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CRIME PREVENTION

CRIME PREVENTION-POLICING-CRIME REDUCTION-POLITICS

DOES COMMUNITY-ORIENTED POLICING HELP BUILD STRONGER COMMUNITIES?

By: KENT R. KERLEY & MICHAEL L. BENSON

Advocates of community-oriented policing contend that it has great potential to reduce crime and fear because it strengthens community social organization and cohesion. Previous studies of community policing, however, fail to include community process variables as outcome measures and instead focus on outcome measures such as crime rates and fear of crime. Despite the recent focus by criminologists on community context in general studies of crime and delinquency, no direct attempt has been made to investigate the potential relationship between community policing and broader community processes such as community organization, cohesion, and cooperative security. Using data from a comprehensive community policing study conducted in Oakland, California, and Birmingham, Alabama, from 1987 to 1989, this article investigates whether community policing strategies have effects on community processes. Findings indicate that community policing tactics do not have strong effects on community processes. These results may help explain why community policing has so far had little measurable impact on crime and fear of crime, and may be instructive for the design and evaluation of future community policing studies.

POLICE QUARTERLY Vol. 3 No. 1, March 2000 46–69

Curtailing cyber and information security vulnerabilities through situational crime prevention

By: Sameer Hinduja and Brandon Kooi

Information can be considered as an invaluable commodity for all business entities, and has brought about the development of various security architectures devoted to its protection. Corporations have tended to react to the exploitation of information security (InfoSec) vulnerabilities through the implementation of technological measures. Indeed, most security policies and procedures are highly technologically inclined, making use of hardware and software to protect and safeguard the confidentiality, integrity and availability of data. Unfortunately, these tactics have achieved limited success because of inattention to the opportunistic aspects of crime commission. Situational crime prevention can address the importance of these aspects by concentrating on the circumstances associated with a crime, and how the setting, conditions and context can be modified to preclude its manifestation. Its specific application to cyber and InfoSec in a corporate setting is advantageous in developing competent proactive strategies to reduce the presence and attractiveness of criminal possibilities for would-be offenders.

Security Journal advance online publication, 17 June 2013; doi:10.1057/sj.2013.25

Crime Prevention and Active Living

By: Anastasia Loukaitou-Sideris and John E. Eck

The epidemic of obesity in American cities has alarmed public health professionals. Attention has been cast on the importance of leading an active life for good health, so questions have been raised about barriers to active living. One potential barrier is the concern many people have about crime. Is crime a barrier to active living, and if it is, what can be done about it? This paper draws from two fields— environmental criminology and urban planning—to provide evidence of how crime may reduce active living and what can be done to make the physical environment safer.

Environmental criminologists and urban planners start from complementary but different perspectives. Environmental criminologists focus on the development and prevention of crime patterns, particularly the interactions of offenders, potential victims, and others. Their interventions focus on the immediate environments of crime concentrations and manipulate these environments to alter offenders’ perceptions of their prospects of success. Planners and urban designers are interested in the legitimate users of the city, who also may become crime victims. They examine how different social groups perceive the public spaces of everyday life, and how these spaces can be modified to encourage desirable activities.

This paper applies both perspectives to explore the relationships among crime, fear of crime, and active living. We begin by describing these relationships to establish a broad research framework. We then look at the factors that influence fear of crime and how they vary among groups and settings. Next we examine the literature on the relationship between physical characteristics of settings, opportunities to commit crimes, and fear of crime. Crime and fear are not evenly distributed, even over similar places, so this is discussed in the fourth section. In the fifth part we examine criminal justice, the central role of police, and the theoretical perspectives offered by environmental criminology and situational crime prevention. We then turn to the effectiveness of situational crime prevention. We conclude by outlining a research agenda for increasing active living through reducing crime and fear of crime.

