By Jean-Pierre Guay

In Québec, street gangs are now among the newest threats to public safety (MSPQ, 2007; SPVM, 2005). Major police efforts to dismantle juvenile prostitution networks or reduce drug trafficking have escalated the flow of juvenile offenders into the adult correctional system. Gang members are a growing presence in the penal system and, to a certain degree, risk assessment creates its own problems. The objective of this research is to examine the applicability of the LS/CMI (Andrews, Bonta, & Wormith, 2004) to gang members and to identify specific criminogenic needs profiles compared to non-gang offenders. A sample of 172 offenders serving sentences of more than six months under provincial jurisdiction was used within this framework. Eighty-six offenders, identified by the Ministère de la Sécurité publique du Québec, were paired by age, status and city of residence with 86 offenders not identified as gang members. All were assessed with the LS/CMI. Data on new arrests and new convictions were used afterward to test the predictive validity of the LS/CMI. The results indicate that gang members present more diverse criminal histories and greater prevalence of convictions for violent offences. The LS/CMI data analysis showed that gang members present more significant criminogenic risks and needs, and in a greater number of areas than did the control group subjects. These higher needs translated into higher rates of re-arrest and substantially more convictions for violent crimes. The LS/CMI was also useful in predicting recidivism for gang members. Multivariate analyses with the Cox proportional hazard model suggest that, at equal risk, gang offenders are arrested more frequently for both general crimes and violent crimes. Age and equal risk factors also apply to new convictions for violent crimes; gang members are more likely to face new convictions than are non-members. The implications of these results are discussed.

Ottawa: Public Safety Canada, 2012. 35p.

By Laura E. Joyce

Representations of forensic procedures saturate popular culture in both fiction and true crime. One of the most striking forensic tools used in these narratives is the chemical luminol, so named because it glows an eerie greenish-blue when it comes into contact with the tiniest drops of human blood. Luminol is a deeply ambivalent object: it is both a tool of the police, historically abused and misappropriated, and yet it offers hope to families of victims by allowing hidden crimes to surface. Forensic enquiry can exonerate those falsely accused of crimes, and yet the rise of forensic science is synonymous with the development of the deeply racist ‘science’ of eugenics. Luminol Theory investigates the possibility of using a tool of the state in subversive, or radical, ways. By introducing luminol as an agent of forensic inquiry, Luminol Theory approaches the exploratory stages that a crime scene investigation might take, exploring experimental literature as though these texts were ‘crime scenes’ in order to discover what this deeply strange object can tell us about crime, death, and history, to make visible violent crimes, and to offer a tangible encounter with death and finitude. At the luminol-drenched crime scene, flashes of illumination throw up words, sentences, and fragments that offer luminous, strange glimpses, bobbing up from below their polished surfaces. When luminol shines its light, it reveals, it is magical, it is prescient, and it has a nasty allure

Santa Barbara, CA: Punctum Books, 2017. 137p.

By Irving Spergel, et al.

The goal of the GVRP was to achieve a significant absolute or relative decrease in the level of serious gang violence committed by 100 targeted gang members, as well as a reduction of serious gang violence in Little Village compared with 6 other similar Chicago communities. At least 50 of these gang youth were to receive intensive, collaborative services and supervision from the project team and associated community-based agencies and grass-roots groups. The Project Model called for a team approach that used interrelated strategies to address the gang problem; these included local community mobilization, social intervention, provision of social opportunities, suppression, and organizational change and development of local agencies and groups. In this final project report, a section on project implementation focuses on the genesis of the project, the beginning of field operations and research planning, organizational change and development, social intervention, suppression, community mobilization, and project transition (crisis, transfer, and termination). The second section of the report addresses project outcomes as determined by a survey of individual gang members, the documentation of program services/contact and effects, the criminal histories of program and comparison groups, the modeling of program effects, aggregate-level changes in gang crime, changes in community perceptions of the gang problem, and community and leadership perceptions of the GVRP. Regarding project implementation, this report concludes that although the project developed an effective collaborative approach among the members of a team of street-level police, probation, and community youth workers during the course of the 5-year project, the project did not adequately organize the local community or gain the full support of the administration of the Chicago Police Department. Regarding project outcomes, it did achieve a significant reduction in certain types of crime among approximately 200 targeted hardcore gang members served by the program. The coordinated approach was effective in reducing serious gang violence and drug crime by individual targeted youth. The strategies of social intervention, provision of social opportunities, and suppression were well implemented and effective in achieving their goals. Community and citywide institutional involvement must be achieved, however, if serious chronic gang problems are to be addressed. The lead agency would have to mobilize and encourage collaborative change in the policies and practices of city and county justice agencies, as well as social, education, and faith-based organizations, along with business and local community groups.

