The article uses articles from elite publications to shape a dramaturgically informed case study exploring the decline in the official crime rate in New York City in 1996, the roles of Commissioner Bratton, the media, and the selected experts commenting upon the causes of the decline. The focal period is 1994-6, and includes news of events, such as trials and convictions, related to the events taking place earlier. Victor Turner's (1976) natural history approach organizes the narrative, which sees an established order punctuated by breach, crisis, response and redress, and conciliation or new schism. This analysis requires a brief overview of dramaturgy, the drama of policing, and the centrality of imagery and rhetoric in sustaining police legitimacy and compliance internally. It is argued in conclusion that such analysis may assist in theorizing policing, seeing the dramatic virtues of crime, and the role of media in policing and politics.
Berger and Luckman
(1966) The Social Construction of Reality. New York: Doubleday.
10.
Bittner, Egon
(1991) Aspects of Police Work. Boston, MA: Northeastern.
11.
Black, Donald
(1982) Manners and Customs of the Police. New York: Academic Press.
12.
Blumstein, Alfred
and J. Walthall (eds) (2000) The Crime Drop in America. New York: CUP.
13.
Bordua, David
and Albert J. Reiss, Jr (1966) `Command, Control and Charisma: Reflections on Police Bureaucracy', AJS72: 68-76.
14.
Bordua, David
and Albert J. Reiss, Jr (1967) `Law Enforcement', in P. Lazarsfeld, W.J. Sewell and H. Wilensky (eds) The Uses of Sociology, pp. 275-303. New York: Basic Books.
15.
Bottoms, Anthony
and Paul Wiles (1997) `Environmental Criminology', in M. Maguire, R. Morgan and R. Reiner (eds) The Oxford Handbook of Criminology, pp. 305-359. Oxford: Oxford University Press.
16.
Braga, A.et al.
(1999) `Problem-oriented Policing in Violent Crime Places: A Randomized Controlled Experiment', Criminology37: 541-580.
17.
Bratton, William
(1995) `Great Expectations: How Higher Expectations for Police Departments can Lead to a Decrease in Crime', paper given at NIJ Conference `Measuring What Matters', Washington, DC, November.
18.
Bratton, William
(1998) `Crime is Down in New York City: Blame the Police', in Zero Tolerance: Policing a Free Society, 2nd edn.London: Institute for Economic Affairs.
19.
Bratton, William
(2000) `Why Lowering Crime Did Not Raise Trust', op ed, New York Times, 23February.
20.
Bratton, William
(2000) `The Vigilance that Can't Let Up', op ed, New York Times, 15June.
21.
Bratton, William with Peter Knobler
(1998) Turnaround. New York: Random House.
22.
Brown, M.
(1988) Working the Street. New York: Russell Sage.
23.
Butterfield, Fox
(1997) `Crime Fighter's About-Face', New York Times, 19August.
24.
Butterfield, Fox
(1998) `As Crime Falls, Pressure Rises to Alter Data', New York Times, 3August.
25.
Butterfield, Fox
(2000) `Rising Homicide Rate Raises Official Concerns', New York Times, 18June.
26.
Chamlin, M.
and M.B. Kennedy (1991) `The Impact of the Wilson Administration on Economic Crime Rates', Journal of Quantitative Criminology7.
27.
Chan, Janet
(1997) Changing Police Culture. Melbourne: CUP Australia.
28.
Chatterton, M.
and P. Whitehead (1997) `Strategic Management', unpublished report to British Home Office.
29.
Cohen, Stan
(1973) Folk Devils and Moral Panics. London.
30.
Coleman, Clive
and J. Moynihan (1996) Understanding Crime Data. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
31.
Crank, John
(1994) `Watchman and Community: Myth and Institutionalization in Policing', Law and Society Review28: 325-351.
32.
Crank, John P.
and R. Langworthy (1992) `An Institutional Perspective on Policing', Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology83: 338-363.
33.
Czarniwaska, B.
(1997) The Narrative Approach to Organization. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
34.
Daley, Robert
(1971) Target Blue. New York: Dell.
35.
Edelman, Murray
(1966) The Symbolic Uses of Politics. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
36.
Edelman, Murray
(1988) Constructing the Political Spectacle. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
37.
Egan, Timothy
(1999) `A Drug Ran its Course and then Hid with its Users', New York Times, 19September.
38.
Ericson, Richard
(1982) Making Crime. Toronto: Butterworths.
39.
Ericson, Richard
and Kevin Haggerty (1997) Policing the Risk Society. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
40.
Ericson, Richard
, J. Chan and P. Baranek (1989) Negotiating Control. Toronto: University of Toronto Press.
41.
