NCJ Number
71038
Editor(s)
R V G Clarke,
J M Hough
Date Published
1980
Length
183 pages
Annotation
This book presents a number of papers prepared for a workshop on police effectiveness in dealing with crime which was held at Cambridge, England, in the summer of 1979.
Abstract
The workshop was intended to encourage research on police effectiveness and to publish the findings. Several papers indicate that previously well-tested measures of police performance are now heavily questioned and that policing theory is more immediately concerned with the process of remapping the limits of police capabilities and responsibilities. The rational deterrent model of policing is described. This model contains the conventional set of assumptions against which the effectiveness of policing is assessed. An emergent trend in research is examined which asserts that it is difficult to detect precisely what effects the various police deterrent strategies have on crime. The paper calls into question the effectiveness of conventional police strategies of deterrence. Alternative approaches to policing have in common an assumption that the police have a limited capability for crime control and a prescriptive assumption that the police should not claim or foster a belief in this capability. Alternative methods of policing described here include the crime specific approach, the situational approach, and communal policing. Seven studies of police effectiveness are provided; each is accompanied by notes and references. Subject and name indexes and six tables are provided. For individual papers, see NCJ 68605-68610.