Community policing advocates argue that reforms designed to break down barriers between police and citizens can produce favorable outcomes. The authors test a series of related hypotheses in a multivariate context by using four independent data sources— community surveys, patrol officer interviews, Census Bureau, and police crime records— to estimate hierarchical linear models. The results show that citizens who perceive police partnerships favorably report fewer problems related to incivilities and also express higher levels of safety. Findings from models including cross-level interaction terms indicate that the positive outcomes associated with police partnerships are not restricted to citizens residing in affluent neighborhoods. In our ecological analysis, we find that police-community collaboration is associated with higher aggregate quality of life assessments and that community policing as a form of public social control mediates the adverse effects of concentrated disadvantage. The findings support social-psychological and ecological theories on which community policing practices are partially based.
Get full access to this article
View all access options for this article.
References
1.
Bank, L., Dishion, T., Skinner, M., & Patterson, G. R. (1989). Method variance in structural equation modeling: Living with “glop.” In G. R. Patterson (Ed.), Aggression and depression in family interactions. Hillsdale, NJ: Lawrence Erlbaum.
2.
Bellair, P. E. (1997). Social interaction and community crime: Examining the importance of neighbor networks. Criminology, 35, 677-704.
3.
Bellair, P. E. (2000). Informal surveillance and street crime: A complex relationship. Criminology, 38, 137-169.
4.
Belsley, D. A., Kuh, E., & Welsch, R. E. (1980). Regression diagnostics: Identifying influential data and sources of collinearity. New York: John Wiley.
5.
Bennett, R. R., & Flavin, J. M. (1994). Determinants of fear of crime: The effect of cultural setting. Justice Quarterly, 11, 357-381.
6.
Bryk, A. S., & Raudenbush, S. W. (1992). Hierarchical linear models: Applications and data analysis methods. Newbury Park, CA: Sage.
7.
Bursik, R. J. (2000). The systemic theory of neighborhood crime rates. In S. S. Simpson (Ed.), Of crime & criminality: The use of theory in everyday life (pp. 87-103). Boston: Pine Forge Press.
8.
Bursik, R. J., & Grasmick, H. G. (1993). Neighborhoods and crime: The dimensions of effective community control. Lanham, MD: Lexington.
9.
Caldwell, E. (1978). Patrol observation: The patrol encounter, patrol narrative, and general shift information forms. Police Services Study Methods Report MR-2. Bloomington, IN: Workshop in Political Theory and Policy Analysis.
10.
Chiricos, T., Hogan, M., & Gertz, M. (1997). Racial composition of neighborhood and fear of crime. Criminology, 35, 107-131.
11.
Cordner, G.W. (1999). Elements of community policing. In L. K. Gaines & G. W. Cordner (Eds.), Policing perspectives: An anthology (pp. 137-149). Los Angeles: Roxbury.
12.
Covington, J., & Taylor, R. B. (1991). Fear of crime in urban residential neighborhoods: Implications of between- and within-neighborhood sources for current models. The Sociological Quarterly, 32, 231-249.
13.
Duncan, G. J., & Raudenbush, S. W. (1999). Assessing the effects of context in studies of child and youth development. Educational Psychologist, 34, 29-41.
14.
Fattah, E. A. (1993). Research on fear of crime: Some common conceptual and measurement problems. In W. Bilsky, C. Pfeiffer, & P. Wetzels (Eds.), Fear of crime and criminal victimization (pp. 45-70). Hannover, Germany: Ferdinand Enke Verlag Stuttgart.
15.
Ferraro, K. F. (1995). Fear of crime: Interpreting victimization risk. Albany: State University of New York Press.
16.
Ferraro, K. F., & LaGrange, R. (1987). The measurement of fear of crime. Sociological Inquiry, 57, 70-101.
17.
Garofalo, J., & Laub, J. (1978). The fear of crime: Broadening our perspective. Victimology, 3, 242-253.
18.
Greene, J. R., & Taylor, R. B. (1988). Community-based policing and foot patrol: Issues in theory and evaluation. In J. R. Greene & S. D. Mastrofski (Eds.), Community policing: Rhetoric or reality (pp. 195-223). New York: Praeger.
19.
Hunter, A. (1985). Private, parochial, and public social orders: The problem of crime and incivility in urban communities. In G. D. Suttles & M. N. Zald (Eds.), The challenge of social control: Citizenship and institution building in modern society (pp. 230-242). Norwood, NJ: Ablex.
20.
Kennedy, P. (1992). A guide to econometrics. Cambridge, MA: MIT Press.
21.
Kornhauser, R. R. (1978). Social sources of delinquency: An appraisal of analytic models. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
22.
Kreft, I., & De Leeuw, J. (1998). Introducing multilevel modeling. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
23.
LaGrange, R. L., Ferraro, K., & Supancic, M. (1992). Perceived risk and fear of crime: Role of social and physical incivilities. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 29, 311-334.
24.
Liska, A. E., Sanchirico, A., & Reed, M. D. (1988). Fear of crime and constrained behavior: Specifying and estimating a reciprocal effects model. Social Forces, 66, 827-837.
25.