Chicago: School of Social Service Administration, University of Chicago, 2002. 100p.

Edited by Kempe Ronald Hope. Sr.

Much of the literature on police corruption and police reforms is dominated by case studies of societies classified as developed. However, under the influence of globalization, developing societies have become a focal point of scholarly interest and examination. Police Corruption and Police Reforms in Developing Societies provides critical analyses of the extent and nature of police corruption and misconduct in developing societies. It also examines police reform measures that have been implemented or are still necessary to control and mitigate the effects of police corruption in developing societies. This book offers a comprehensive and authoritative account of the causes and consequences of police corruption. It also relates lessons learned from police reform efforts that have been made in a wide cross section of developing societies spanning several continents.

Boca Raton, FL: CRC Press, 2016. 270p.

By Maurice Punch

Policing and corruption are inseparable. This book argues that corruption is not one thing but covers many deviant and criminal practices in policing which also shift over time. It rejects the 'bad apple' metaphor and focuses on 'bad orchards', meaning not individual but institutional failure. For in policing the organisation, work and culture foster can encourage corruption. This raises issues as to why do police break the law and, crucially, 'who controls the controllers'?

Corruption is defined in a broad, multi-facetted way. It concerns abuse of authority and trust; and it takes serious form in conspiracies to break the law and to evade exposure when cops can become criminals. Attention is paid to typologies of corruption (with grass-eaters, meat-eaters, noble-cause); the forms corruption takes in diverse environments; the pathways officers take into corruption and their rationalisations; and to collusion in corruption from within and without the organization. Comparative analyses are made of corruption, scandal and reform principally in the USA, UK and the Netherlands. The work examines issues of control, accountability and the new institutions of oversight. It provides a fresh, accessible overview of this under-researched topic for students, academics, police and criminal justice officials and members of oversight agencies.

Cullompton, Devon, UK: Willan Publishing, 2009. 296p.

By P.A.J. Waddington

This analysis of policing throughout the modern world demonstrates how many of the contentious issues surrounding the police in recent years - from paramilitarism to community policing - have their origins in the fundamentals of the police role. The author argues that this results from a fundamental tension within this role. In liberal democratic societies, police are custodians of the state's monopoly of legitimate force, yet they also wield authority over citizens who have their own set of rights.

London; Philadelphia: UCL Press, 1999. 312p.

By Rob C. Mawby

The major areas of research covered in this study of the influence of the media on police work are covered in eight chapters. In chapter 1 a History of Police Image Work From 1829 to 1987 traces the history of image work. Chapter 2 the Professionalizing of Police Image Work Since 1987 discusses the distinguishing features of the most recent phase of police image work. Chapter 3 Police Legitimacy, Communication and the Public Sphere introduces theoretical concerns, and the nature of police communications. Chapter 4 the National Picture: Systems of Police Image Work looks at the terrain of contemporary image work across the police service nationally. Chapter 5 One Force and Its Image provides historical background of the force and outlines the 1984-85 Miners' Strike and the 1989 Hillsborough tragedy. Chapter 6 Press and Public Relationship Officers At Work examines news management and the planning and delivery of set piece promotional events. Chapter 7 Image Work in Routine Policing looks at three areas of practical policing. In the final chapter, Image Work, Police Work and Legitimacy the author considers the extent to which image work pervades contemporary police work and the implications for policing in the context of a highly mediated society. The study concludes that the mass media has played an important role in shaping police work, image work, the legitimization of policing. The media and the police will continue to work together to influence policing and society.

Cullompton, Devon, UK: Willan Publishing, 2002. 226p.

By Mark Button

Over the past few years there has been exponential growth in the private security industry as concerns about safety and risk have become increasing preoccupations in the western world. At the same time there has been a huge change in the balance and structure of policing in the direction of fragmentation and pluralisation. This book meets the need for a concise and up-to-date account of private policing, situating it within the context of the debates on policing more generally and the changing relationship between public and private policing. Private Policing examines the origins of private policing, the growing literature that has sought to explain its growth, and ways in which it has been defined and classified. These include the commercial security industry, policing functions exercised by the armed forces, local authorities, state departments and by voluntary policing bodies. The increasingly important issue of patrol by private policing bodies provides the focus for an important case study, exploring the implications of the exercise of patrol powers and functions by neighbourhood wardens, patrolling security officers and others.

Cullompton, Devon, UK: Willan Publishing, 2002. 176p.

