Letter from the United States: Auditing to Make a Difference

Abstract

The idea of undertaking crime and disorder audits is by no means new. Unfortunately, actually undertaking such audits has been a relatively rare event, particularly in the United States. This is somewhat surprising for a variety of reasons. First, over the past three decades there has been a growing recognition that official agents of social control are not capable of dealing with crime on their own. Second, there has been an increased recognition that the police are called on to deal with a wider range of issues besides simply law enforcement. Third, a great deal of attention has been given to the ideas of problem-oriented and community-oriented policing, both of which suggest a wider role for auditing community issues and problems.