Health Promotion hepr-21-00-05.3d 10/1/07 19:08:27 380 Cust # 06050358R1

Evaluating฀the฀effectiveness฀of problem-oriented policing

By: Michael S. Scott

What works in policing? David Weisburd, Cody W. Telep, Joshua C. Hinkle, and John E. Eck (2010, this issue) sought to answer this core question in their review of problem-oriented policing. Herman Goldstein proposed the problem-oriented approach in 197 as the means by which the police could achieve their objectives more effectively and, thereby, improve the overall police institution. Weisburd et al. set out to put the problem-oriented approach to the test some 30 years later. Given the ambitiousness of Goldstein’d proposal, it follows that Weisburd et al.’s study in equally ambitious and important. If problem-oriented policing is proven to work, then it would stand to reason that police and local governments should commit to the approach more fully. if it is proven not to work, then reconsideration of the approach—either to better understand why it is not working or to pursue alternative approaches to policing—would be warranted.

Criminology฀&฀Public฀Policy฀•฀Volume฀9฀•฀Issue฀1

Crime in High-Rise Buildings: Planning for Vertical Community Safety

By: Michael Townsley, Sacha Reid, Danielle Reynald, John Rynne, and Benjamin Hutchins

The aim of this research is to inform housing and planning policy development by exploring the variation in types and volumes of crime in a range of existing high-density communities. By analysing actual rates and types of crime, building management styles and perceptions of fear of crime, the research will reveal how policing and high-rise building management styles can coalesce to create safer vertical communities.

Report to the Criminology Research Advisory Council; Grant: CRG 29/11-12

Detecting the Determinants and Trajectories of Homicide Among Ransom Kidnappings: A Research Note

By: Rob T. Guerette, Stephen F. Pires, and Auzeen Shariati

Despite common media reports of death among kidnapped victims, little is known about the extent and factors that determine whether victims will be killed during the ransom process. Using data on 9,469 kidnappings for ransom incidents, which occurred in Colombia, South America between the years 2002 and 2011, this exploratory study sought to determine whether predictable patterns existed among those incidents in which victims were killed. The analyses revealed significant differences in the odds of death across victims, offenders, and situational circumstances. Distinct time-to-death trajectories were also found. Recognizing and understanding these patterns offer to improve preventive efforts.

Homicide Studies, 1 –16

Hacking Minds and Machines: Foreign Interference in the Digital Era

KOVALCIKOVA, NAD'A; FILIPOVA, RUMENA VALENTINOVA, 1989-; HOGEVEEN, BART; KARÁSKOVÁ, IVANA; PAWLAK, PATRYK; SALVI, ANDREA

From the document: "This 'Chaillot Paper' delves into the phenomenon of foreign interference and the risk it poses to democratic societies. It explores the interplay between information manipulation and disruptive cyber operations, revealing their role as complementary components within a broader strategy. Dedicated chapters examine how interference manifests across various sectors, including social, political, economic, digital and security domains, describing existing tools and evolving policy responses. Each case study follows a clear structure, presenting an incident, its effects and the implemented responses. The volume concludes by identifying convergences and divergences across the cases studied, and highlights foreign interference as a critical and growing threat to global security. It offers targeted recommendations on how the EU can significantly bolster its defences and resilience against this threat."

INSTITUTE FOR SECURITY STUDIES (PARIS, FRANCE). AUG, 2024. 67p.

AI and the Evolution of Biological National Security Risks: Capabilities, Thresholds, and Interventions

DREXEL, BILL; WITHERS, CALEB

From the document: "In 2020, COVID-19 brought the world to its knees, with nearly 29 million estimated deaths, acute social and political disruptions, and vast economic fallout. However, the event's impact could have been far worse if the virus had been more lethal, more transmissible, or both. For decades, experts have warned that humanity is entering an era of potential catastrophic pandemics that would make COVID-19 appear mild in comparison. History is well acquainted with such instances, not least the 1918 Spanish Flu, the Black Death, and the Plague of Justinian--each of which would have dwarfed COVID-19's deaths if scaled to today's populations. Equally concerning, many experts have sounded alarms of possible deliberate bioattacks in the years ahead. [...] This report aims to clearly assess AI's impact on the risks of biocatastrophe. It first considers the history and existing risk landscape in American biosecurity independent of AI disruptions. Drawing on a sister report, 'Catalyzing Crisis: A Primer on Artificial Intelligence, Catastrophes, and National Security,' this study then considers how AI is impacting biorisks across four dimensions of AI safety: new capabilities, technical challenges, integration into complex systems, and conditions of AI development. Building on this analysis, the report identifies areas of future capability development that may substantially alter the risks of large-scale biological catastrophes worthy of monitoring as the technology continues to evolve. Finally, the report recommends actionable steps for policymakers to address current and near-term risks of biocatastrophes."