Fagan, Jeffrey
, F. Zimring and J. Kim (1998) `Declining Homicide in New York City', Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology.
42.
Fagan, Jeffrey
and Garth Davies (2001) `Street Stops and Broken Windows: Terry, Race and Disorder in New York City', Fordham Urban Law Review28(4): 457-504.
43.
Fallows, James
(1996) Breaking the News. New York: Pantheon.
44.
Farley, Christopher John
(1997) `A Beating in Brooklyn', Newsweek, 25August.
45.
Fielding, Nigel
(1995) Community Policing. Oxford: Clarendon.
46.
Flynn, Kevin
(1999a) `Civilian Complaints Said to be Slighted by NY Police', New York Times, 9October.
47.
Flynn, Kevin
(1999b) `Rebound in Murder Rate Puzzling New York Officials', New York Times, 5November.
48.
Flynn, Kevin
(1999c) `State Cites Racial Inequality in New York Police Searches' (summary of the Attorney General of New York's Report), New York Times, 1December.
49.
Flynn, Kevin
(1999d) `Officers' Credibility to be on Trial in Case over Shooting of Immigrant', New York Times, 10December.
50.
Flynn, Kevin
(2000a) `9 Police Officers Face Disciplinary Action after Inquiry in Central Park Attacks', New York Times, 4July.
51.
Flynn, Kevin
(2000b) `Behind the Success Story, a Vulnerable Police Force', New York Times, 25November.
52.
Flynn, Kevin
(2000c) `Feeling Scorn on the Beat and Pressure from Above', New York Times, 25December.
53.
Forst, Brian
and P.K. Manning (1999) The Privatization of Policing: Two Views. Washington, DC: Georgetown University Press.
54.
Gitlin, T.
(1980) The Whole World is Watching. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
55.
Gladwell, M.
(1996) `The Tipping Point', New Yorker, 3June, pp. 32-38.
Greene, Judith
(1999) `Zero Tolerance: A Case Study of Police Policies and Practices in New York City', Crime and Delinquency45: 171-187.
60.
Gusfield, Joseph
(1966) Symbolic Crusade. Urbana, IL: University of Illinois Press.
61.
Gusfield, Joseph
(ed.) (1989) On Symbols and Society. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
62.
Hall, Stuartet al.
(1977) Policing the Crisis. London: Macmillan.
63.
Hallett, Michael
and D. Powell (1995) `Backstage with the Cops: Dramatic Reification of Police Subculture in American Crime Infotainment', American Journal of PoliceXIV: 101-129.
64.
Hammer, M.
and J. Champy (1993) Reengineering the Corporation. New York: Harper/Collins.
65.
Herbert, S.
(1998) Policing Los Angeles. Minneapolis, MN: University of Minnesota Press.
66.
Holdaway, Simon
(1983) Inside the British Police. Oxford: Blackwells.
67.
Holmes, Steven A.
(1999) `New York Faces Study of Police Acts', New York Times, 6March.
68.
Hughes, E.C.
(1958) Men and their Work. Glencoe: Free Press.
69.
Hunt, Raymond
and John Magneau (1994) Power and the Police Chief. Thousand Oaks: Sage.
70.
Innes, Martin
(1999) ` “An Iron Fist in an Iron glove?” The Zero Tolerance Policing Debate', Howard Journal38: 397-410.
71.
Jackall, Robert
(1997) Wild Cowboys. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
72.
Jenner, Eric
(2000) `Computer-based Crime Fighting from the Ground Up', New York Times, 12December.
73.
Jermeir, J.
and L. Berkes (1979) `Leader Behavior in a Police Command Bureaucracy', ASQ23: 1-23.
74.
Kappeler, V.
, R. Sluder and G. Alpert (1997) Forces of Deviance Prospect Heights, 2nd edn.Illinois: Waveland Press.
75.
Kelling, George and Catherine Coles
(1997) Fixing Broken Windows. New York: Free Press.
76.
Klein, Joe
(1997) `Guiliani Unbound', New Yorker, 6September, pp. 50-61.
77.
Knapp, Whitman
(1972) Report on Corruption in New York City. New York: George Braziller.
78.
Kocieniewski, David
(1998) `Police Officials' Ouster Swift in Case of Doctored Stats', New York Times, 28February.
79.
Kraska, Peter
and V. Kappeler (1997) `Militarizing the American Police: The Rise and Normalization of Paramilitary Units', Social Problems44: 1-18.
80.
Krauss, Clifford
(1996) `For New York's Finest, it's Slow Going on the Internet', New York Times, 3September.
81.
Lardner, James
(1997a) `The New Blue Line', NYT Magazine, 9February, pp. 50-62.
82.
