Progress in American Policing? Reviewing the National Reviews

This essay uses three publications—the 1967 President's Crime Commission report on police, The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society; the National Research Council's review of research on policing, Fairness and Effectiveness in Policing: The Evidence; and David Weisburd and Anthony A. Braga's edited collection, Police Innovation: Contrasting Perspectives—as reference points for reflecting on the extent to which the American police institution has moved toward a progressive and professional ideal over the past forty years. I argue that unless the scope and complexity of the policing function is more fully taken into account, and unless the causes of crime and disorder and the police role in controlling and preventing them are reconsidered, the ideals of police reform will remain elusive.

[1]  Sentencing: The Decision as to Type, Length, and Conditions of Sentence , 1971 .

[2]  George F. Chandler,et al.  Report on Police , 1932 .

[3]  J. Wilson,et al.  BROKEN WINDOWS: THE POLICE AND NEIGHBOURHOOD SAFETY , 1982 .

[4]  L. Fridell,et al.  Racially Biased Policing: A Principled Response , 2001 .

[5]  M. Felson.  Crime and nature , 2006 .

[6]  C. Slobogin.  Testilying: Police Perjury and What to Do About It , 1996 .

[7]  D. Kahan,et al.  The Coming Crisis of Criminal Procedure , 1998 .

[8]  Howard Giles,et al.  Fairness and Effectiveness in Policing: The Evidence , 2005 .

[9]  Adam Yarmolinsky,et al.  Book Reviews : Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders. Pp. 425. Washington, D.C., United States Government Printing Office, 1968. $2 , 1969 .

[10]  Elinor Ostrom,et al.  Policing a Free Society. , 1977 .

[11]  Wayne A. Kerstetter,et al.  Big-City Police , 1979 .

[12]  D. M. McIntyre,et al.  Detection of crime: stopping and questioning, search and seizure, encouragement and entrapment , 1974 .

[13]  H. Goldstein.  Improving Policing: A Problem-Oriented Approach , 1979 .

[14]  Donald J. Newman,et al.  Conviction : the determination of guilt or innocence without trial , 1967 .

[15]  Gloria Laycock,et al.  Defining crime science , 2005 .

[16]  M. Scott.  Shifting and sharing police responsibility to address public safety problems , 2005 .

[17]  The Challenge of Crime: Rethinking Our Response , 2006 .

[18]  D. Kennedy.  Deterrence and Crime Prevention: Reconsidering the prospect of sanction , 2008 .

[19]  S. Henze,et al.  Crime Science: New Approaches to Preventing and Detecting Crime , 2006 .

[20]  M. Scott,et al.  The Multiple Dimensions of Tunnel Vision in Criminal Cases , 2006 .

[21]  Ben A. Menke.  Policing a free society: Herman Goldstein Ballinger publishing co. (Harvard Square, 17 Dunstan Street, Cambridge, Massachusetts 02138), 1977, 371 pp., $16.50 (hard cover), $7.95 (soft cover) , 1979 .

[22]  George W. Wickersham,et al.  The National Commission on Law Observance and Enforcement , 1931 .

[23]  Peter Reuter,et al.  Preventing Crime: What Works, What Doesn't, What's Promising. Research in Brief. National Institute of Justice. , 1998 .

[24]  W. Christopher.  REPORT OF THE INDEPENDENT COMMISSION OF THE LOS ANGELES POLICE DEPARTMENT , 1994 .

[25]  Egon Bittner,et al.  Aspects of Police Work. , 1990 .

[26]  H. J. Strauss,et al.  The Report of the President's Commission on Campus Unrest , 1972 .

[27]  Wayne R. LaFave,et al.  Arrest: The Decision to Take a Suspect into Custody. , 1970 .

[28]  Frank J. Remington,et al.  Standards relating to the urban police function , 1973 .

[29]  M. Hough,et al.  Drug Dealing in Open-Air Markets: Problem-Oriented Guides for Police , 2005 .

[30]  Conviction : the determination of guilt or innocence without trial , 1968 .

[31]  Ben S. Meeker.  The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society , 1968 .

[32]  M. Brogden,et al.  Community Policing: National and International Models and Approaches , 2005 .

[33]  Michael S. Scott,et al.  Clandestine Methamphetamine Labs, 2nd Edition , 2006 .

[34]  Anthony A. Braga,et al.  Police Innovation: Contrasting Perspectives , 2006 .

[35]  A. Graycar.  Intelligence-led policing , 2005 .

[36]  F. W. Miller,et al.  Prosecution : the decision to charge a suspect with a crime , 1974 .