CENTER FOR A NEW AMERICAN SECURITY. 2024.

Securing the Critical Technology Supply Chain as a Function of National Intelligence

A GOSWAMI, ARCHISHMAN

From the document: "This paper examines the role that national intelligence agencies may play in helping to secure critical technology supply chains. As the race for scientific advantage becomes increasingly characteristic of national security concerns amid growing multipolarity and interstate competition, national intelligence agencies are paying greater attention to the security of critical and emerging technologies. This paper analyses how intelligence agencies may work and adapt in relation to the specific challenges posed by this issue. The analysis is divided into sections on intelligence (examining the broadening of intelligence-gathering horizons and the likelihood of ally-on-ally espionage); counterintelligence (focused on insider threats from within the private sector); and covert action (assessing the potential for paramilitary action and offensive cyber to achieve kinetic effect vis-à-vis a competitor's supply chains)."

OBSERVER RESEARCH FOUNDATION., 2024. 23p.

Community and Problem Oriented Policing in School Settings: Design and Process Issues

By: Richard L. Glover

Community and Problem Oriented Policing (CPOP) is a multidimensional strategy used by police departments to control crime and improve the quality of life in targeted areas. This monograph presents CPOP as a possible solution to the problem of school violence. It identifies design components and process dimensions that can contribute to successful applications of CPOP. Five models have gained wide acceptance as strategies for school-based problem-solving around safety and security issues: the School Resource Officer model, student problem-solving, the public health model, the Child Development-Community Policing Program, and the collaborative problem-solving model. Eight components from these five models are fundamental to school-based CPOP: police-school partnerships, problem-solving approach, a collaboration that reflects full stakeholder involvement, organizational support, education and training of problem-solving group members, effective planning approaches, appropriate problem-solving group size, and use of memoranda of understanding. The process dimensions associated with successful implementation of CPOP in schools are partnering between schools and police, collaborative problem solving, implementation, and evaluation of the overall CPOP effort.

Information Analyses (070), 58p., 2002

How stop and search is used

By Ruth Halkon 

Police use stop and search powers to search people who they suspect to be in possession of unlawful items, such as illegal drugs, weapons, or stolen property. The power is seen by the police as a valuable tool in the fight against crime, both deterring offenders and preventing further offending. However the evidence on its effectiveness is mixed, and there are gaps in the data, particularly surrounding its use in the UK context. Moreover, stop and search is associated with potential harm, both to individuals and to communities as a whole. This briefing will examine the current evidence in relation to stop and search and how it is practiced in the UK, examining in particular questions of its disproportionate use against young people and those from minority ethnic groups 

London: The Police Foundation, 2024, 26p.


Complaint-Oriented Policing: Regulating Homelessness in Public Space

By: Chris Herring

Over the past 30 years, cities across the United States have adopted quality-of-life ordinances aimed at policing social marginality. Scholars have documented zero-tolerance policing and emerging tactics of therapeutic policing in these efforts, but little attention has been paid to 911 calls and forms of third-party policing in governing public space and the poor. Drawing on an analysis of 3.9 million 911 and 311 call records and participant observation alongside police officers, social workers, and homeless men and women residing on the streets of San Francisco, this article elaborates a model of “complaint-oriented policing” to explain additional causes and consequences of policing visible poverty. Situating the police within a broader bureaucratic field of poverty governance, I demonstrate how policing aimed at the poor can be initiated by callers, organizations, and government agencies, and how police officers manage these complaints in collaboration and conflict with health, welfare, and sanitation agencies. Expanding the conception of the criminalization of poverty, which is often centered on incarceration or arrest, the study reveals previously unforeseen consequences of move-along orders, citations, and threats that dispossess the poor of property, create barriers to services and jobs, and increase vulnerability to violence and crime.

