While African Americans are overrepresented in Minnesota police shootings and officer-involved fatalities, they are underrepresented in Minnesota law enforcement. The reasons are complex, interconnected, grounded in historical racial barriers and racist practices, and reinforced by current obstacles such as career awareness, concerns about the…

Over the last thirty years Community Oriented Policing (COP) has spawned advancements in creating community partnerships with law enforcement agencies. Agencies that focus on such partnerships have served to reduce crime and resolve conflict. However, community opinions towards law enforcement have become increasingly negative due to recent civil…

Purpose: The paper focuses on current debates about police professionalism. It explores the nature and meaning of what has been termed "old" professionalism, which focuses on the role of the police as "professional crime fighters", and then assesses the extent to which there has been a transition to a "new"…

Over the last several decades, "Tasers," "stun guns" and other conducted energy devices (CEDs) have become a widely adopted, though publicly controversial, form of police restraint technology. While there is a growing body of research on the physiological effects of these types of weapons, less attention has been devoted to the…

Contemporary theories suggest that, due to limited access and generalized distrust, residents of disadvantaged neighborhoods are relatively unlikely to report matters to police. Although existing studies reveal few ecological differences in crime reporting, findings may be limited to victim/offense subsets represented in aggregated victimization…

Postcode Criminals was the second phase of an international participatory community arts project challenging negative stereotypes of urban youth. Concerned with the impact of zero tolerance community policing strategies in the UK and USA, artists Joann Kushner and Dread Scott developed an art-based project with a social justice agenda. To give…

Background: A number of jurisdictions have instituted legislation requiring an independent person to be present during police interviews with vulnerable people. In Victoria, Australia, a group of volunteers known as Independent Third Persons help to fulfil this role with people who present with cognitive impairment arising from their mental…

Background: Little is known about the level of social bond elements and their effects on delinquency among nonadjudicated (traditional low and at-risk school-aged) and adjudicated Chinese male adolescents. Objective: Using a large adolescent sample (N = 1,177) from Hong Kong and Macau, this study aims to distinguish the level of social bond…

This study examines the relationship between student perceptions of university police and fear of crime through the utilization of a rational choice perspective. Over the last three decades, a plethora of research has explored fear of crime and factors related to its occurrence. However, a thorough review of the literature revealed a limited…

On August 9, Michael Brown, a college-bound black male, was fatally shot by a white police officer in the streets of Ferguson, Missouri. For several days, jarring images of tear gas, militarized police, and unrest in Ferguson flickered on screens across the world. Undoubtedly, what brought Ferguson to the national consciousness--the death of a…

Public security, traffic management and service for the people are the three major functions of policing. To assure the quality of police service, which is contingent on the people who render the service, has become the core of policing. This study aims to investigate the relationship between work values and service-oriented organizational…

Recent concerns in the UK about youth disaffection, anti-social behaviour and gang culture have led to an increase in pre-emptive intervention strategies focused on the policing of groups of young people. This article explores the literature on youth/police relationships and the evidence that suggests that preventive police strategies may have…

Recent research has indicated that when individuals recognize and gain understanding of their own problem-solving style preferences, personal learning and group performance can be enhanced (Treffinger, Selby, Isaksen, & Crumel, 2007, "An Introduction to Problem-Solving Style"). Further, adult learning theory suggests adults prefer a…

This study contributes to the body of knowledge of police-citizen contacts by investigating perceptions and behaviors during encounters that result in physical resistance and force. The authors use the accounts literature as a way to understand police-citizen interactions. The data include interviews with citizens who resisted or were accused of…

In the 1980s and 1990s, community policing was viewed by many as a radical innovation in the field of policing, with the vast majority of police agencies reporting to have adopted the approach. Despite its overwhelming popularity, most police agencies did not adopt the central elements of community policing. This study examines patterns of…