Lardner, James
(1997b) `Can You Believe the New York Miracle?'New York Review of Books14Aug. 54-58.
83.
Lardner, James
(1998) `The Commish' (Review of Bratton and Knoble, 1998), New York Times, 1Feburary.
84.
Loader, Ian
(1997) `Policing and the Social: Questions of Symbolic Power', British Journal of Sociology48: 1-18.
85.
Lyons, William
(1998) The Politics of Community Policing: Rearranging the Power to Punish. Ann Arbor, MI: University of Michigan Press.
86.
MacCannell, Dean
(1989) The Tourist, 2nd edn.New York: Schocken Books.
87.
McCleary, Richard, R.Nienstedt
and J.M. Erven (1982) `Uniform Crime Reports as Organizational Outcomes', Social Problems29: 361-372.
88.
McNamara, John
(1967) `Uncertainties in Police Work', in D. Bordua (ed.) The Police. New York: Wiley.
89.
Manning, Peter K.
(1997 [1977]) Police Work. Prospect Heights: Waveland.
90.
Manning, Peter K.
(1979) The Narcs' Game. Cambridge: MIT Press.
91.
Manning, Peter K.
(1988) Symbolic Communication. Cambridge: MIT Press.
92.
Manning, Peter K.
(1996) `Dramaturgy, Politics and the Axial Media Event', The Sociological Quarterly37: 261-278.
93.
Manning, Peter K.
(forthcoming) Picturing Policing.
94.
Maple, JackCrime Fighter. New York: XXX Press.
95.
Maple, Jack
(1999) `Police Must be Held Accountable', Newsweek, 21June.
96.
Mastrofski, Stephen
(forthcoming) `Police Chiefs as Symbolic Leaders', in Elin Waring and David Weisburd (eds) Fetschrift for Albert J. Reiss, Jr.
97.
Mastrofski, S.
, Worden and Snipes (1995) Systematic Observation of the Police. Washington, DC: NIJ.
98.
Mawby, Rob
(1996) `Making Sense of Media Representations of British Policing...', paper given at International Perspectives on Crime, Justice and Public Order conference, Dublin.
99.
Meares, T.
(1998) `Place and Crime', Chicago-Kent Law Review73: 669.
100.
Meehan, Albert J.
(1992) `I Don't Prevent Crimes, I Prevent Calls', Symbolic Interaction15: 455-480.
101.
Meehan, Albert J.
(1993) `Internal Police Records and the Control of Juveniles', British Journal of Criminology33: 504-524.
102.
Miller, Jerome
(1996) Search and Destroy. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
103.
Mitroff, I.
and W. Bennis (1993) The Unreality Industry. New York: OUP.
104.
Mollen Commission
(1994) Report. New York: City of New York.
105.
Moore, Mark
(1991) Creating Public Value. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
106.
Murphy, Patrick
and T. Pate (1977) Commissioner. New York: Simon & Schuster.
107.
Nesbary, Dale
(1998) `Handling Emergency Calls for Service: Organizational Production of Crime Statistics', Policing21: 576-599.
108.
New York Times (1999) `Dispatch Plans Abandoned', 15September.
109.
New Yorker (1999) (Cover features a police officer at a shooting gallery), 8March.
110.
Pedersen, Donald
(1997) `Go Get the Scumbags', Newsweek, 20October.
111.
Rappaport, Roy
(1998) Ritual and Religion in the Making of Humanity. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press.
112.
Reibstein, Larry
(1997) `NYPD: Black and Blue', Newsweek, 2June.
113.
Reiss, Albert J., Jr
(1971) The Police and the Public. New Haven, CT: Yale University Press.
114.
Reiss, Albert J., Jr
(1974) `Discretionary Justice', in D. Glaser (ed.) Handbook of Criminology, pp. 79-99. Chicago, IL: Rand McNally.
115.
Reiss, Albert J., Jr
(1992) `Policing in the Twentieth Century', in M. Tonry and Norval Morris Crime and Justice. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
116.
Reiss, Albert J., Jr
and D. Bordua (1967) `Environment and Organization', in D. Bordua (ed.) The Police. New York: John Wiley.
117.
Reppetto, Thomas
(1979) The Blue Parade. New York: Macmillan.
118.
Rose D.R.
and T. Clear (1998) `Incarceration, Social Capital, and Crime: Implications for Disorganization Theory', Criminology36(3): 441-480.
119.
Rosenbaum, Dennis
(ed.) (1996) Community Policing. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage.
120.
Rubinstein, Jonathan
(1972) City Police. New York: Farrar, Straus & Giroux.
121.
Safir, Howard
(n.d.) `Compstat: Leadership in Action', unpublished zerox, NYPD.
122.