Markowitz, F. E., Bellair, P. E., Liska, A. E., & Liu, J. (2001). Extending social disorganization theory: Modeling the relationships between cohesion, disorder, and fear. Criminology, 39, 293-320.
26.
McGarrell, E. F., Giacomazzi, A. L., & Thurman, Q. C. (1997). Neighborhood disorder, integration, and the fear of crime. Justice Quarterly, 14, 479-500.
Morenoff, J. D., Sampson, R. J., & Raudenbush, S. D. (2001). Neighborhood inequality, collective efficacy, and the spatial dynamics of urban violence. Criminology, 39, 517-560.
29.
Parks, R. B., Mastrofski, S. D., DeJong, C., & Gray, M. K. (1999). How police spend their time with the community. Justice Quarterly, 16, 483-518.
30.
Parks, R. B., Quinet, K. D., & Schmitt, T. (1996). Indianapolis Police Department community policing: Citizens’ perspectives (Publication 96-U17). Indianapolis, IN: Center for Urban Policy and the Environment.
31.
Piquero, A., Greene, J., Fyfe, J., Kane, R. J., & Collins, P. (2000). Implementing community policing in public housing developments in Philadelphia: Some early results. In G. P. Alpert & A. R. Piquero (Eds.), Community policing: Contemporary readings (2nd ed., pp. 95-112). Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland.
32.
Raudenbush, S. W., & Sampson, R. J. (1999). Ecometrics: Toward a science of assessing ecological settings, with application to the systematic social observation of neighborhoods. Sociological Methodology, 29, 1-41.
33.
Reisig, M. D., & Parks, R. B. (2000). Experience, quality of life, and neighborhood context: A hierarchical analysis of satisfaction with police. Justice Quarterly, 17, 607-630.
34.
Reiss, A. J., Jr. (1971). The police and the public. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
35.
Rose, D. R., & Clear, T. R. (1998). Incarceration, social capital, and crime: Implications for social disorganization theory. Criminology, 36, 441-479.
36.
Rountree, P. W. (1998). A reexamination of the crime-fear linkage. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 35, 241-372.
37.
Rountree, P. W., & Land, K. C. (1996a). Perceived risk versus fear of crime: Empirical evidence of conceptually distinct reactions in survey data. Social Forces, 74, 1353-1376.
38.
Rountree, P. W., & Land, K. C. (1996b). Burglary victimization, perceptions of crime risk, and routine activities: A multilevel analysis across Seattle neighborhoods and census tracts. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 33, 147-180.
39.
Sampson, R. J., & Groves, W. B. (1989). Community structure and crime: Testing social-disorganization theory. American Journal of Sociology, 94, 774-802.
40.
Sampson, R. J., & Jeglum-Bartusch, D. (1998). Legal cynicism and (subcultural?) tolerance of deviance: The neighborhood context of racial differences. Law & Society Review, 32, 777-804.
41.
Sampson, R. J., Morenoff, J. D., & Earls, F. (1999). Beyond social capital: Spatial dynamics of collective efficacy for children. American Sociological Review, 64, 633-660.
42.
Sampson, R. J., & Raudenbush, S. W. (1999). Systematic social observation of public spaces: A new look at disorder in urban neighborhoods. American Journal of Sociology, 105, 603-651.
43.
Sampson, R. J., Raudenbush, S. W., & Earls, F. (1997). Neighborhoods and violent crime: A multilevel study of collective efficacy. Science, 277, 918-924.
44.
Sampson, R. J., & Wilson, W. J. (1995). Toward a theory of race, crime, and urban inequality. In J. Hagan & R. Peterson (Eds.), Crime and inequality (pp. 37-54). Palo Alto, CA: Stanford University Press.
45.
Shaw, C. R., & McKay, H. D. (1942). Juvenile delinquency and urban areas. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
46.
Skogan, W. G. (1990). Disorder and decline. Berkeley: University of California Press.
47.
Skogan, W. G., & Hartnett, S. M. (1997). Community policing, Chicago style. New York: Oxford University Press.
48.
Skogan, W. G., & Maxfield, M. G. (1981). Coping with crime. Beverly Hills, CA: Sage.
49.
Taylor, R. B. (1997). Crime, grime, and responses to crime: Relative impacts of neighborhood structure, crime, and physical deterioration on residents and business personnel in the Twin Cities. In S. P. Lab (Ed.), Crime prevention at the crossroads (pp. 63-75). Cincinnati, OH: Anderson.
50.
Taylor, R. B. (1999). The incivilities thesis: Theory, measurement, and policy. In R. Langworthy (Ed.), Measuring what matters (pp. 65-88). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice.
51.
Taylor, R. B. (2001). Breaking away from broken windows. Boulder, CO: Westview.
52.
Trojanowicz, R., & Bucqueroux, B. (1990). Community policing: A contemporary perspective. Cincinnati, OH: Anderson.
53.
Velez, M. B. (2001). The role of public social control in urban neighborhoods: A multi-level analysis of victimization risk. Criminology, 39, 837-864.
54.
Wilson, J. Q., & Kelling, G. L. (1982). Broken windows: The police and neighborhood safety. Atlantic Monthly, 127, 29-38.
55.
Wilson, W. J. (1987). The truly disadvantaged. Chicago: University of Chicago Press.