American Sociological Review 1 –32

Community policing and the New Zealand Police: Correlates of attitudes toward the work world in a community-oriented national police organization

By: L. Thomas Winfree Jr and Greg Newbold

Police in New Zealand have a well-established community-policing tradition. The current research is based on a survey of 440 officers, or roughly 6 percent of the New Zealand Police's sworn personnel We focused on the personal values, interpersonal relationships, and work situations of the officers as a way of understanding their respective levels of satisfaction with their jobs and assessment of their superiors. The goal was to determine the extent to which job satisfaction and perceptions of supervisory support varied within a national police force officially committed to community policing. The findings suggest that, even in a national police with an avowed community-policing orientation, not all police officers perceived the work world in the same terms. We further address the policy implications of these findings.

22 Policing Int. J. Police Strat. & Mgmt. 589 1999

COPS vs Cops: How Does Community-oriented Policing Coexist with Crime-fighting Policing?

By Kian Gaines

INTRODUCTION: Community-Oriented Policing Services (COPS) emerged in response to longstanding criticisms revolving around police accountability and effectiveness. It emphasizes civilian participation in crime-prevention and problem-solving efforts to build trust between the police and minoritized communities with whom they have had an antagonistic relationship. Traditional policing is reactive in nature, with officers acting only after crime has been committed or a call for service has been made; it enforces the law; "legitimizes" use of violence; and emulates military structure and tactics. In this study I describe it as “crime-fighting policing.” COPS programs are embedded within this structure. Unlike traditional policing, COPS is characterized by four dimensions: philosophical, strategic, tactical, and organizational (Cordner 1999).

LITERATURE REVIEW: Kennedy and Moore (1995) argue that the proper unit of analysis is not the program, but the police organization and its capacity to be flexible, innovative, and collaborative. However, there is a lack of research that (1) focuses on community-oriented policing programs and (2) examines how they are embedded within police departments and communities.

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY: Research questions include: What are the attitudes of traditional crime-fighting police toward community policing? In what ways (if any) do these attitudes affect members of community policing programs or their goals? What are the goals of community policing versus the goals of crime-fighting police? How are community police officers and crime-fighting police trained?

METHOD: A combination of indepth interviews and observations of Chicago Police officers, both CAPS (Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy) and “regular” police officers, will be used to address these questions.

THEORETICAL FRAMEWORK: A theoretical framework of organizational hypocrisy, referring to organizations acting in ways that are contrary to their stated goals, will be used to analyze the data.

PRELIMINARY FINDINGS: Observations of CPD artifacts revealed that eight of Chicago’s twenty-five districts currently do not have any community events planned for the near future. Some of the remaining districts have scheduled “beat meetings” between community members and CAPS officers organized around “beats” (small geographic patrols) and meetings revolve around more specific issues (domestic violence, faith, and seniors) or committees.

(2021). Sociology and Anthropology. 7.

Community–Oriented Policing: Political, Institutional and Technical Reforms in Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) Police

By: Bahadar Nawab, Shakir Ullah, Ingrid Nyborg, Tahir Maqsood

Community-police relations in Pakistan are often intricate, as are their reforms. Mistrust, political intervention, meager financial resources, lack of educated/trained human resources, over-expectations and miscommunication are some of the factors contributing to weak policing and poor community-police relations. The police as a service-oriented public institution has been a demand of the public and the dream of consecutive governments. In this study, we explore the political, institutional and technical reforms taken by the government of Khyber Pakhtunkhwa (KP) and the police department to improve their police and policing. The Police Act 2017 and Community-Oriented Policing, Dispute Resolution Councils (DRCs), and Information and Communications Technology (ICT) initiatives are critically analyzed in terms of their intentions and contribution to improved police-community relations. Politicians, police, civil society organizations and community members from KP were interviewed for their perceptions of police reforms and community-police relations. The study finds strong political will to empower and depoliticize police, and to shift its focus from purely crime fighting into community service provision, including pro-active engagement of police with the community. The study also finds that most of the new initiatives of the government of KP are in the spirit of community-oriented policing, and community members see visible improvement in policing and community-police relations.

