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“Oh hell no, we don't talk to police”: Insights on the lack of cooperation in police investigations of urban gun violence
Abstract
Research Summary
We conducted face‐to‐face interviews with 50 young Black men, residents of high‐crime neighborhoods in Brooklyn and the Bronx, individuals who had considerable knowledge about illegal gun markets and the resulting bloodshed. Our findings confirm that distressed milieus reliably fail to produce cooperative witnesses as a result of the cumulative impact of anti‐snitching edicts, fear of retaliation, legal cynicism, and high‐risk victims’ normative views toward self‐help.
Policy Implications
Disadvantaged communities of color typically have low fatal and nonfatal shooting clearance rates in part as a result of poor witness cooperation. Diminished clearance rates have also been shown to intensify minority residents’ claims that officers do not care about keeping them or their neighborhoods safe. Respondents’ accounts identify three overlapping areas instructive for informing public policy: (1) reducing gun violence so that high‐risk individuals live in objectively safer areas, (2) using intermediaries to launch grassroots campaigns countering pro‐violence and anti‐snitching norms, and (3) improving police–minority community relations.
... Police Several of the studies in this section discussed police. Each of these studies included individuals who either lived in high-violence communities [27,35,52,53], or had sustained a gun violence injury [39]. These studies shared common themes, including participant report that negative interactions with law enforcement shaped beliefs about the illegitimacy of police authority and the law in general, ambivalence about police presence in their communities, and increased their legal cynicism and decreased perceptions of fairness [27,35,39,52,53]. ...
... Each of these studies included individuals who either lived in high-violence communities [27,35,52,53], or had sustained a gun violence injury [39]. These studies shared common themes, including participant report that negative interactions with law enforcement shaped beliefs about the illegitimacy of police authority and the law in general, ambivalence about police presence in their communities, and increased their legal cynicism and decreased perceptions of fairness [27,35,39,52,53]. Two studies specified that individuals reported mistrust of police as a result of over and under policing, and that feelings of mistrust positioned participants to be non-cooperative with police when gun violence occurred in their community [39,53]. ...
... These studies shared common themes, including participant report that negative interactions with law enforcement shaped beliefs about the illegitimacy of police authority and the law in general, ambivalence about police presence in their communities, and increased their legal cynicism and decreased perceptions of fairness [27,35,39,52,53]. Two studies specified that individuals reported mistrust of police as a result of over and under policing, and that feelings of mistrust positioned participants to be non-cooperative with police when gun violence occurred in their community [39,53]. Of the studies focused on police factors, one focused on a youth sample [52]. ...
Firearm violence is a public health crisis in the United States that disproportionately impacts community members in low-income areas who witness and experience violence and violent victimization at elevated rates compared to other socioeconomic groups, often as result of community disinvestment and systemic racism (Smith et al., Soc Sci Med 246:112587, 2020). While quantitative reviews of firearm violence and related factors exist, a review of qualitative methods and findings regarding exposure to firearm violence has not yet been conducted. This scoping review sought to address a gap in the literature by summarizing the findings of qualitative studies on community firearm violence in low-income settings in the U.S. EBSCO databases, Criminal Justice Abstracts, National Criminal Justice Reference Service Abstracts, ProQuest, and PsycINFO were searched for studies that described the firearm related experiences of individuals and families in low-income communities. Thirty studies met the criteria for review. Findings were situated within the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s (CDC) Social-Ecological Model as a framework for prevention (CDC, The social-ecological model: a framework for prevention, https://www.cdc.gov/violenceprevention/about/social-ecologicalmodel.html, 2018; Dahlberg and Krug, World Report on violence and health, World Health Organization, Geneva, 2002). A critique of the literature, as well as implications and future directions of findings, are discussed. This study may inform future research questions and programs that center the voices of those most impacted by firearm violence.
... Research shows that clearance rates are lower in neighborhoods with lower socioeconomic status (Braga et al., 2019;Borg and Parker, 2001;Litwin and Xu, 2007) and/ or higher concentrations of African American residents (Keel et al., 2009;Puckett and Lundman, 2003). Brunson and Wade (2019) assert that gun violence, especially gun violence associated with gang fights and drug sales, is concentrated in disadvantaged and disproportionately non-white communities. The nature of these crimes can make them inherently more difficult to clear, given the physical distance and concomitant lack of exchange of fibers, cells, blood, etc. during the commission of the crime. ...
... Beyond the interaction of case and place variables (such as the concentration of gun crime in the same neighborhoods with lower clearance rates), one common explanation for lower clearances is that citizens who fear retaliation for cooperating with police may refrain from supplying vital information out of concern for their own safety (Brunson and Wade, 2019;Clampet-Lundquist et al., 2015;Whitman and Davis, 2007;Rosenfeld et al., 2003). Similarly, citizens who fear the police or view them with cynicism may be unwilling to cooperate with law enforcement to provide information (Ousey and Lee, 2010;Brunson, 2007). ...
... Similarly, citizens who fear the police or view them with cynicism may be unwilling to cooperate with law enforcement to provide information (Ousey and Lee, 2010;Brunson, 2007). In their interviews with 50 young Black men in high crime neighborhoods, Brunson and Wade (2019) found that norms against snitching and supportive of street justice, combined with fear of retaliation, cynicism about police and the justice system more broadly inhibit cooperation with police seeking to identify a perpetrator. ...
Purpose
In the absence of new funding dedicated to cold case investigation, innovation is required.
Design/methodology/approach
The number of unresolved homicides in the USA has surpassed a quarter million, and the figure grows by thousands every year. Homicides that do not yield a quick arrest are time and labor intensive. This creates a staffing and resource dilemma for law enforcement administrators, as allocating time for older cases comes at the expense of investigating current ones, and vice versa.
