Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-jkksz Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-28T01:35:05.389Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false
  • English
  • Français

Watchman and Community: Myth and Institutionalization in Policing

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

John P. Crank
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.

The author uses a conceptual framework grounded in theory of institutional process to assess developments in the theory of community-based policing. He suggests that two contemporary myths in policing—the myth of the police watchman and the myth of community—provide core elements the theory. Both liberal and conservative advocates for reform have drawn on these myths to support reinstitutionalizing police as community protectors with broad authority, including authority to arrest, unconstrained by law enforcement or due process considerations. He also discusses fundamental differences in the ways in which liberal and conservative reform advocates perceive the relationship between the myths.

Type
State Theory, Myths of Policing, and Responses to Crime
Information
Law & Society Review , Volume 28 , Issue 2 , 1994 , pp. 325 - 351
Copyright
Copyright © 1997 by The Law and Society Association.

References

References

Alpert, Geoffrey P., & Dunham, Roger G. (1988) Policing Multi-ethnic Neighborhoods. New York: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Bayley, David H. (1988) “Community Policing: A Report from the Devil's Advocate,” in Greene, J. R. & Mastrofski, S. D., eds., Community Policing: Rhetoric or Reality ? New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Berman, Jay Stuart (1987) Police Administration and Progressive Reform: Theodore Roosevelt as Police Commissioner of New York. New York: Greenwood Press.Google Scholar
Bittner, Egon (1970) The Functions of Police in Modern Society. Chevy Chase, MD: National Institute of Mental Health.Google Scholar
Bohm, Robert (1984) Book Review, 1 Justice Q. 449.Google Scholar
Brown, Michael K. (1981) Working the Street: Police Discretion and the Dilemmas of Reform. New York: Russell Sage Foundation.Google Scholar
Carte, Gene Edward (1986) “August Vollmer and the Origin of Police Professionalism,” in Pogrebin, M. R. & Regoli, R. M., eds., Police Administrative Issues: Techniques and Functions, Millwood, NY: Associated Faculty Press.Google Scholar
Christopher Commission (1991) See Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department (1991).Google Scholar
Crank, John P. (1990) “Police: Professionals or Craftsmen? An Empirical Assessment of Professionalism and Craftsmanship among Eight Municipal Police Agencies,” 18 J. Criminal Justice 333.Google Scholar
Crank, John P., & Langworthy, Robert (1992) “An Institutional Perspective of Policing,” 83 J. of Criminal Law & Criminology 338.Google Scholar
Crank, John P., Payn, Betsy, & Jackson, Stanley (1993) “The Relationship between Police Belief Systems and Attitude toward Police Practices,” 20 Criminal Justice & Behavior 199.Google Scholar
Crime Commission (1967) See U.S. President's Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice (1967).Google Scholar
Day, Martin S. (1984) The Many Meanings of Myth. Lanham, MD: Univ. Press of America.Google Scholar
DiMaggio, Paul (1988) “Interest and Agency in Institutional Theory,” in Zucker 1988.Google Scholar
DiMaggio, Paul, & Powell, Walter (1983) “The Iron Cage Revisited: Institutional Isomorphism and Collective Rationality in Organizational Fields,” 48 American Sociological Rev. 147.Google Scholar
Dobbin, Frank R., Edelmen, Lauren, Meyer, John W., Scott, W. Richard, & Swidler, Ann (1988) “The Expansion of Due Process in Organizations,” in Zucker 1988.Google Scholar
Drucker, H. M. (1974) The Political Uses of Ideology. London: Macmillan, for the London School of Economics and Political Science.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Duffee, David (1980) Explaining Criminal Justice: Community Theory and Criminal Justice Reform. Cambridge, MA: Oelgeschlager, Gunn & Hain.Google Scholar
Dunham, Roger G., & Alpert, Geoffrey P., eds. (1989) Critical Issues in Policing. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.Google Scholar
Durkheim, Emile (1955) The Elementary Forms of the Religious Life, trans. Swain, J. W.. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Eck, John E., & Spelman, William (1987) “Who Ya Gonna Call? The Police as Problem-Busters,” 33 Crime & Delinquency 31.Google Scholar
