Modeling Isomorphism on Policing Innovation

Abstract

Recent research on innovation diffusion points to a number of key factors that stimulate the need for change or facilitate the adoption of innovations. Empirical studies examining the process of innovation—that is, how ideas are spread—are less common and often lack a theoretical foundation. The present study uses institutional theory to develop a model of community-policing adoption in municipal law enforcement agencies. The fit of the institutional model is assessed using secondary data and structural equation modeling. The results show that centrist forces—including publications, the professionalization of law enforcement, and other law enforcement agencies—shape the organizational adoption of community-policing reforms. The implications of the research for communicating innovations are addressed.

Keywords

community policing institutional theory structural equation modeling innovations

Get full access to this article

View all access options for this article.

References

Bayley

D. H.

(1994). Police for the future. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

Bollen

(1989). Structural equations with latent variables. New York: Wiley.

Burruss

G. W.

Giblin

M. J.

Schafer

J. A.

(2010). Threatened globally, acting locally: Modeling law enforcement homeland security practices. Justice Quarterly, 27, 77-101.

Chamard

(2004). Adoption of computerized crime mapping by municipal police departments in New Jersey. Security Journal, 17(1), 51-59.

Cordner

G. W.

(1998). Community policing: Elements and effects. In Alpert

G. P.

Piquero

(Eds.), Community policing: Contemporary readings (pp. 45-62). Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press.

Cordner

Biebel

(2003). Research for practice: Problem-oriented policing in practice. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice.

Council for Excellence in Government. (2003). Bringing evidence-driven progress to crime and substance-abuse policy: A recommended federal strategy. Washington, DC: Council for Excellence in Government.

Crank

J. P.

Langworthy

(1992). An institutional perspective of policing. Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, 83(2), 338-363.

Crank

J. P.

Langworthy

(1996). Fragmented centralization and the organization of the police. Policing and Society, 6(3), 213-229.

10.

Crank

J. P.

Rehm

L. R.

(1994). Reciprocity between organizations and institutional environments: A study of Operation Valkyrie. Journal of Criminal Justice, 22(5), 393-406.

11.

Davenport

D. R.

(1996). Public agency performance and structure: Assessing the effects of the organizational environment. Dissertation Abstracts International, 57(11), 4925A. (UMI No. AAT 9711294)

12.

DiMaggio

P. J.

Powell

W. W.

(1983). The iron cage revisited: Institutional isomorphism and collective rationality in organizational fields. American Sociological Review, 48(2), 147-160.

13.

Ellickson

Petersilia

(1983). Implementing new ideas in criminal justice. Santa Monica, CA: RAND.

14.

Engel

R. S.

Calnon

J. M.

Bernard

T. J.

(2002). Theory and racial profiling: Shortcomings and future directions in research. Justice Quarterly, 19(2), 249-273.

15.

Giblin

M. J.

Burruss

G. W.

(2009). Developing a measurement model of institutional processes in policing. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies and Management, 32, 351-376.

16.

Greene

J. R.

(2000). Community policing in America: Changing the nature, structure, and function of the police. In Horney

(Ed.), Criminal justice 2000: Policies, processes, and decisions of the criminal justice system (pp. 299-370). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice.

17.

Greenwood

Suddaby

Hinings

(2002). Theorizing change: The role of professional associations in the transformation of institutionalized fields. Academy of Management Journal, 45(1), 58-80.

18.

Harris

D. A.

(1999). Driving while Black: Racial profiling on our nation’s highways. Retrieved June 2, 2009, from http://www.aclu.org/racialjustice/racialprofiling/15912pub19990607.html

19.

Haveman

H. A.

(1993). Follow the leader: Mimetic isomorphism and entry into new markets. Administrative Science Quarterly, 38(4), 593-628.

20.

Hickman

M. J.

Reaves

B. A.

(2001). Community policing in local police departments, 1997 and 1999. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, Bureau of Justice Statistics.

21.

Hinings

Greenwood

(1988). The normative presciption of organizations. In Zucker

L. G.

(Ed.), Institutional patterns and organizations (pp. 53-70). Cambridge, MA: Ballinger.

22.

L. A.

Bentler

P. M.

(1999). Cutoff criteria for fixed indexes in covariance structure analysis: Conventional criteria versus new alternatives. Structural Equation Modeling, 6, 1-55.

23.

Jung

D. I.

Sosik

J. J.

(2003). Group potency and collective efficacy: Examining their predictive validity, level of analysis, and effects of performance feedback on future group performance. Group Organization Management, 28(3), 366-391.