Findings
Universities offer the enthusiastic labor of college students to “defrost” cold cases. One such partnership has been in place for nearly three years in an unusual collaboration between a state police agency and a regional state university. Small groups of students systematically organize, review and present case files. They create investigative recommendations and prioritize cases by solvability. Investigators can then select a case that may be relatively close to an arrest, access the case details very quickly and have the investigative recommendations as a place to begin a renewed investigation. Additionally, cases that are appropriate for new forensic testing or new forensic tools are identified and advanced.
Originality/value
Partnerships such the one described here are rare but lucrative. We recommend new collaborations like ours to reduce the number of unresolved homicide cases.
... The present study is important because, while prior studies have addressed the challenges of collecting data in the African American population (see Huang and Coker 2010), we have not found any studies that have addressed the challenges and rewards of conducting research on the police in the African American community, a problem partly attributable to the frayed relationship between the police and the African American community (Brunson 2007;. Qualitative researchers have advanced several arguments about the effects of researchers' identities (e.g., ethnicity, race, gender, class, and educational attainment) on the effectiveness of qualitative research in the community (Adamson and Donovan 2002;Brunson and Wade 2019;Joseph et al. 2021;Lu and Hodge 2019;Webster 1996). In terms of the notions of objectivity and truth, Adamson and Donovan (2002) have argued that the relationship between the researcher and participants may affect what type of interpretive lens is employed to understand the study. ...
... The preventable deaths of several African Americans at the hands of the police in recent years have contributed to the weakening of the relationship between African Americans and the police (Brunson 2007). The police and community members are expected to work together in the co-production of communal safety and security, yet African Americans, compared to their White counterparts, trust the police less due to decades of over-policing and under-policing in Black communities in the United States (Brunson and Wade 2019;Burke 2013;Pryce & Chenane, 2021;Rabii 2023). As Warren (2011) has observed, African Americans' vicarious experiences with the police may lead to Black community members' unwillingness to trust the police. ...
... Durham was a good choice for our study because the city has a large African American population. 5 Durham also provides regional diversity to other locations where studies on the African American population had been carried out previously (Brunson 2007;Brunson and Wade 2019;Feagin 1991). For example, Brunson's (2007) ...
In this paper, we discuss the challenges and rewards of carrying out qualitative research on the police in the African American community. Using data drawn from interviews with seventy-seven African American adults in Durham, NC, we found that community member hostility toward research(ers) and fear of both neighbors and the police lowered African Americans’ willingness to be interviewed about their perceptions of and experiences with U.S. police. These findings were observed primarily in public housing and middle-income communities. On a positive note, we found that greater awareness of policing issues increased African Americans’ willingness to participate in research about the police. This finding was more common among upper-middle-income African Americans. The implications of our findings for
future research and improved policing in the African American community are discussed.
... Wilmington, which was labeled "Murder Town USA" (Payne et al., 2023), is a useful research site to examine urban policing because it maintains both an aggressive police force and one of the highest per capita homicide rates among small cities (Federal Bureau of Investigation Uniform Crime Reporting Program, 2009Jones, 2014;Police Foundation and Vigilant Resources International, 2015;Sutton, 2021). Thus, the city represents an ideal setting to investigate how the context of elevated violent crime shapes relationships between police and distressed Black communities (Abt, 2019;Brunson & Wade, 2019). ...
... Black communities are caught in a double bind of simultaneously feeling overpoliced and underprotected, which can accumulate into negative responses toward police (Calvert et al., 2020;Densley, 2021;Feagin, 1991). This double bind critically reduces officers' legitimacy, particularly among those embedded in high-risk networks (Brunson & Wade, 2019;Brunson et al., 2022;Metcalfe & Baker, 2022;Payne et al., 2017), and decreases Black individuals' likelihood of cooperating with or calling the police (Desmond et al., 2016;Xie & Baumer, 2019). a subjective, cultural lived experience and worldview (e.g., "I'm from the streets"). ...
... who found that although Black men and women employed similar resistance strategies with police, their police-citizen encounter outcomes were differentially shaped by gender; Black men more often experienced arrest, police violence, or jail time, whereas Black women were more often released or given a citation. These material differences in procedural justice outcomes often lead disadvantaged young men to engage in self-protective or otherwise risky behaviors, which can ultimately increase their own threat of involuntary police contact (Brunson & Wade, 2019;Brunson et al., 2022;Gau & Brunson, 2015). Still, extant research on police interactions among Black women and girls suggests that they experience multiplicative forms of criminalization given their intersectional identities, which can obscure gendered patterns of police encounters (Brunson & Miller, 2006;Gonzalez, 2022;B. ...
Objective: Whereas studies have documented racial differences in attitudes toward police between White and Black Americans, relatively little is known about the intragroup, gender-based variations among urban Black residents involved in criminal activity (i.e., street-identified men and women). Hypotheses: We hypothesized Black women would be more likely to believe in police legitimacy and positive intent than men (Hypothesis 1), especially among the younger segment of the sample (Hypothesis 2). We also expected this relationship to be moderated by contact with police (Hypothesis 3) and experiences with victimization (Hypothesis 4). Method: Using survey data, this Street Participatory Action Research project examined the direct and interactional relationships between gender, age, involuntary police contact, personal victimization, and participants’ perceptions of police legitimacy and positive intent. Participants included 515 street-identified Black men (40.4%; n = 208) and women (59.6%; n = 307), ages 18–35 years, from two high-crime neighborhoods in Wilmington, Delaware. Results: Women had significantly higher perceptions of police legitimacy than did men (Hypothesis 1). While older participants tended to have lower perceptions that the police behave with positive intent, age did not moderate the relationship between gender and perceptions of police (Hypothesis 2). The relationship between gender and perceptions of positive police intent was moderated by involuntary police contact (Hypothesis 3) and experiences of victimization (Hypothesis 4). Conclusions: Contrary to existing literature, prior involuntary police contact mattered more for street-identified Black women than men in predicting perceptions of police. Experiences of victimization were also more impactful for these perceptions for street-identified Black women than men. Men’s perceptions of positive police intent were consistent, regardless of the frequency of police contact, whereas women’s favorable perceptions declined with more police contact and victimization experiences, and they eventually became more critical of the police than their male counterparts.