Edited by Michael Dean Reisig; Robert J Kane

The police are perhaps the most visible representation of government. They are charged with what has been characterized as an "impossible" mandate -- control and prevent crime, keep the peace, provide public services -- and do so within the constraints of democratic principles. The police are trusted to use deadly force when it is called for and are allowed access to our homes in cases of emergency. In fact, police departments are one of the few government agencies that can be mobilized by a simple phone call, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. They are ubiquitous within our society, but their actions are often not well understood. The Oxford Handbook of Police and Policing brings together research on the development and operation of policing in the United States and elsewhere.

Oxford, UK; New York: Oxford University Press, 2014. 697p.

By Suat Çubukçu, Nusret M. Sahin, Erdal Tekin & Volkan Topalli

Police body-worn cameras (BWCs) have been the subject of much research on how the technology’s enhanced documentation of police/citizen interactions impact police behavior. Less attention has been paid to how BWC recordings affect the adjudication of citizen complaints against the police. We employ citizen complaint data from the Chicago Police Department and Civilian Office of Police Accountability filed between 2012-2020 to determine the extent to which BWC footage enhances the efficacy of evidence used to formulate a conclusion of responsibility, and whether bias against complainants based on race would subsequently be reduced. Accordingly, we exploit the staggered deployment of BWCs across 22 Chicago police districts over time to estimate the effect of BWCs on these outcomes. Our findings indicate that BWCs led to a significant decrease in the dismissal of investigations due to insufficient evidence ("not sustained") as well as a significant increase in disciplinary actions against police officers ("sustained" outcomes”) with sufficient evidence to sanction their misconduct. We further find that disparities in complaints across racial groups for the “unsustained” category fade away with the implementation of BWCs.

Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research (NBER), 2021. 43p.

By William Webster, Diana Miranda, and Charles Leleux

This report provides research findings from a rapid research project reviewing the use of Body-Worn Video (BWV) cameras in a policing context, with specific reference to police-citizen interactions and scrutiny mechanisms. The research was conducted in November and December 2021, using a methodology consisting of a literature review and a sequence of semi-structured interview with BWV experts. The research was undertaken with a view to providing advice and guidance to Police Scotland for the potential widespread future roll-out of BWV in Scotland. It is evident, from the research reviewed here, that BWV is being deployed internationally by law enforcement agencies and other public service providers. Typically, BWV is recognised to provide evidence of incidents, provide a level of personal protection and increased transparency in policing. The rationale for the use of BWV in policing is well established and is afforded a good level of public support. It is also evident, that across UK police forces there is differentiated use of the technology and associated governance mechanisms. In this respect, Police Scotland is in an advantageous position in that it can learn from what is perceived to be ‘best practice’ elsewhere in the UK and beyond. It is apparent that across the UK there are novel emergent mechanisms used to govern BWV in relation to scrutiny and accountability. These include dedicated Scrutiny Panels and practices referred to as random ‘dip sampling’, as well as dedicated codes of practice and use protocols. Here, it is suggested that Police Scotland review what other police forces are doing in this area and design processes that are compatible with Police Scotland’s institutional arrangements. The research presented here also suggests that BWV use protocols and data management procedures are established prior to the widespread deployment of the technology. One aspect in which published literature was lacking was in relation to the impacts of BWV on minority groups and ethnic minorities. Here, the evidence is mixed with some authors claiming BWV strained community relations, whilst others claimed BWV made police interactions more transparent. This points to both, a need for further research, plus the use of caution in the use of BWV in certain situations. It is also noted, that whilst there is a general level of public support for BWV, this relates primarily to basic BWV camera units and that this level of support cannot be assumed from more sophisticated data processes, such as those associated with face recognition and live streaming technologies. Here, it is recommended that Police Scotland implement mechanisms that ensure a degree of oversight and accountability in how BWV cameras are used. This can ensure legitimacy of use and facilitate public confidence in the use of the technology.

Edinburgh: Scottish Institute for Policing Research, 2022. 74p.

By Vanda Felbab-Brown

Even as the administration of Mexico’s President Enrique Peña Nieto has scored important reform successes in the economic sphere, its security and law enforcement policy toward organized crime remains incomplete and ill-defined. Preoccupied with the fighting among vicious drug trafficking groups and the rise of anti-crime vigilante militias in the center of Mexico, the administration has for the most part averted its eyes from the previously highly-violent criminal hotspots in the north where major law enforcement challenges remain. • The Peña Nieto administration thus mostly continues to put out immediate security fires—such as in Michoacán and Tamaulipas—but the overall deterrence capacity of Mexico’s military and law enforcement forces and justice sector continue to be very limited and largely unable to deter violence escalation and reescalation.