24.

Katz

C. M.

(2001). The establishment of a police gang unit: An examination of organizational and environmental factors. Criminology, 39(1), 37-73.

25.

Structural Model for Adopting Community-Oriented Policing.

C. M.

Maguire

E. R.

Roncek

D. W.

(2002). The creation of specialized police gang units: A macro-level analysis of contingency, social threat, and resource dependency explanations. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies and Management, 25(3), 472-506.

26.

Kimberly

J. R.

(1976). Organizational size and the structuralist perspective: A review, critique, and proposal. Administrative Science Quarterly, 21, 571-597.

27.

Kimberly

J. R.

Evanisko

M. J.

(1981). Organizational innovation: The influence of individual, organizational, and contextual factors on hospital adoption of technological and administrative innovations. Academy of Management Journal, 24, 689-713.

28.

King

W. R.

(1998). Innovativeness in American municipal police organizations. Dissertation Abstracts International, 59(09), 3654A. (UMI No. AAT 9905427)

29.

King

W. R.

(2000). Measuring police innovation: Issues and measurement. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies and Management, 23(3), 303-317.

30.

Klein

K. J.

Dansereau

Hall

R. J.

(1994). Levels issues in theory development, data collection, and analysis. Academy of Management Review, 19(2), 195-229.

31.

Kline

(2005). Principles and practice of structural equation modeling. New York: Guilford Press.

32.

Klinger

D. A.

(2003). Spreading diffusion in criminology. Criminology and Public Policy, 2, 461-468.

33.

Kraska

P. B.

Cubellis

L. J.

(1997). Militarizing Mayberry and beyond: Making sense of American paramilitary policing. Justice Quarterly, 14(4), 607-629.

34.

Langworthy

R. H.

(1986). The structure of police organizations. New York, NY: Praeger.

35.

Lindsley

D. H.

Brass

D. J.

Thomas

J. B.

(1995). Efficacy-performance spirals: A multilevel perspective. The Academy of Management Review, 20(3), 645-678.

36.

MacDonald

J. M.

(2002). The effectiveness of community policing in reducing urban violence. Crime & Delinquency, 48(4), 592-618.

37.

Maguire

E. R.

(2003). Organizational structure in American police agencies: Context, complexity, and control. Albany: State University of New York Press.

38.

Maguire

E. R.

Mastrofski

S. D.

(2000). Patterns of community policing in the United States. Police Quarterly, 3(1), 4-45.

39.

Maguire

E. R.

Snipes

J. B.

Uchida

C. D.

Townsend

(1998). Counting cops: Estimating the number of police departments and police officers in the USA. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies and Management, 21(1), 37-120.

40.

Maguire

E. R.

Uchida

C. D.

(2000). Measurement and explanation in the comparative study of American police organizations. In Duffee

D. E.

(Ed.), Measurement and analysis of crime and justice (pp. 491-558). Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice.

41.

Mamalian

C. A.

LaVigne

N. G.

(1999). The use of computerized crime mapping by law enforcement: Survey results. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice.

42.

Meyer

J. W.

Rowan

(1977). Institutionalized organizations: Formal structure as myth and ceremony. American Journal of Sociology, 83(2), 340-363.

43.

Morabito

M. S.

(2008). The adoption of police innovation: The role of the political environment. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 31(3), 466-484.

44.

Morabito

M. S.

(in press). Understanding community policing as an innovation: Patterns of adoption. Crime & Delinquency.

45.

Muthén

(2007). Mplus user’s guide (4th ed.). Los Angeles: author.

46.

National Research Council. (2004). Fairness and effectiveness in policing: The evidence. Washington, DC: National Academies Press.

47.

Oliver

W. M.

(2000). The third generation of community policing: Moving through innovation, diffusion, and institutionalization. Police Quarterly, 3(4), 367-388.

48.

Palmer

Biggart

Dick

(2008). Is the new institutionalism a theory? In Greenwood

Oliver

Suddaby

Sahlin-Andersson

(Eds.), The Sage handbook of organizational institutionalism (pp. 739-768). Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.

49.

Parks

R. B.

Mastrofski

S. D.

Dejong

Gray

M. K.

(1999). How officers spend their time with the community. Justice Quarterly, 16(3), 483-518.

50.

Petersilia

(1987). The influence of criminal justice research. Santa Monica, CA: RAND.

51.

Pfeffer

Salancik

G. R.

(1978). The external control of organizations: A resource dependence perspective. New York: Harper & Row.

