Replicating & reproducing policing research

What is police research good for? – Reflections on moral economy and police research This paper presents a ‘third order reflection’ on the practices and limitations of police research in a case study of the moral economy of a police gun-crime panic. It approaches the questions ‘what is police research good for?’ and ‘what matters in policing?’ through a critique of police-oriented, evidence-based police (EBP) research. The paper suggests that partnerships between police and academics are structured by performance metrics and the rhetoric of New Public Management. Both academics and police are enveloped in the ‘politics of numbers’ and thereby struggle to overcome a narrow outlook. Ironically, evidence-based policing research produces evidence of a different kind, having to do with police practices that reveal the assumptive world of the police métier and thereby help to generate the foundations of third order reflection and critique. Describing a gun-crime panic in a specific time and place, and relating it to the broader moral economy of policing governance of which it is a part, is a practical demonstration of how to take EBP police research far beyond its limitations to the more fertile grounds of third order reflection.

This paper explores the prospects and possibilities of a police researcher and practitioner writing partnership. The advantages and complexities of creating such a partnership are discussed. The author concludes that a writing partnership and greater collaboration between police researchers and practitioners is needed. Furthermore, the paper identifies selected policing research journals and trade magazines and examines what they report and who contributes to them.

ABSTRACTThis review provides a cross-sectional analysis of the police literature for years 2000 to 2014. It represents the ninth special feature review of police research published in Police Practice and Research: An International Journal. The study reports on trends over time in police literature according to substantive categories, publication medium, and methodological typology. The study also relies on findings from prior police research reviews as a basis for a discussion of the long-term patterns of police research over time from 2000 to 2014. A topically organized bibliography of the 2010 to 2014 police literature reviewed is also provided.

PurposeThis paper aims to investigate how evidence-based policing (EBP) is understood by police officers and citizens in Taiwan and the influence of police education on police recruit's receptivity to research evidence in policing.Design/methodology/approachThe study uses a cross-sectional design that includes Taiwanese police officers (n = 671) and a control group of Taiwanese criminology undergraduate students (n = 85). A research instrument covering five themes is developed, and after a pilot test the final scale remains 14 items.FindingsThe analysis suggests that police officers in Taiwan generally hold a positive view towards the role of research and researchers in policing, more so than is often observed in similar studies conducted in Western countries. Receptivity to research was found to be significantly higher among the non-police sample compared to the police sample. Moreover, time spent in police education was significantly associated with lower levels of receptivity to research.Originality/valueThe paper makes two original contributions to the literature on police officer receptivity to research. It is the first paper to (1) empirically examine police officers' openness to, and use of research in an Asian setting and (2) to compare police officers' receptivity to research with those of a relevant non-police group.

Police research has developed and matured over the past 100 years. The richness of the police research tapestry gives it gravitas precisely because of its many underlying theoretical linkages as well as differing ways of understanding the police and policing. In recent years, police research has become tied to ideas of evidence; rooted in experimental methods and addressing instrumental questions. The rise of the “medical model” in police research has important implications for what we know, yet adoption of this model has shifted the discourse on police research creating a narrow “cognitive lens” through which to judge policing and police research. This essay considers what we have come to know about the police, how multiple theoretical and methodological vantage points add value to understanding policing, and calls for a broader and more ecumenical approach to police research, including the use of mixed methods to enhance research on the police.

This review, which will appear as a special annual feature in Police Practice & Research: An International Journal , provides a cross-sectional analysis of police literature for the year 2000 highlighting the substantive typologies that the literature falls under as well as publication mediums and methodological trends. In doing so, the authors wish to provide a yearly 'snapshot' of current research trends in policing to state both the substantive and methodological research patterns in this specific field of criminology.

This review represents the eighth in an annual special feature in Police Practice and Research: An International Journal. With a focus on the substantive categories, publication medium and methodological typology, this study provides a cross‐sectional analysis of the police literature for 2007. We also comment on trends within these categories over time, using the findings from Beckman, Lum, Wyckoff and Larsen‐Vanderwall (2003) and other previous editions of this annual review. A topically organized bibliography of the 2007 police literature reviewed is also provided.