... Police who engage in procedural justice fairly apply just rules, approach situations from a neutral standpoint and are respectful when interacting with community members (Tyler & Fagan, 2008). People's own interactions with police (i.e. the quality and quantity of these interactions) and personal factors like their race/ethnicity, age, immigrant/documentation status, mental health status and the type of neighbourhood they live in can also affect legitimacy views (e.g., Brunson & Wade, 2019;Cavanaugh et al., 2020;Meeker et al., 2020;Pryce et al., 2017;Tyler et al., 2015;Watson & Angell, 2013). In addition, people are influenced by their perceptions of others' interactions with police and community norms surrounding cooperation (Jackson et al., 2021). ...
... The few studies that have addressed views of police cooperation have found that perceptions are influenced by location. For example, in some high crime neighbourhoods where there is a lot of gun violence but few arrests, some participants reported not being cooperative due to anti-snitching norms and fear of being harmed by others as retaliation for reporting to police (Brunson & Wade, 2019). That is, a lack of cooperation may be normative in contexts involving crime reporting. ...
... Alternatively, future researchers could ask participants to try to explain why the corroborator did not call the police back. An open-ended question about cooperativeness could help us to gain insights into the participants' inferences about cooperativeness (e.g., Brunson & Wade, 2019). ...
Alibi believability can be affected by characteristics of the alibi corroborator, including the relationship between the defendant and corroborator, which has been studied extensively by researchers. The corroborator's certainty that they were together at the time of the crime may also influence alibi believability, but only a few studies have examined this. Another factor that may affect believability is the corroborator's cooperativeness with the police, which is yet to be studied in the alibi context. Online U.S. participants recruited from CloudResearch ( N = 280) acted as mock jurors and evaluated a mock arson case where the defendant used an alibi defence. The alibi corroborator's relationship to the defendant (brother/neighbour), the certainty that they were together at the time (65%/100%) and cooperativeness with police (cooperative/uncooperative) were manipulated between participants. The participants were evenly split when it came to verdict ( p > .05) but were more likely to vote guilty when the corroborator was a brother rather than a neighbour ( p < .01) and when the brother was uncooperative versus cooperative ( p < .05). As expected, alibis were more believable when they were corroborated by a neighbour rather than a brother and when the corroborator was 100% certain that they were together versus 65% certain ( p s < .01). Alibis were also more believable when the corroborator cooperated than when he was uncooperative ( p < .01). Cooperative (vs. uncooperative) corroborators led to more positive defendant and corroborator views on all six character trait measures ( p s < .01). Implications and future directions are discussed.
... Other researchers have found negative attitudes toward the police reduce the willingness of victims to report crimes (Kwak et al., 2019;MacDonald, 2001). More specifically, negative police interactions, unjust police responses, and unfavorable views of the police heighten non-reporting behaviors for African Americans (R. K. Brunson & Wade, 2019;Kwak et al., 2019;Sered, 2014;Slocum, 2018). On the other hand, Slocum (2018) observed that irrespective of the nature of prior contact with the police, victims of personal crimes, such as robbery, sexual assault, and aggravated assault, attribute their reasons for not reporting are due to the fear of retaliation. ...
... ocedural injustice, and other negative interactions erode legitimacy and likely reduce the reporting of victimizations (J. M. Gau, 2015;J. Gau & Brunson, 2015;Yoon, 2015). Adverse direct and indirect experiences with the police create opportunities for the transmission of legal cynicism and negative attitudes toward the police (R. K. Brunson, 2007;R. K. Brunson & Wade, 2019;Rosenbaum et al., 2005), which results in a collective internalization among African Americans of trauma through shared experiences (Pryce et al., 2021). ...
... pts embodying legal estrangement were evident across respondents, with thematic analyses revealing that not only in-the-moment negative police interactions were voiced as reasons to not engage the police, but also an extensive array of vicarious experiences, passed-through-the-generations norms that discourage police reporting (R. K. Brunson, 2007;R. K. Brunson & Wade, 2019;Kwak et al., 2019;Rosenbaum et al., 2005;Slocum, 2018). Police engagement, as a form of help-seeking, is a dynamic process that involves complex behaviors (Xie & Baumer, 2019) that are guided by both situational contexts and perceptions of the police. The different help-seeking and non-help-seeking pathways illustrated in the subsamples ...
... It is not self-evident what an ideal community-oriented criminal justice system would look like, making it challenging to identify the best practices. However, it is clear that these communities need more community-informed approaches to law enforcement with a focus on community-oriented policing, which is essential to the national discussion on social innovation and the integration of local context and stakeholders more fully into policing practices on how to build positive police-community relations in majority-black neighborhoods (Brunson & Wade, 2019;Ford, 2007). When a community does not adopt a community-oriented framework for policing, it affects how police interact and engage with residents and, in return, affects how Black residents respond to police. ...
