Trends in Police Research: A Cross‐Sectional Analysis of the 2002 Literature

Abstract

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.

Community Policing and Prediction

“…For example, it has been criticized for being "culturally inappropriate" (Gormally, 2004;Brogden, 2005), or "epiphenomenal" to core policing functions (Zhao, He & Lovrich, 2003;Herrington & Millie, 2006), and been accused of confusing the "tone" of police-citizen contacts with judgements of police effectiveness (Hawdon & Ryan, 2003), or of abusing the word "community" (Forman, 2004). There have, though, been descriptions of community policing strategies (Beckman, Gibbs & Beatty, 2005) and a rather harder edge has been lent to the literature by the broken windows controversy (whether crime can be checked by environmental improvements and/or crackdowns on minor offences) and the "collective efficacy" debate (the willingness of citizens to "have a go" and engage with rule-breakers, see Xu, Fiedler & Fleming, 2005). But, except for some input from economists, outcome evaluations are relatively rare.…”