Feeley, Malcolm M., & Sarat, Austin D. (1980) The Policy Dilemma: Federal Crime Policy and the Law Enforcement Assistance Administration. Minneapolis: Univ. of Minnesota Press.Google Scholar
Fogelson, Robert (1977) Big-City Police. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Geertz, Clifford (1973) “Thick Description: Toward an Interpretive Theory of Culture,” in Geertz, C., ed., The Interpretation of Cultures. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Geller, William A., ed. (1985) Police Leadership in America: Crisis and Opportunity. New York: Praeger.Google Scholar
Goldstein, Herman (1963) “Police Discretion: The Ideal versus the Real,” 23 Public Administration Rev. 140.Google Scholar
Goldstein, Herman (1979) “Improving Policing: A Problem-oriented Approach,” 25 Crime & Delinquency 25: 236–58.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Gordon, Diana R. (1991) The Justice Juggernaut: Fighting Street Crime, Controlling Citizens. New Brunswick, NJ: Rutgers Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Greene, Jack R. (1989) “Police and Community Relations: Where Have We Been and Where Are We Going?” in Dunham & Alpert 1989.Google Scholar
Guyot, Dorothy (1979) “Bending Granite: Attempts to Change the Rank Structure of American Police Departments,” 7 J. of Police Science & Administration 253.Google Scholar
Guyot, Dorothy (1991) Policing as Though People Matter. Philadelphia: Temple Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Hall, Richard H. (1982) Organizations: Structures, Processes, and Outcomes. 3d ed. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice-Hall.Google Scholar
Hartmann, Francis X. (1988) Debating the Evolution of American Policing. Perspectives on the Police #5. Washington: National Institute of Justice.Google Scholar
Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department (1991) Report of the Independent Commission on the Los Angeles Police Department (“Christopher Commission”). Los Angeles: The Independent Commission.Google Scholar
Kelling, George L. (1985) “Order Maintenance, the Quality of Urban Life, and Police: A Line of Argument,” in Geller 1985.Google Scholar
Kelling, George L. (1987) “Acquiring a Taste for Order: The Community and the Police,” 33 Crime & Delinquency 90.Google Scholar
Kelling, George, Pate, Tony, Dieckman, Duane, & Brown, Charles E. (1974) The Kansas City Preventive Patrol Experiment: A Technical Report. Washington: Police Foundation.Google Scholar
Kelling, George, & Moore, Mark H. (1989) The Evolving Strategy of Policing. Perspectives on Policing #4. Washington: National Institute on Justice & Harvard Univ.Google Scholar
Commission, Kerner (1967) See National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (1967).Google Scholar
Kirk, G. S. (1974) The Nature of Greek Myths. New York: Penguin Books.Google Scholar
Klockars, Carl B. (1985) “Order and Maintenance, the Quality of Urban Life, and Police: A Different Line of Argument,” in Geller 1985.Google Scholar
Klockars, Carl B. (1991) “The Rhetoric of Community Policing,” in Klockars & Mastrofski 1991.Google Scholar
Klockars, Carl B., & Mastrofski, Stephen D., eds. (1991) Thinking about Policing. 2d ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Malinowski, Bronislaw (1954) Magic, Science and Religion. New York: Doubleday.Google Scholar
Manning, Peter K. (1977) Police Work: The Social Organization of Policing. Cambridge: MIT Press.Google Scholar
Manning, Peter K. (1984) “Community Policing,” 3 American J. of Police 205.Google Scholar
Manning, Peter, & Redlinger, Lawrence John (1977) “Invitational Edges of Corruption: Some Consequences of Narcotic Law Enforcement,” in Rock, P. E., ed., Drugs and Politics. New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Books.Google Scholar
Mastrofski, Stephen D. (1991) “Community Policing as Reform: A Cautionary Tale,” in Klockars & Mastrofski 1991.Google Scholar
Meyer, John W., & Rowan, Brian (1977) “Institutionalized Organizations: Formal Structure as Myth and Ceremony,” 83 American f. of Sociology 340.Google Scholar
Meyer, John W., & Scott, W. Richard (1983) “Centralization and the Legitimacy Problems of Local Government,” in Meyer, J. W. & Scott, W. R., eds., Organizational Environments: Ritual and Rationality. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Michalowski, Raymond J. (1985) Order, Law, and Crime. New York: Random House.Google Scholar
Moore, Mark H., & Kelling, George L. (1983) “To Serve and Protect': Learning from Police History,” 70 Public Interest 49.Google Scholar