... It is not self-evident what an ideal community-oriented criminal justice system would look like, making it challenging to identify the best practices. However, it is clear that these communities need more community-informed approaches to law enforcement with a focus on community-oriented policing, which is essential to the national discussion on social innovation and the integration of local context and stakeholders more fully into policing practices on how to build positive police-community relations in majority-black neighborhoods (Brunson & Wade, 2019;Ford, 2007). When a community does not adopt a community-oriented framework for policing, it affects how police interact and engage with residents and, in return, affects how Black residents respond to police. ...
Few issues loom larger today than how the United States can rehabilitate its criminal justice system. Although justified and undoubtedly timely, the national focus often shifts attention away from local, interpersonal, and community processes that shape how criminal justice is administered and experienced differently in communities across the country. Our goal is to contribute to the national conversation on community-oriented policing and social innovation to improve police-community relations and increase public trust in majority-Black neighborhoods. This article offers a call to action for the scientific and policy communities to reflect on effective practices that bring the voices of local stakeholders to the forefront of policy and programmatic agendas. 2
... Drug crimes are among the most underreported types of crimes [29,30]. Reporting a drug crime can be costly-in terms of physical or psychological safety-and the costbenefit analysis often means people do not carry it out [31]. If residents do not feel safe from retaliation, they will not voluntarily report drug crimes. ...
Creating and sustaining safe, healthy urban environments requires active collaboration between residents and local governments. Public safety and the upkeep of public spaces depend, in a large part, on residents’ reports of crime and service needs. However, in underserved areas, factors such as urban decay, inadequate public services, and concentrated disadvantage have weakened these cooperative dynamics. This breakdown can exacerbate the underreporting of crime and service needs and deepen neighborhood inequalities. In Buffalo, NY, the city-led initiative “Clean Sweeps” works to reduce neighborhood disparities through rapid beautification and community outreach in targeted city blocks. The program aims to improve quality of life by reducing crime and blight while fostering greater community engagement. In an analysis of data from 77,955 matched properties (published elsewhere), we found that residents were more likely to report drug-related crimes (via 911) and blight-related service needs (via 311) compared to untreated properties in the 6 months following the Clean Sweep. In this study, we analyze data from 21 interviews with city staff and four focus groups with residents to explore how interventions in the social and physical environment of neighborhoods, like the Clean Sweep innovation, can influence residents’ willingness to coproduce with local government. We identify improved responsiveness, trust, and self-efficacy as key mechanisms impacting residents’ reporting behavior. The findings show how relatively simple environmental interventions paired with outreach can help create safer, healthier neighborhoods.
... In 2016 there was an increase in organizing efforts in response to the murder of Black people by police (Brunson & Wade, 2019). This has led to questions about the role of the police in public safety. ...
Homicide has an effect on the community, as family members are left to grapple with the loss. The Women Survivors of Homicide Movement (WSOHM) is a grassroots effort aimed at empowering women of color to advocate for themselves as a homicide survivor. A systematic analysis was conducted to examine how power and privilege impact the groups’ approach to change-making. Mixed research methods were employed including key informant interviews and document review. Findings indicate WSOHM employs multiple strategies to achieve its goals, which are focused on bringing attention to unsolved murders in Boston and ensuring survivors and victims are given respect.
... In nonfatal shooting cases in particular, gaining victim/witness cooperation can be a special challenge (Barao et al., 2021;Hipple et al., 2019). Victims and witnesses may be unlikely to cooperate with the police because they do not believe offenders will be apprehended, because of codes against snitching or feelings of distrust in the police (White et al., 2021), or they may prefer to respond with retaliatory violence rather than the seeking the aid of the criminal justice system (Brunson & Wade, 2019). Given that a relative minority of shooters in most cities are apprehended for their crimes, it can be difficult to overcome the legal cynicism and fear of retaliation that prevents many victims and witnesses from aiding investigations (Kirk & Matsuda, 2011;Sunshine & Tyler, 2003). ...
Amidst recent increases in homicides and shootings in the United States, clearances rates for homicides have declined and nonfatal shooting cases remain notoriously difficult to solve. Considerable research indicates that the outcomes of homicide and shooting investigations are likely influenced by a range of factors, including inherited case characteristics, investigative actions, forensic testing, and agency resources. Recent advancements in technologies available to law enforcement may help fill persistent gaps in solvability, but research remains limited on their effectiveness. RTCCs integrate a variety of technological innovations and software programs to rapidly receive and distribute information to support police operations, and they harness the strong potential to powerfully impact investigative outcomes and offer an additional pathway through which police agencies can increase case clearance. The current study explores the impact of strategic efforts in the Hartford Police Department (HPD) to increase investigative effectiveness through RTCC processes and technologies. Our findings indicate that RTCC activities significantly increase the likelihood that a case is solved, and this effect is primarily due to RTCC analysts’ ability to locate and analyze video associated with the case. When associated video was located, cases were 442% more likely to be solved when controlling for other covariates. The HPD’s RTCC operations, institutionalized technology, and organizational culture also play a crucial role, with a commitment to technology and information-sharing enhancing investigative capabilities. This study emphasizes the effectiveness of real-time crime centers in locating digital evidence, facilitating rapid information dissemination, and fostering agencywide collaboration, ultimately improving investigative outcomes.
... When community members trust officers and perceive them as being legitimate, they are more willing to work with them to 'co-produce' community security, solve crimes, provide service, and prevent disorder (Bayley and Nixon, 2010;Pryce and Chenane, 2021). Moreover, a lack of public support can hinder police investigations and lead to low case clearance rates (Braga et al., 2019;Brunson and Wade, 2019), making communities less safe and further exacerbating negative community perceptions of law enforcement. For these reasons, it is essential for scholars to systematically study public perceptions of police and to identify ways departments can improve attitudes; In the midst of this legitimacy crisis, it is also imperative that departments implement research-driven interventions shown by scholars to improve public perceptions of police. ...
