Community Policing: Broken Windows, Community Building, and Satisfaction with the Police

Abstract

The concept of community policing dominates the law enforcement profession today. One would be hard pressed to find an advertisement for a police chief's position that does not require a thorough understanding of this method of policing. Like the Kansas City preventive patrol experiment and the Rand report on the criminal investigation process, the call for community policing has led to dramatic changes in the way that police carry out their responsibilities. In spite of its popularity, there have been a number of challenges to community policing from social scientists who are particularly concerned about the ‘broken windows' model of policing. These challenges have not been received well by the law enforcement community, which argues that sociologists are wedded to the idea that crime is caused by the structural features of capitalist society, including economic injustice, racism, and poverty. The purpose of this article is to bridge the gap between these two positions. Yes, there is a place for community policing, and, yes, social problems do contribute to crime. The article starts by reviewing the development of community policing in the United States. An analysis of the theoretical constructs that support community policing then follows. Finally, we argue that there is sound theoretical evidence to support community policing, particularly those programmes that improve citizen satisfaction with the manner in which police carry out their responsibilities.

Intention to visit a destination from the perspective of Broken Windows theory

“…While some authors used the term incivility instead (LaGrange et al 1992), Skogan (1990) determined two types of disorder: physical disorder, which involves rubbish in public areas, buildings in disrepair, noise, vandalism, graffiti, broken street furniture, and abandoned cars; and social disorder, which is the existence of gangs, youths hanging out on street corners intimidating elderly people, prostitutes, beggars, drunks, and gambling and substance abuse (Lombardo and Lough, 2007). Gau et al (2014) placed great emphasis on fear associated with BWT.…”

Strengthening Community Policing Culture and Practice in Nigeria for Effective Crime Prevention and Detection

“…Broken Windows theory has been a driving force in community policing programmers, because of the belief that unattended behaviour leads to the breakdown of community controls, thus leading to crime. Wilson and Killing, therefore, have called the police to pay urgent and serious attention to disorder and order maintenance policing [5].…”

“…Community building according to them is a process by which police strengthen the capacity and resolute of citizens to resist crime by building positive relationships with community residents. [6], in his book The Politics of Community Policing, argues that innovative police strategies such as educational, recreational and occupational opportunities for youths, can mobilize the informal mechanisms of social control embedded within the community life [5]. Social control generally refers to the capacity of a particular group/ community to regulate its members.…”

Can community policing increase residents’ informal social control? Testing the impact of the Chicago Alternative Policing Strategy

“…Controlling for neighborhood structural disadvantage, neighborhood fear of crime, social cohesion, and perceptions of government responsiveness, Renauer's results indicated that community policing efforts were not positively related to informal social control. 1 Instead, the strongest predictors of informal social control were perceptions of neighborhood social cohesion and government responsiveness to neighborhoods (see also, Gill et al, 2014;Lombardo & Lough, 2007).…”