National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorders (1967) Report of the National Advisory Commission on Civil Disorder (“Kerner Commission”). Washington: GPO.Google Scholar
Nisbet, Robert (1988) The Present Age: Progress and Anarchy in Modern America. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Poplin, Dennis E. (1979) Communities: A Survey of Theories and Methods of Research. New York: Macmillan.Google Scholar
Powell, Walter (1991) “Expanding the Scope of Institutional Analysis,” in Powell, W. W. & DiMaggio, P. J., eds., The New Institutionalism in Organizational Analysis. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ritti, R. Richard, & Silver, Jonathan H. (1986) “Early Processes of Institutionalization: The Dramaturgy of Exchange in Interorganizational Relations,” 31 Administrative Science Q. 25.Google Scholar
Rosenbaum, Dennis P., ed. (1986). Community Crime Prevention: Does It Work? Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Selznick, Philip (1957) Leadership in Administration. New York: Harper & Row.Google Scholar
Sherman, Lawrence (1986) “Policing Communities: What Really Works?” in Reiss, A. & Tonry, M., eds., Community and Crisis. Chicago: Univ. of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Skolnick, Jerome M., & Bayley, David H. (1986) The New Blue Line: Police Innovation in Six American Cities. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Sorel, Georges (1916) Reflections of Violence, trans, by T. E. Hulme. London: Allen & Unwin.Google Scholar
Strenski, Ivan (1987) Four Theories of Myth in Twentieth-Century History. Iowa City: Univ. of Iowa Press.Google Scholar
Swidler, Ann (1986) “Culture in Action: Symbols and Strategies,” 51 American Sociological Rev. 273.Google Scholar
Sykes, Gary W. (1986) “Street Justice: A Moral Defense of Order Maintenance Policing,” 3 Justice Q. 497.Google Scholar
Sykes, Gary W. (1989) “The Functional Nature of Police Reform: The ‘Myth’ of Controlling the Police,” in Dunham & Alpert 1989.Google Scholar
Tocqueville, Alexis de (1945) 1 Democracy in America. New York: Vintage.Google Scholar
Trice, Harrison M., & Beyer, Janice M. (1984) “Studying Organizational Cultures through Rites and Ceremonials,” 9 Academy of Management Rev. 653.Google Scholar
Trojanowicz, Robert, & Bucqueroux, Bonnie (1990) Community Policing: A Contemporary Perspective. Cincinnati: Anderson Publishing Co.Google Scholar
U.S. President's Commission on Law Enforcement & Administration of Justice (1967) The Challenge of Crime in a Free Society (“Crime Commission”). Washington: GPO.Google Scholar
Vernon, Richard (1978) Commitment and Change: Georges Sorel and the Idea of Revolution. Toronto: Univ. of Toronto Press.Google Scholar
Walker, Samuel (1977) A Critical History of Police Reform: The Emergence of Professionalism. Lexington, MA: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Walker, Samuel (1980) Popular Justice: A History of American Criminal Justice. New York: Oxford Univ. Press.Google Scholar
Walker, Samuel (1985) “Setting the Standards: The Efforts and Impact of Blue-Ribbon Commissions on the Police,” in Geller 1985.Google Scholar
Walker, Samuel (1989a) Sense and Nonsense about Crime: A Policy Guide. 2d ed. Belmont, CA: Brooks/Cole.Google Scholar
Walker, Samuel (1989b) “‘Broken Windows’ and Fractured History: The Use and Misuse of History in Recent Police Patrol Analysis,” in Dunham & Alpert 1989.Google Scholar
Walker, Samuel (1992a) “Origins of the Contemporary Criminal Justice Paradigm: The American Bar Foundation Survey, 1953–1969,” 9 (1) Justice Q. 47.Google Scholar
Walker, Samuel (1992b) Police In America. 2d ed. New York: McGraw-Hill.Google Scholar
Wilson, James Q. (1968) Varieties of Police Behavior: The Management of Law and Order in Eight Communities. Cambridge: Harvard Univ. Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilson, James Q. (1977) “Two Police Departments: The Influence of Structure on Operation,” in Kenny, D. B., ed., The Dysfunctional Alliance: Emotion and Reason in Justice Administration. Cincinnati: Anderson Publishing.Google Scholar
Wilson, James Q., & Kelling, George L. (1982) “Broken Windows,” Atlantic Monthly, pp. 29–38 (March).Google Scholar
Wycoff, Mary Ann, & Manning, Peter K. (1983) “The Police and Crime Control,” in Whitaker, G. & Phillips, C., eds., Evaluating Performance in Police Agencies. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage Publications.Google Scholar
Zucker, Lynne, ed. (1988) Institutional Patterns and Organizations: Culture and Environment. Cambridge, MA: Ballinger Publishing Co.Google Scholar

Case Cited

Miranda v. Arizona, 384 U.S. 436 (1966).Google Scholar