In 2021, the Pennsylvania State Police (PSP) created and implemented the Building Bridges Community Outreach Program (BBCOP), which is a positive law enforcement-initiated non-enforcement contact intervention designed to educate the public and improve community relations. To date, there have been no empirical assessments of the influence that this program has had on public perceptions of police. The current study attempts to fill this gap in the literature by offering an assessment of BBCOP participants’ perceptions of the program, and their perceptions of police before and after participating in the program. Specifically, the current study uses a mixed-method analysis of matched (i.e. pre- and post-intervention) survey data (n = 106) collected from student participants of initial iterations of the PSP BBCOP intervention occurring between the end of January 2023 and the end of January 2024. Findings reveal that BBCOP participants overwhelmingly reported positive sentiments about their experiences with the program. Further, statistical analyses revealed significant improvements in perceptions of law enforcement effectiveness, procedural justice, and legitimacy following participation in the program. Implications based on these findings are discussed within.
... Vigilantism is an illegal activity carried out by a private citizen in response to a criminal activity committed by another private citizen against that perpetrator (Haas, de Keijser, and Bruinsma 2012). Vigilantism and self-help strategies among citizens are a growing phenomenon worldwide (Bateson 2021;Brunson and Wade 2019;Chia 2020;Ko Ko and Braithwaite 2020;Tankebe 2009). As a mechanism of social control (Black 1983), public reliance on vigilante activity and self-help strategies reflects broader concerns regarding the rule of law. ...
... This discrepancy arises as comparable actions of White youth may be interpreted as youthful indiscretions or immature activities, but not criminalized behavior (CCSA 2017; Lee et al. 2021). Building on the issue of heightened surveillance, elevated levels of police suspicion, combined with resistance from suspects (often due to mistrust of the criminal justice system or negative past interactions), can intensify interactions and potentially result in the use of excessive force when officers perceive a threat (Brunson and Wade 2019;Cyr 2016;Ristroph 2017). ...
This study explores how racialized migrant youth navigate Ontario’s child welfare, criminal justice, and immigration systems. Insights from youth, academics, practitioners, lawyers, policymakers, and social workers were gathered from a conference and contextualized using the Intersectional Life Course Theory and a critical phenomenological framework. Our analysis focuses on timing, locally and globally linked lives, social identities, and resilience, and emphasizes the interconnectedness of individual experiences within societal structures. We review systemic challenges and ethical dilemmas for young migrants, particularly concerns about fairness in potential inadmissibility or deportation consequences. We propose systemic support measures to foster resilience and disrupt adverse trajectories in order to mitigate discriminatory practices and provide targeted support for youth within these systems.
... Unfortunately, decades of research indicate that homicides involving guns are more difficult for police to solve than those involving other weapons (Irwin et al., 2021;Puckett & Lundman, 2003;Regoeczi et al., 2020;Roberts, 2007). This finding could be partially due to less physical contact between victims and perpetrators in gun offenses (Puckett & Lundman, 2003) and community hesitation to provide information to police about gun crime in some areas (Brunson & Wade, 2019). Recent research indicates that nonfatal shooting incidents far outnumber fatal shootings (N. ...
The National Integrated Ballistics Information Network (NIBIN), a database of ballistic evidence from crime scenes, seeks to provide investigative leads by linking separate offenses involving the same weapons. Using surveys about 570 gun crimes in Indianapolis, Kansas City, and Phoenix, we examine perceptions of NIBIN, and whether lead timeliness influences those perceptions. Detectives who receive NIBIN leads sooner after a crime occurs have significantly higher odds of reporting the lead as helpful. The predicted probability of a lead being perceived as helpful is 43.11% if received 30 days after a crime, but only 17.80% 1 year later. Leads were more helpful for robberies and homicides than other offenses. To maximize the utility of NIBIN, agencies should prioritize rapid evidence processing.
... Although this is a simple and reliable measure of officer response and investigation time, it may be confounded by factors beyond the incident itself. For example, officers may be required to spend more time on scene for incidents in neighborhoods with more crime or lower perceived police legitimacy because citizens may be less willing to cooperate with law enforcement agents (Brunson & Wade, 2019;Carr et al., 2007;White et al., 2016). Civilian responders may not encounter these same challenges but may also spend additional time on scene given that arrest or other coercive force cannot be used to resolve the call. ...
... For the police, the benefits include greater levels of support, cooperation, and compliance. For example, in communities where relationships between the police and the public are strained, people are often unwilling to call the police, ask them for help, provide information to them, or serve as witnesses in criminal proceedings (Brunson & Wade, 2019;Desmond et al., 2020). Some research even reports that people who believe the police treat them and their peers unfairly are more likely to view the use of violence against police officers as morally justifiable Tyler et al., 2018). ...
Police worldwide face the ongoing challenge of forging positive and mutually beneficial relationships with the communities they serve. However, these relationships are sometimes strained and even violent, particularly in certain impoverished, indigenous, or minority communities with a long history of tension and conflict with the police. Communication mediates these relationships and can play a significant role in improving or diminishing them. Communication Accommodation Theory (CAT), which falls within the sub-discipline of intergroup communication, provides an explanation for how and why individuals adjust their communication across various contexts, and the social consequences of such adjustments. CAT provides a potent framework for understanding the dynamics of police–community relations. This chapter underscores the real potential for how theory and research on intergroup communication accommodation can help police and the public establish stronger, safer, more meaningful relationships which benefit the quality of life for both groups.