Washington DC: Latin America Initiative, Foreign Policy at Brookings, 2016. 48p.

By D. Elaine Pressman

Risk factors for violent individuals have been used in risk assessment protocols for decades. Such tools and guides have been shown to be a valid and reliable way to assess risk of future violence. The risk assessment protocols currently available, however, have questionable relevance to violent extremists and terrorists because the factors used to assess risk do not relate to the background and motivations of this group of violent actors. The need was identified for a relevant tool for the population of violent ideologically motivated extremists. Approaches to risk assessment for violence are described in the document. These include unstructured clinical judgment, actuarial approaches and structured professional judgment (SPJ). Unstructured approaches have been criticized for not demonstrating high validity or good inter-rater reliability. Given the low base rate of violent extremists, it is difficult to create empirically based actuarial prediction instruments for violent extremism. The structured professional judgment approach (SPJ) has been used successfully with forensic populations and was considered appropriate for a tool to address risk assessment for the population of violent extremists. As current SPJ guides were found to be inadequate to address the specific historical and contextual features of violent extremists, a new SPJ guide was developed and is described in this document. The major goals of the project were to identify and compare the specific characteristics and factors of those who perpetrate “general” criminal violence and those who perpetrate ideologically motivated violence, to highlight the salient differences among the historical, contextual, attitudinal and protective risk factors of these types of criminal violence and to construct a new tool to assess the risk of violence in ideologically motivated extremists. ‘Political violence’, ‘radicalization’, ‘extremism’ and ‘terrorism’ were defined and elaborated in the document. The most significant risk factors relevant to violent extremism and terrorism were extracted from the literature and organized into a structured professional judgment (SPJ) protocol. Five categories were identified as risk factors and relevant items were identified for each category. These categories are modeled after other well-established SPJ tools but are item specific to violent extremism. The categories include attitude factors, contextual factors, historical factors, protective factors and demographic factors. A preliminary model for the assessment of de-radicalization and disengagement efficacy was proposed. The new SPJ protocol, Violent Extremist Risk Assessment or VERA is designed to be used with persons having a history of extremist violence or having been convicted of such offences. At this stage of development, the VERA is a conceptual “research” tool intended to generate debate and discussion.

Ottawa: Public Safety Canada, 2009. 44p.

By Kathryn M. Roberts

"Countering the radical Islamist narrative remains a high-profile priority of the United States in its ongoing efforts to counter domestic violent extremism. Since mid-2014, government officials have condemned the United States as unable to muster a satisfactory 'counter-narrative,' and emphasize the potentially devastating consequences of failure. Experts inside and outside the government describe the Islamic State as masters of the internet capable of reaching into the United States and turning its people into hate-filled, violently inspired terrorists at will. The idea that the United States must aggressively work to counter these messages domestically remains a given; but should it? The focus of this thesis is to examine current U.S. efforts in counter-messaging to determine why the United States believes it is failing, and what, if any, evidence supports the idea that a counter-narrative or counter-messaging should be part of domestic countering violent extremism (CVE) programs. Review of official documents found little basis to assess U.S. programs, as no meaningful published strategy, objectives, or performance data exist for current efforts. Moreover, the foundational assumptions underlying current programs suggest malalignment between what U.S. officials desire a counter-messaging effort to accomplish and what is realistically achievable. Based on these findings, it is recommended that domestic CVE programs eliminate counter-messaging from their portfolio."

Monterey, CA: Naval Postgraduate School, 2020. 119p.

National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Proactive policing, as a strategic approach used by police agencies to prevent crime, is a relatively new phenomenon in the United States. It developed from a crisis in confidence in policing that began to emerge in the 1960s because of social unrest, rising crime rates, and growing skepticism regarding the effectiveness of standard approaches to policing. In response, beginning in the 1980s and 1990s, innovative police practices and policies that took a more proactive approach began to develop. This report uses the term “proactive policing” to refer to all policing strategies that have as one of their goals the prevention or reduction of crime and disorder and that are not reactive in terms of focusing primarily on uncovering ongoing crime or on investigating or responding to crimes once they have occurred.

Proactive policing is distinguished from the everyday decisions of police officers to be proactive in specific situations and instead refers to a strategic decision by police agencies to use proactive police responses in a programmatic way to reduce crime. Today, proactive policing strategies are used widely in the United States. They are not isolated programs used by a select group of agencies but rather a set of ideas that have spread across the landscape of policing.

Proactive Policing reviews the evidence and discusses the data and methodological gaps on: (1) the effects of different forms of proactive policing on crime; (2) whether they are applied in a discriminatory manner; (3) whether they are being used in a legal fashion; and (4) community reaction. This report offers a comprehensive evaluation of proactive policing that includes not only its crime prevention impacts but also its broader implications for justice and U.S. communities.

Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. 2018. 408p. .

By National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

On February 26–27, 2014, the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine’s Forum on Global Violence Prevention convened a workshop titled Mental Health and Violence: Opportunities for Prevention and Early Intervention. The workshop brought together advocates and experts in public health and mental health, anthropology, biomedical science, criminal justice, global health and development, and neuroscience to examine experience, evidence, and practice at the intersection of mental health and violence. Participants explored how violence impacts mental health and how mental health influences violence and discussed approaches to improve research and practice in both domains. This publication summarizes the presentations and discussions from the workshop.

Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. .2018. 172p.

By National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

Injury and death from use of excessive force by police officers remain a common concern in countries across the globe. Despite local, national, and international attempts to legislate and provide guidance for police use of force, there continue to be global accounts of excessive force by law enforcement. Reports of officer-involved killings, injuries to citizens, and attempts to control protests and demonstrations with chemical irritants, rubber bullets, and sometimes shooting into crowds with live ammunition frequently appear in the press worldwide. However, reliable data on and accounting for these incidents are both lacking.

A large network of international and regional organizations, bilateral donors, international financial institutions, and civil society organizations aim to work with governments to improve policing practices and reduce police use of excessive force. As a part of that network, the U.S. Department of State, through its Bureau of International Narcotics and Law Enforcement Affairs (INL), provides foreign assistance to and supports capacity building for criminal justice systems and police organizations in approximately 90 countries. Like many donors, it strives to direct its resources to the most effective approaches to achieve its mission.

Policies and Practices to Minimize Police Use of Force Internationally, the third in a series of five reports produced for INL, addresses what policies and practices for police use of force are effective in promoting the rule of law and protecting the population (including the officers themselves). This report looks at what is known about effective practices and their implementation and identifies promising actions to be taken by international donors in their efforts to strengthen the effectiveness of law enforcement agencies.

Washington, DC: The National Academies Press.2022. 84p.

By Committee on Evidence to Advance Reform in the Global Security and Justice Sectors; Committee on Law and Justice; Division of Behavioral and Social Sciences and Education; National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine.

FROM THE PREFACE: “The movement for evidence-based policing in the 1990s came on the heels of the concept of evidence-based medicine in the same decade, but with far less clinical research to apply in policing practices. Since then, police research findings have been growing at a rapid rate and have been reviewed by the National Academies of Sciences, Engineering, and Medicine on repeated occasions in the last two decades. However, scant research findings have been reported at the country level, examining differences in police systems and policies across nations. In an era when the U.S. Congress has mandated better evidence to support public expenditure, the application of that mandate to overseas police development requires two responses. One is to do the best translation possible from existing research comparing differences between and within countries. The other is to map out research and action agendas that will promote the growth of new evidence to provide better guidance to policing in the international context.”

Washington, DC: The National Academies Press. 2021. 96p.

By Arbet Fetiu and Pablo Madriaza

For the purposes of this study, we adopted the following working definition of "radicalization leading to violence": [translation] "the process whereby an individual or group adopts a violent form of action, directly related to a politically, socially or religiously motivated extremist ideology that challenges the established political, social or cultural order" (Khosrokhavar, 2014, pp. 8-9). Although this definition guided our research, it was merely a working definition; a systematic review requires the inclusion of numerous viewpoints and specific definitions used by the different researchers.

International Centre for the Prevention of Crime. Montreal. Quebec. 2015. 147p.

By Daniel Meji and Pascual Restrepo

This paper develops a simple model of the war against illegal drugs in producer and consumer countries. Our analysis shows how the equilibrium quantity of illegal drugs, as well as their price, depends on key parameters of the model, among them the price elasticity of demand, and the effectiveness of the resources allocated to enforcement and prevention and treatment policies. Importantly, this paper studies the trade-off faced by drug consumer country`s government between prevention policies (aimed at reducing the demand for illegal drugs) and enforcement policies (aimed at reducing the production and trafficking of illegal drugs in producer countries). We use available data for the war against cocaine production and trafficking in Colombia, and that against consumption in the U.S. in order to calibrate the unobservable parameters of the model. Among these are the effectiveness of prevention and treatment policies in reducing the demand for cocaine; the relative effectiveness of interdiction efforts at reducing the amount of cocaine reaching consumer countries; and the cost of illegal drug production and trafficking activities in producer countries.

Bogotá, Colombia: Universidad de los Andes–Facultad de Economía–CEDE, 2011. 31p.