An Exploratory Assessment of Community-Oriented Policing Implementation, Social Disorganization and Crime in America

Kimberly S Przeszlowski,Vaughn J Crichlow

doi:10.3390/socsci7030035

Kimberly S Przeszlowski, Vaughn J Crichlow

Open Access

https://doi.org/10.3390/socsci7030035

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Journal: Social Sciences	Publication Date: Feb 28, 2018
Citations: 4	License type: CC BY 4.0

Affiliation: Florida Atlantic University

Abstract

Prior research has examined the impact of community-oriented policing (COP) on crime extensively. While the implementation of community policing has been considered mainly within the context of large police agencies, there is a paucity of research on how COP impacts crime reduction efforts in smaller locales. This study explores the effects of the degree of community policing implementation within smaller agencies and cities on crime. As part of the discussion on the impact of COP implementation, this paper also considers the impact of social disorganization on crime in the United States. The aim is to gain further insight into what variables may be influencing crime rates in contexts that garner less attention from researchers. The findings indicate that COP implementation does not significantly explain the variation of crime rates. Still, the statistically significant results on several social disorganization factors reflect the need to incorporate social disorganization theory with practice in order to maximize community-policing success. The implications of these results for police practice as well as directions for future research are discussed.

Highlights

The ebb and flow of police-citizen relations has garnered a great deal of attention from scholars and practitioners
We suggest that the practical implications of community-oriented policing (COP) and the theoretical implications of social disorganization are complementary perspectives that ought to be considered together
Throughout the implementation stages of COP, if community conditions are not accounted for, the introduction of these strategies might prove to be more harmful than beneficial to some communities. With these issues in mind, this study examines the degree of community policing implementation while controlling for social disorganization factors

Summary

Introduction

The ebb and flow of police-citizen relations has garnered a great deal of attention from scholars and practitioners. The need to examine policing strategies is increasingly important due to the questionable incidents of officer-involved shootings in minority communities in the United States. Some have argued that community-oriented policing (COP) is part of a necessary prescription for building trust in many large metropolitan areas where such police-civilian conflicts often occur (Gill et al 2014; Kelling and Moore 1988). It is widely held that community-oriented approaches can be successful in reducing crime in problematic inner-city areas (Connell et al 2008; Rosenbaum and Lurigio 1994). Most empirical studies examine policing strategies such as COP within the context of large metropolitan cities and agencies, it is important to contribute to the limited research on smaller populations to increase knowledge of the applicability of COP in less studied settings

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