... In the broader US context, by comparison, Project Life requires fewer resources and may be easier to implement compared to other violence prevention strategies that prescribe large-scale enforcement or implementation efforts. Although evidence-based "pulling-lever" approaches (e.g., Operation Ceasefire) often include some educational components, they are often dwarfed by high-dose enforcement activities that require vast law enforcement resources that may exacerbate strained police-community relations (for example, see Brunson & Wade, 2019;Gau & Brunson, 2010). By contrast, completing the Project Life program led to large reductions in recidivism risk, especially for gun violence offenses. ...
As youth gun violence continues to plague marginalized US communities, knowledge about “what works” to prevent injury and illegal gun activity within this population remains a contentious and pressing issue. This study investigates the impacts of Project Life—an education-based youth gun violence prevention program—on recidivism outcomes for a sample of 368 youths in Indianapolis, Indiana, between 2015 and 2019. We conducted retrospective outcome analyses to compare youths who completed the program (83%) to youths who did not complete the program. We find that youths who completed the program were significantly less likely to recidivate with a gun violence offense within an average follow-up period of 1.5 years following enrollment in the program. Youths who spent more time incarcerated and had a parent who was incarcerated were at higher recidivism risk when controlling for prior history of offending and other key risk factors. These nonexperimental findings show short-term promise for education-based violence prevention programming for youths at risk with fewer concerns of widening the net of carceral punishment.
... system-impacted; Black communities are frequently overrepresented in the system (Alexander, 2020) and rates of involvement may be underreported given associated stigma. Some people avoid reporting crime -especially acts involving interpersonal violence, due to understandable worries about legal ramifications and mistrust in police (Brunson and Wade, 2019). Additionally, people may have mistrust in psychologists and thus may not disclose or report traumatic events to them (Whaley, 2001). ...
Racism is a critical social problem, and we present a framework to guide professionals in engaging in anti-racist practices. Professionals on the frontlines in psychology and related fields such as social work and public health have a responsibility to engage in anti-racist practices. Part of the professional role must be to advocate for justice through increased proximity to the issues and engagement in anti-oppressive practices. The current discourse introduces a framework through which people working in psychology and other related professions can promote anti-racism work, highlighting the legal system for illustrative purposes. While some professionals in psychology may not have direct experience with the legal system, many of the individuals served by psychologists do (e.g., clients/patients, students, community members). Our framework is represented by the acronym STYLE (Self-examination, Talk about racism, Yield time to anti-racism work, Learn about structural racism, Evaluate policies and practices). The goal of STYLE is to expand anti-racism science and practice within psychology and related fields. We describe new roles for professionals in dismantling health inequities and offer specific pathways to develop critical partnerships toward this aim. STYLE explicitly encourages active, intentional involvement of affected community members in the development and evaluation of approaches to health services. To achieve equity and to promote individual and organizational growth in anti-racism and ultimately anti-oppression work, professionals must focus on changing their STYLE.
... For example, Braga et al. (2019) found lack of public cooperation with police hindered investigations into gang and drug-related homicides, when compared with other homicide cases, and, ultimately, affected case clearance rates. Other researchers reported similar findings (e.g., Brunson & Wade, 2019). Thus, understanding factors associated with perceptions of police, especially attitudes toward legitimacy and cooperation, is a key step in improving policing outcomes. ...
Perceptions of law enforcement ineffectiveness, injustice, and illegitimacy are prevalent among individuals living in Black communities in the United States. Prior research links these attitudes with differential orientations toward cooperation with police. The current study used data collected from a representative sample of 522 Pennsylvania residents to measure public perceptions of police. Analyses examined racial differences in perceptions of police and determined whether normative (i.e., perceptions of procedural justice) and/or instrumental (i.e., perceptions of police effectiveness) assessments of police could explain racial differences in anticipated cooperation with law enforcement through perceptions of legitimacy. Findings revealed the presence of a significant indirect relationship between race and perceptions of legitimacy through perceptions of police effectiveness and procedural justice, as well as a significant indirect relationship between race and cooperation through police effectiveness, procedural justice, and legitimacy. Theoretical and practical implications stemming from these findings are discussed within.
... But there is another factor at work-murder clearance depends crucially on witness cooperation, and there are substantial differences across communities in the rates at which this is forthcoming. This unwillingness to cooperate itself stems from a variety of causes, including antisnitching norms, distrust of police and prosecutors, and a credible fear of retaliation (Brunson & Wade 2019, Puckett & Lundman 2003, Rohrlich & Tulsky 1996. ...
Crime and policing activities routinely involve interactions between strangers and require the interacting parties to make highly consequential decisions under time pressure. Under such conditions, stereotypes based on visual or other cues can influence behavior. This review considers the role of stereotypes in shaping the manner in which such interactions proceed and the likelihood with which they occur in the first place. Our focus is primarily on robbery, murder, police stops and searches, and the use of deadly force, but the arguments apply more generally. We also consider how stereotypes can become entrenched through the behavioral changes they induce, given large differences across offenses in rate of arrest and prison admission.
Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Criminology, Volume 7 is January 2024. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
... Inequality in desire for police services may manifest as inequality in exposure to criminal justice system contact. For example, decreased desire for criminal justice system contact may result in "under" policing that harasses local residents but does not address serious crime (St. Louis & Greene, 2020:656; see also Brunson & Wade, 2019). ...
Objectives
There is little scholarship about what affects calls for service, even as they originate the vast majority of police interventions in the USA. We test how racial perceptions, ambiguous situational contexts, and participant demographics affect desire to call the police.