52.

Poole

M. S.

Van de Ven

A. H.

Dooley

Holmes

(2000). Organizational change and innovation processes: Theory and methods for research. Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

53.

Renauer

B. C.

(2007). Understanding variety in urban community policing: An institutional theory approach. In Duffee

D. E.

Maguire

E. R.

(Eds.), Criminal justice theory: Explaining the nature and behavior of criminal justice (pp. 121-150). New York: Routledge.

54.

Roberts

J. M.

(2003). Police innovations and the structure of informal communication between police agencies: Network and LEMAS data. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice.

55.

Rogers

E. M.

(1995). Diffusion of innovations (Vol. 4). New York: Free Press.

56.

Rosenthal

A. M.

Fridell

L. A.

Dantzker

M. L.

Fisher-Stewart

Saavedra

P. J.

Markaryan

. (2000). Community policing: 1997 national survey update of police and sheriffs’ departments. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice.

57.

Roth

J. A.

Roehl

Johnson

C. C.

(2003). Trends in the adoption of community policing. In Skogan

W. G.

(Ed.), Community policing: Can it work? (pp. 3-29). Florence, KY: Wadsworth.

58.

Roth

J. A.

Ryan

J. F.

(2000). The COPS program after 4 years: National evaluation. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice.

59.

Roy

Seguin

(2000). The institutionalization of efficiency-oriented approaches for public service improvement. Public Productivity and Management Review, 23(4), 449-469.

60.

Scott

W. R.

(2005). Institutional theory: Contributing to a theoretical research program. In Smith

K. G.

Hitt

M. A.

(Eds.), Great minds in management: The process of theory development (pp. 460-484). Oxford, UK: Oxford University Press.

61.

Sherman

L. W.

(1998). Evidence-based policing. Washington, DC: Police Foundation.

62.

Skogan

W. G.

Hartnett

S. M.

(2005). The diffusion of information technology in policing. Police Practice and Research: An International Journal, 6(5), 401-417.

63.

Slovak

J. S.

(1986). Styles of urban policing: Organization, environment, and police styles in selected American cities. New York: New York University Press.

64.

Tabachnick

B. G.

Fidell

L. S.

(2007). Using multivariate statistics. Boston: Allyn & Bacon.

65.

Tolbert

P. S.

Zucker

L. G.

(1983). Institutional sources of change in the formal structure of organizations: The diffusion of civil service reform, 1880–1935. Administrative Science Quarterly, 28(1), 22-39.

66.

Weisburd

Braga

A. A.

(Eds.). (2006). Police innovation: Contrasting perspectives. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.

67.

Weisburd

Lum

(2005). The diffusion of computerized crime mapping in policing: Linking research and practice. Police Practice and Research, 6(5), 419-434.

68.

Weisburd

Mastrofski

S. D.

McNally

A. M.

Greenspan

Willis

J. J.

(2003). Reforming to preserve: Compstat and strategic problem solving in American policing. Criminology & Public Policy, 2(3), 421-456.

69.

Weiss

(1992). The innovation process in public organizations: Patterns of diffusion and adoption in American policing. Dissertation Abstracts International, 53(06), 2095A. (UMI No. AAT 9230016)

70.

Weiss

(1997). The communication of innovation in American policing. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies and Management, 20(2), 292-310.

71.

Weiss

(1998). Informal information sharing among police agencies. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice.

72.

Willis

J. J.

Mastrofski

S. D.

Weisburd

(2007). Making sense of COMPSTAT: A theory-based analysis of organizational change in three police departments. Law & Society Review, 41(1), 147-188.

73.

Wilson

J. M.

(2005). Determinants of community policing: An open systems model of implementation. Washington, DC: U.S. Department of Justice, National Institute of Justice.

74.

Wilson

J. M.

(2006). Community policing in America. New York: Routledge.

75.

Worrall

J. L.

Zhao

(2003). The role of the COPS Office in community policing. Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, 26(1), 64-87.

76.

Zhao

(1996). Why police organizations change: A study of community-oriented policing. Washington, DC: Police Executive Research Forum.

77.

Zhao

Lovrich

N. P.

Robinson

T. H.

(2001). Community policing: Is it changing the basic functions of policing? Findings from a longitudinal study of 200+ municipal police agencies. Journal of Criminal Justice, 29(5), 365-377.

78.

Zucker

L. G.

(1987). Institutional theories of organizations. Annual Review of Sociology, 13, 443-464.