This chapter reflects upon the different types of research, discussing the evolutions in police research in Belgium and beyond. Then, it sketches the relations between police and police research on the one hand and the relations between police research and policy on the other hand. Research on policing has been evolving in multiple directions, starting from the broad, German Polizeiwissenschaft in the seventeenth and eighteenth century, including every type of research that focused on public administration in a broad sense. The police organization and police researchers have long been worlds apart. However, today, the relations between police and researchers have evolved into professional contacts and relatively open communication channels. Today, as the boom in police research is still ongoing, it is probably time that more inventories are made of the bulk of police research that is carried out all over the world.

This review is the second in a special annual feature in Police Practice & Research: An International Journal. It provides a cross‐sectional analysis of the police literature for the year 2001 highlighting the substantive typologies that the literature falls under as well as publication mediums and methodological trends. In doing so, the authors provide a ‘snapshot’ of the current research trends in policing and, using the results of their 2000 review as a baseline, state both substantive and methodological research patterns in this specific field of criminology.

This review represents the sixth in an annual special feature in Police Practice and Research: An International Journal. It provides a cross‐sectional analysis of the police literature for 2005, with a focus on the substantive categories, publication medium, and methodological typology of such literature. This paper also comments on reviews of years past, using the findings of Beckman, Lum, Wyckoff, and Larsen‐Vanderwall (2003) as a basis for the discussion of the patterns of the aforementioned characteristics over time. A topically organized bibliography of the 2005 police literature reviewed is also provided.

This review represents the third in an annual special feature in Police Practice and Research: An International Journal. It provides a cross‐sectional analysis of the police literature for the year 2002, highlighting the substantive categories of the literature as well as distribution of publication medium and methodological typology. In doing so, the authors provide a ‘snap shot’ of the current research trends in policing and state both the substantive and methodological research patterns of this specific field of criminology.

This review represents the fifth in an annual special feature in Police Practice and Research: An International Journal. It provides a cross‐sectional analysis of the police literature for 2004, with a focus on the substantive categories, publication medium, and methodological typology of such literature. This paper also comments on reviews of years past, using the findings of Beckman, Lum, Wykoff, & Larsen‐Vanderwall (2003) as a basis for the discussion of the patterns of the aforementioned characteristics over time. A topically organized bibliography of the 2004 police literature reviewed is provided.

This review represents the fourth in an annual special feature in Police Practice and Research: An International Journal. It provides a cross‐sectional analysis of the police literature for the year 2003, highlighting the substantive categories of the literature as well as the distribution of publication medium and methodological typology. In doing so, the authors provide a ‘snapshot’ of the current research trends in policing and, using the results of Beckman et al.’s (2003) review as a baseline, state both the substantive and methodological research patterns of this specific field of criminology.

This is the seventh review in an annual special feature in Police Practice and Research: An International Journal. Taking a cross‐sectional view of the 2006 policing literature, the following analyses provide a focus on the substantive categories, publication medium, and methodological typology. We also comment on trends within these categories over time, using the findings from Beckman, Lum, Wyckoff, and Larsen‐Vanderwall (2003) as a basis for the discussion of the patterns over time. A topically organized bibliography of the 2006 policing literature reviewed is also provided.

Observation Methodology in Police Research: Challenges, Innovations and Contemporary Reflections Scholars use different methods trying to understand aspects of policing and the police, among which observations such as field-based observations of police officers, systematic social observations and, since the twenty-first century, observations by means of body-worn camera footage, dashcams and even civilian footage. Each observation method comes with specific challenges. This special issue on observation methodology in police research focuses on (current) issues regarding police observational research, such as challenges that may occur when observing police officers, reflexivity, use of covert observations and more recent approaches to police observations such as the use of ethograms. The issue is a collection of six different articles, all of which discuss some pertinent aspects of observational police research. With this special issue, we wish to initiate further discussions on police observational methodology and innovative approaches in this regard. We want to stimulate reflections on these topics and enhance our understanding of police observational methods. We also wish to help police researchers in designing their observational research project and encourage them to set up such projects. After all, observational research on policing is still one of the most important methods to get a grip on different aspects of real-life police work and decision-making.