Methods
We conduct a nationwide survey experiment with 2,038 participants, varying vignette racial composition (subjects described as black or white) and seriousness of event (less serious, more ambiguous or more serious, less ambiguous) to test two outcomes: 1) desire to call the police and 2) perceived threat.
Results
Perceived race does not directly affect mean desire to call the police or perceived threat. However, political views moderate the effects of race: compared to politically moderate participants, very liberal participants express less desire to call the police while very conservative participants express more desire to call the police in a vignette featuring young Black men.
Conclusions
The political polarization of desire to call the police raises questions about racially differentiated risk of more serious criminal justice system events, including arrest and incarceration, for racial and ethnic minorities.
... Although the discussion so far has focused on the ways that stereotype threat may render Black people vulnerable to excessive policing and criminal legal intervention, it may simultaneously shape Black people's perceptions of whether the police can or will protect them when they are in danger, or whether the criminal legal system operates to serve them as well as White people. Research has shown that Black people believe police do not take their personal or community experiences of crime victimization seriously and feel less safe and more fearful than White people do in the presence of officers (Boehme et al., 2020;Brunson & Wade, 2019;Clevinger et al., 2018;Duhaney, 2022;Pickett et al., 2022). This is directly relevant to understanding why Black people might resist calling police when in need of support (Desmond et al., 2016;Pickett et al., 2022), and stereotype threat is implicated in this dynamic as well. ...
Cultural stereotypes that link Black race to crime in the United States originated with and are perpetuated by policies that result in the disproportionate criminalization and punishment of Black people. The scientific record is replete with evidence that these stereotypes impact perceivers’ perceptions, information processing, and decision-making in ways that produce more negative criminal legal outcomes for Black people than White people. However, relatively scant attention has been paid to understanding how situations that present a risk of being evaluated through the lens of crime-related stereotypes also directly affect Black people. In this article, I consider one situation in particular: encounters with police. I draw on social psychological research on stereotype threat generally as well as the few existing studies of crime-related stereotype threat specifically to illuminate how the cultural context creates psychologically distinct experiences of police encounters for Black people as compared to White people. I further consider the potential ramifications of stereotype threat effects on police officers’ judgments and treatment of Black people as well as for Black people’s safety and well-being in other criminal legal contexts and throughout their lives. Finally, I conclude with a call for increased scholarly attention to crime-related stereotype threat and the role it plays in contributing to racial disparities in policing outcomes, particularly with regard to diverse racial, ethnic, and intersectional identities and personal vulnerability factors, and the systemic changes that might mitigate its deleterious effects.
This study investigates the effects of hot spots policing on self-initiated officer activity using data from a violent crime reduction strategy implemented in Dallas, TX. A strong body of empirical evidence has demonstrated that violent crime is disproportionately concentrated in very small, specific geographic locations. Hot spots policing leverages crime concentration by focusing police resources in these small, crime-prone areas. While extensive research demonstrates that hot spots policing is effective in reducing crime, critics argue that focused enforcement efforts may lead to increased proactive activities targeting residents. To date, no research has specifically examined the impact on self-initiated officer activities involving citizen interactions within communities exposed to hot spots policing. Moreover, there has been little exploration of the differences between hot spots strategies that use proactive approaches compared with lighter footprint strategies. We address this gap in the literature using a multi-year assessment of the effects of two types of hot spots policing on self-initiated activity. We found differential impacts on self-initiated activity in areas treated with deterrence-based, high visibility (HV) strategies versus those treated with proactive, offender-focused approaches (OF). Hot spots policing had no effect on self-initiated activity in HV treated areas while there were statistically significant increases in four of five measured categories in the OF treated locations. This study highlights the need for law enforcement agencies to adopt tailored approaches specific to crime conditions in different areas. While proactive approaches may be necessary in specific locations, agencies should understand both the crime reduction benefits and potential impacts on local communities.
Research Summary
In recent years, nutrition researchers have found that ice cream may have as many health benefits as low‐fat milk or yoghurt for those with diabetes or at risk of diabetes. Nonetheless, they have resisted reporting this finding to the media, the public, or other researchers. This observation got me thinking about how preconceived assumptions and biases affect social science in general and criminology in particular, are affected by the preconceived assumptions and biases of those who produce them. In this essay, I argue that the production of criminology is a cultural enterprise that reflects the attitudes and values of those who produce it. In my address for the Stockholm Prize, I summarize the main thesis of my Losing Legitimacy book and then discuss two recent projects that were influenced by the idea that strong social institutions reduce criminal behavior. The first examines the impact of the death of Freddie Gray in Baltimore in 2015 on crime and arrest rates. The second examines the impact of globalization on national homicide rates. In both cases, the results were unexpected.
Policy Implications
As scientists, it is critical that we evaluate research based on its theoretical soundness and methodological sophistication rather than whether it fits a currently hot topic or politically popular perspective. Science progresses by the constant process of evaluating theoretical propositions with empirical data—regardless of where those data lead us. Openness about crime and reactions to crime is no less important than honesty about the positive benefits of ice‐cream consumption.
This study draws on interviews with 20 low-income Black men to understand how they enact and maintain resilience over the course of their lives. Guided by Payne’s (2011) sites of resilience theoretical framework, this study offers a more comprehensive understanding as to how Black men maintain resilience while experiencing ongoing exposure to violence and trauma. In the absence of external resources, some men rested on their cultural assets provided by religion; while in response to structural violence, other Black men enacted resilience through gang membership, crime, and interpersonal violence. Additionally, we provide a nuanced discussion as to how participants engage in multiple resiliency strategies, that in some cases may appear contradictory. Black men engaged in these behaviors with the hopes of preserving their safety—both physically and psychologically, in a society that has never been interested in keeping them safe.
