Hostname: page-component-745bb68f8f-g4j75 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2025-01-15T00:52:47.156Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

The Effects of the Police on Crime: A Second Look

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 July 2024

Herbert Jacob  and
Michael J. Rich
Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Abstract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

This paper is a replication of the analysis undertaken in 1978 by James Q. Wilson and Barbara Boland. We use time-series data for nine cities for portions of the period 1948-1978 to test the effect of aggressive policing on the robbery rate. Contrary to Wilson and Boland, we do not find moving violations to be a useful indicator of police aggressiveness. We also conclude that using the arrest/offense ratio introduces artifactual negative correlations. When one examines police expenditures, the size of the police force, the arrest rate, and the concentration of the police on robbery arrests, one generally finds positive relationships rather than negative ones. We interpret these results to indicate that a focus on the problem of robbery by the police leads the police both to make more arrests and to record more offenses, thus producing the positive correlations we found.

Type
Research Article
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 15 , Issue 1 , 1981 , pp. 109 - 122
Copyright
Copyright © 1981 The Law and Society Association

Footnotes

*

This report is a product of the Governmental Responses to Crime Project of which Herbert Jacob is principal investigator, Robert L. Lineberry is co-principal investigator and Anne M. Heinz is Project Manager. This paper supercedes an earlier version which was presented at the 1980 meetings of the Law and Society Association, June 6-8, 1980, in Madison, Wisconsin. The research has been funded by Grant 78 NI-AX-0096 from the National Institute of Justice, U.S. Department of Justice. The points of view and opinions stated in this paper are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice.

References

BITTNER, Egon (1974) “Florence Nightingale in Pursuit of Willie Sutton: A Theory of the Police,” in Jacob, Herbert (ed.), The Potential for Reform of Criminal Justice. Beverly Hills, California: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
FUGUITT, Glen V. and Stanley, UEBERSON (1974) “Correlation of Ratios or Difference Scores Having Common Terms,” in Costner, Herbert L. (ed.), Sociological Methodology. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
GARDINER, John A. (1968) “Police Enforcement of Traffic Laws: A Comparative Analysis,” in Wilson, James Q. (ed.), City Politics and Public Policy. New York: John Wiley and Sons.Google Scholar
JENKINS, Herbert T. (1977) Atlanta and the Automobile. Atlanta: Emory University Center for Research in Social Change.Google Scholar
JONES, F. Terrence (1974) “The Impact of Crime Rate Changes on Police Protection Expenditures in American Cities,” 11 Criminology 516.Google Scholar
KELLING, George L. (1974) The Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment: A Summary Report. Washington, D.C.: The Police Foundation.Google Scholar
LOGAN, Charles H. (1977) “Statistical Artifacts in Deterrence Research.” Paper presented to American Society of Criminology, Atlanta, Georgia, November, 1977.Google Scholar
LONG, Susan B. (1980) “The Continuing Debate Over the Use of Ratio Variables: Facts and Fiction,” in Schuessler, Karl F. (ed.), Sociological Methodology. San Francisco: Josey-Bass.Google Scholar
SCHUESSLER, Karl (1974) “Analysis of Ratio Variables: Opportunities and Pitfalls,” 80 American Journal of Sociology 379.Google Scholar
SKOGAN, Wesley G. (1976) “Efficiency and Effectiveness in Big-City Police Departments,” 36 Public Administration Review 278.Google Scholar
SKOGAN, Wesley G. (1980) Presentation before the Police Services Committee, City of Evanston, April 16, 1980.Google Scholar
SWIMMER, Gene (1974) “The Relationship of Police and Crime: Some Methodological and Empirical Results,” 12 Criminology 293.Google Scholar
USLANER, Eric N. (1976) “The Pitfalls of Per Capita,” 20 American Journal of Political Science 125.Google Scholar
WELLFORD, Charles R. (1974) “Crime and the Police: A Multivariate Analysis,” 12 Criminology 195.Google Scholar
WILSON, James Q. and Barbara, BOLAND (1978) “The Effect of the Police on Crime,” 12 Law and Society Review 367.Google Scholar