Journal of Human Security | 2019 | Volume 15 | Issue 2 | Pages 41–53

Community-oriented policing in a multicultural milieu: The case of loitering and disorderly conduct in East Arlington, Texas

By: Raymond A. Eve, Daniel G. Rodeheaver, Susan Brown Eve, Maureen Hockenberger, Ramona Perez, Ken Burton, Larry Boyd, Sue Phillips and Sharon L. Walker

For the past several decades, an innovation in policing, often controversial, has been emerging in the US. Specifically, community-oriented policing has been used to supplement more traditional forms of police work in preventing and reducing crime. This paper examines a community-oriented policing programme implemented in Arlington, Texas. A national demonstration grant was awarded by the U.S. Department of Justice, Office of Community-Oriented Policing Services (COPS). The purpose of the COPS project reported here was to assess a policing problem that, rather than actual crime, was ultimately about (1) multicultural conflict, (2) fear of crime and (3) the effectiveness of this community policing programme in combating both actual incidences and perceptions of crime. We draw several conclusions about the ability to utilise and apply the community policing model and our research findings in other locations. Furthermore, the findings of this paper should have broad utility of international scope.

International Journal of Police Science & Management Volume 5 Number 4

Community-oriented policing to reduce crime, disorder and fear and increase satisfaction and legitimacy among citizens: a systematic review

By: Charlotte Gill, David Weisburd, Cody W. Telep, Zoe Vitter & Trevor Bennett

Objectives Systematically review and synthesize the existing research on community-oriented policing to identify its effects on crime, disorder, fear, citizen satisfaction, and police legitimacy.

Methods We searched a broad range of databases, websites, and journals to identify eligible studies that measured pre-post changes in outcomes in treatment and comparison areas following the implementation of policing strategies that involved community collaboration or consultation. We identified 25 reports containing 65 independent tests of community-oriented policing, most of which were conducted in neighborhoods in the United States. Thirty-seven of these comparisons were included in a meta-analysis.

Results Our findings suggest that community-oriented policing strategies have positive effects on citizen satisfaction, perceptions of disorder, and police legitimacy, but limited effects on crime and fear of crime.

Conclusions Our review provides important evidence for the benefits of community policing for improving perceptions of the police, although our findings overall are ambiguous. The challenges we faced in conducting this review highlight a need for further research and theory development around community policing. In particular, there is a need to explicate and test a logic model that explains how short-term benefits of community policing, like improved citizen satisfaction, relate to longer-term crime prevention effects, and to identify the policing strategies that benefit most from community participation.

J Exp Criminol DOI 10.1007/s11292-014-9210-y

Beccaria and Situational Crime Prevention

By: Joshua D. Freilich

This article compares Beccaria’s and Situational Crime Prevention’s (SCP) claims across six dimensions. Both perspectives question harsh penalties, embrace crime reduction as a goal, and view some individuals as possessing agency and rationality. The latter two points distinguish them from most other criminological theories that are not focused on crime reduction and downplay offenders’ rationality. Both approaches have also been criticized for ignoring the root causes of crime in society. Importantly though, the approaches also differ. The Classical School and SCP are usually differentiated from positivistic approaches in their assumption of offender agency. This article found, however, that SCP does not assume offender agency in all contexts. In fact, many SCP interventions could be explained in positivistic terms. The analysis indicates that it is sometimes unclear which causal mechanisms underlie each of SCP’s 25 techniques of crime prevention. Clarifying the precise causal mechanism of each technique could lead to more effective implementation. The article places these and other issues in context and outlines a series of suggestions for future research to address to strengthen the SCP approach.

Criminal Justice Review 1-20

ATTEMPTED SUICIDE: PUNISHMENT OR REHABILITATION

By: OOREOLUWA. O AGBEDE

This writer takes a look at societal and psychological factors of suicide and attempted suicide, philosophy and psychology of suicide and causes of suicide, concluding that attempts at suicide are calls for help to the society which should be replied with assistance and rehabilitation not punishment and state brand as criminals.

https://doi.org/10.6084/m9.figshare.12592160