Safir, Howard
(1998) The Compstat Process. New York: Office of Management Analysis and Planning, NYPD.
123.
Sampson
, Robert and S. Raudenbusch (1999) `Systematic Social Observation of Public Spaces', AJS105: 603-
124.
Sampson, Robert, J.Morenoff
and F. Earls (1999) `Beyond Social Capital', ASR64: 633-660.
125.
Sampson, Robert
, S. Raudenbusch and F. Earls (1997) `Neighborhoods and Violent Crime', Science227: 918-924.
126.
Schlesinger, Philip
and H. Tumber (1994) Reporting Crime. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
127.
Schwartz, B.
and Robin Wagner-Pacific (1991) `The Vietnam Veterans Memorial: Commemorating a Difficult Past', AJS97: 376-420.
128.
Seidman, D.
and X. Couzens (1974) `Getting the Crime Rate Down: Political Pressure and Crime Reporting', Law and Society Review8: 457-493.
129.
Sellin, T.
(1938) Crime and Conflict. SSRC New York.
130.
Shaw, Clifford
and H.D. McKay (1942) Juvenile Delinquency in Urban Areas. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
131.
Sheingold, Stuart
(1984) The Politics of Law and Order. New York: Longmans.
132.
Sheingold, Stuart
(1991) The Politics of Street Crime. Philadelphia, PA: Temple University Press.
133.
Sherman, Lawrence W.
(1990) `Police Crackdowns...', in Albert J. Reiss, Jr (ed.) Crime and Justice, Vol. 12. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
134.
Sherman, Lawrence W.
(1991) `Crime Attack...', in M. Tonry and Norval MorrisCrime and Justice, Vol. 15. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
135.
Sherman, Lawrence W.
(1992) Policing Domestic Violence. New York: Free Press.
136.
Sherman, Lawrence W.et al.
(1984) `The Specific Deterrent Effects of Arrest', ASR49: 261-272.
137.
Siegel, Fred
(1997) `Keeping the Peace or Holding Back the Tide?', Times Literary Supplement, 10January, pp. 9-10.
138.
Silverman, Eli
(1996) `Mapping a Course for Change: How the NYPD Reengineered Itself to Drive Crime Down', Law Enforcement NewsXXII (15 December).
139.
Silverman, Eli
(1997a) `Crime in New York: A Success Story', The Public PerspectiveJune/July: 3-5.
140.
Silverman, Eli
(1997b) personal communication, November.
141.
Silverman, Eli
(1999) The NYPD Battles Crime. Boston, MA: Northeastern University Press.
142.
Silverman, Eli
and Paul E. O'Connell (1997) `Revolutionizing the Police: Fighting Crime in New York City', Security JournalX: 1-5.
143.
Skogan, Wesley
(1991) Disorder and Decline. Berkeley, CA: University of California Press.
144.
Skolnick, Jerome
(1967) Justice without Trial. New York: Wiley.
145.
Sparks, Richard
(1992) Television and the Drama of Crime. Milton Keynes: Open University Press.
146.
Strong, Philip
(1983) The Ceremonial Order of the Clinic. London: RKP.
147.
Surette, R.
(1992) Crime and the Media. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth.
148.
Toobin, J.
(2000) `The Unasked Question', New Yorker, 6March.
149.
Time (1997) `A Beating in Brooklyn', 25August.
150.
Trojanowicz, Robert
and Bonnie Bucqueroux (1990) Community Policing. Cincinnati, OH: Anderson.
151.
Turner, Victor
(1974) Dramas, Fields and Metaphors. Ithaca, NY: Cornell.
152.
Turner, Victor
(1976) The Ritual Process. Chicago, IL: Aldine.
153.
Van Maanen, J.
(1988) Tales of the Field. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
154.
Wagner-Pacific, Robin
(1984) The Moro Morality Play. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
155.
Wagner-Pacific, Robin
(1994) Discourse and Destruction. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.
156.
Waldeck, Sarah
(2000) `Cops, Community Policing and the Social Norms Approach to Crime Control', Georgia Law Review34 (Spring): 1253-1310.
157.
Wilson, James Q.
(1968) Varieties of Police Behavior. Cambridge: Harvard University Press.
158.
Wilson, James Q.
(1978) Thinking about Crime. New York: Basic Books.
159.
Wilson, James Q.
and George Kelling (1982) `Broken Windows: Police and Neighborhood Safety', Atlantic Magazine249: 29-38.
160.
Young, J.
(1971) The Drug Takers. London: Palladian.
161.
Young, M.
(1991) An Inside Job. Oxford: Clarendon Press.
162.
Zuccotti, John
(1984) Report On New York City Police Management. New York: City of New York.
