpinnings of people’s decision making processes

Brussels: European Crime Prevention Network, 2022. 56p.

By Roger Matthews

Prostitution has become an extremely topical issue in recent years and attention has focused both on the situation of female prostitutes and the adequacy of existing forms of regulation. Prostitution, Politics & Policy brings together the main debates and issues associated with prostitution in order to examine the range of policy options that are available.

Governments in different parts of the world have been struggling to develop constructive policies to deal with prostitution – as, for example, the British Home Office recently instigated a £1.5 million programme to help address the perceived problems of prostitution. In the context of this struggle, and amidst the publication of various policy documents, <EM>Prostitution, Politics & Policy develops a fresh approach to understanding this issue, while presenting a range of what are seen as progressive and radical policy proposals. Much of the debate around prostitution has been polarized between liberals – who want prostitution decriminalized, normalized and humanized – and conservatives – who have argued that prostitution should be abolished. But, drawing on a wide range of international literature, and providing an overview that is both accessible to students and relevant to policy makers and practitioners, Roger Matthews proposes a form of radical realism that is irreducible to either of these two positions.

Milton Park, Abingdon, UK: Routledge-Cavendish, 2008. 176p.

By Serguei Cheloukhine

This Brief provides an in-depth look at crime and corruption in Russian Law Enforcement, in the fifteen years since the 2009 police reforms. It focuses on corruption and organized crime at various levels of public services and law enforcement, how these organized crime networks operate, and how to enhance police integrity and legitimacy in this context.

It begins with a short overview of the history of law enforcement in the Soviet and Post-Soviet context, and the scope of organized crime on the operations of local businesses, public services, and bureaucratic offices. It provides an in depth examination of how organized crime developed in this context, to fill a void between the supply and demand of various goods and services. Based on an in-depth survey of police integrity and corruption in Russia, it provides key insights into how countries in a transition to democracy can maintain and enhance legitimacy of their police force.

Cham: Springer, 2017. 84p.

By Steve Herbert

Policing Space is a fascinating firsthand account of how the Los Angeles Police Department attempts to control its vast, heterogeneous territory. As such, the book offers a rare, ground-level look at the relationship between the control of space and the exercise of power. Author Steve Herbert spent eight months observing one patrol division of the LAPD on the job. A compelling story in itself, his fieldwork with the officers in the Wilshire Division affords readers a close view of the complex factors at play in how the police define and control territory, how they make and mark space.

Minneapolis: University of Minnesota Press, 1997. 208p.

By Kam C. Wong

With nearly 20 percent of the world’s population located in China, what happens there is significant to all nations. Sweeping changes have altered the cultural landscape of China, and as opportunities for wealth have grown in recent years, so have opportunities for crime. Police Reform in China provides a rare and insightful glimpse of policing in the midst of such change. The book begins with a historical account of police reform in the region since 2000. Next, it discusses the difficulties encountered in trying to understand Chinese policing, such as outdated perceptions, misinformation, cultural ignorance, ideological hegemony, and problems with paternalistic attitudes. … Demonstrating how old ideologies are increasingly in conflict with the values and lifestyles of a new mentality, the book discusses steps that can be taken to improve professionalism. The final chapters investigate such problems as abuses of discretion and the improper use of firearms and highlight the importance of understanding the Chinese people, culture, values, and interests in order to truly effectuate successful police reform.

Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2011. 416p.

By David G. Bolgiano, L. Morgan Banks, III, et al.

A vigorous assessment and commentary on governmental uses of force, whether by civilian law enforcement officers in the United States or by military service members overseas, 'Virtuous Policing' presents strategies to ease rising tensions in citizen-law enforcement relations. The book particularly addresses the growing division between members of the police and citizenry due to a number of factors, including the effects of some press members who are more interested in cultivating sensational stories of 'rogue' cops than in discovering and disseminating facts

Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press [Imprint] Taylor & Francis Group, 2017. 256p.

Edited by Mike Stephens and Saul Becker

British policing faces major decisions about its future direction. Should it promote itself as a police force, dedicated to the attack on crime and public disorder, or should it adopt the mantle of police service, devoted to providing reassurance, flexibility to community wishes, and care? These are the critical decisions that the police face. The choice made will have implications for all citizens in our society. Together, a panel of eminent contributors examine the issues involved in this choice. They push the debate forward and show how complex are the interconnections between care and control within British policing. The implications are far-reaching and will influence not only the quality of policing but also the quality of life for all of us.

Houndmills, Basingstoke, UK:Palgrave Macmillan, 1994. 256p.