Given the multifaceted nature of crime trends shaped by a range of social, economic, and demographic variables, grasping the fundamental drivers behind crime patterns is pivotal for crafting effective crime deterrence methodologies. This investigation adopted a systematic literature review technique to distill thirty key factors from a corpus of one hundred scholarly articles. Utilizing the Principal Component Analysis (PCA) for diminishing dimensionality facilitated a nuanced understanding of the determinants deemed essential in influencing crime trends. The findings highlight the necessity of tackling issues such as inequality, educational deficits, poverty, unemployment, insufficient parental guidance, and peer influence in the realm of crime prevention efforts. Such knowledge empowers policymakers and law enforcement bodies to optimize resource allocation and roll out interventions grounded in empirical evidence, thereby fostering a safer and more secure societal environment.
Fatal violence against transgender people is a critical issue in contemporary America. There is also significant reason to believe that many transgender homicides are left unsolved. There has, however, been no systematic analysis of these patterns. This study uses data from a newly-collected, comprehensive database of transgender homicides occurring between 2010 and 2021 to conduct logistic regression analyses predicting the likelihood of clearance by arrest, accounting for the presence of deadnaming and various victim sociodemographic characteristics. Taken together, our research identifies two clear findings regarding the clearance of transgender homicide. First, we observe clear differences in the frequency of deadnaming by the police according to victim characteristics, such that incidents involving Black victims and victims with a history of involvement in sex work are more likely to involve deadnaming. Second, we find that homicide incidents in which transgender victims are deadnamed by the police are significantly and substantially less likely to be cleared by arrest, relative to transgender homicides. These findings suggest the critical importance of eliminating instances of deadnaming among police investigations of transgender homicides, not only for moral reasons, but also as a clear barrier to police efficacy in solving murder cases.
Rates of youth firearm exposure and carriage are well-established, but less work has examined how exposure to police violence and firearm violence, as victim or witness, may be associated with beliefs in gun ownership for society or access to guns. This study used survey data from a multiracial sample of 276 youth living in New Orleans, Louisiana ( M age = 17.76) to examine these associations. Results from binary logistic regressions confirmed a significant association between higher belief in gun ownership for safety and all violence exposures, directly and indirectly. We did not find support for an association between gun access and any violence exposures. The findings shed light on pathways to firearm violence risk and provide critical information on youth firearm attitudes.
Anti-police sentiment has emerged as a growing phenomenon in recent years, characterised by intense negative attitudes towards police. Despite increasing scholarly interest, the lack of a clear definition of anti-police sentiment hinders conceptualisation, measurement, and comparison of findings across jurisdictions. This study aims to provide conceptual clarity by employing sentiment analysis to systematically and objectively explore the emotions underlying anti-police sentiment. Analysis of the negative discourse across 1140 comments on Reddit about police, found that anti-police sentiment is associated with the emotions anger, fear, and frozenness, and potentially may trigger fight, flight, freeze responses in citizens encountering the police. Further, analysis of frequent terms highlights key social issues driving anti-police sentiment, such as police responses to domestic violence and police misconduct. The study contributes to the understanding of anti-police sentiment by identifying the underlying emotions and their potential behavioural outcomes, providing a foundation for future research and policy interventions.
This study explores the impact of police use of force on civilian interactions with the police, focussing on neighbourhoods with different ethnic compositions across London. Analysing the effects of three notable police-induced civilian fatalities as well as monthly fluctuations in the Metropolitan Police Service’s use of force, I find a decrease in reported crime and the proportion of crime without a suspect in Black neighbourhoods. These patterns suggest avoidance of police engagement, especially for crimes less likely to be solved. Individual survey data suggests no changes in victimization probabilities for any ethnic group, suggesting that estimates are due to reporting behaviour.
A growing body of literature has explored the ‘life course’ of crime guns, with particular focus on the time between initial point of sale of firearms and their eventual recovery by police following a crime. We contend that this examination is incomplete, with limited consideration given to the period between a firearm’s first known use in a criminal offense and its recovery by police—which we refer to as time in crime. Increased understanding of this time frame is important given that crime guns are frequently recirculated among criminally involved groups and the recent finding that time in circulation following first known use in a crime is a significant predictor of multiple uses of crime guns. We add to the literature through application of negative binomial regression to a sample of 310 crime guns used in offenses in a city in the Southeastern United States to examine how neighborhood context and initial incident characteristics influence the number of days that firearms remain in circulation after their first known use in a crime. We find that increased levels of concentrated disadvantage and gang involvement during the original incident correspond with significant increases in time in crime, while increased levels of residential stability and the ability of police to identify suspects are linked with more rapid recovery of crime guns. Notably, these findings hold even after inclusion of popular time to crime covariates, including firearm quality, caliber, and status as a stolen gun.
Research Summary
We conducted a group randomized‐controlled trial of an internal dashboard system deployed by the Michigan State Police to determine its effectiveness in reducing traffic stop racial disparities. Informed by a difference‐in‐differences design, analyses of traffic stop data from 2019–2022 indicated that the dashboard had no impact on traffic stop racial disparities. Additional analyses of traffic stops, crashes, and crime revealed that the dashboard had no “de‐policing” effect on traffic patrols, nor were there any significant changes in traffic safety or crime in treatment patrol areas relative to control patrol areas. Qualitative analyses of interview data from more than 40 troopers in the agency revealed unique barriers to program implementation and opportunities for future improvement.
Policy Implications
In an era of policing where the capacity and demand for data‐driven decision‐making is on the rise, evidence‐based policy and practice can provide police agencies with informed solutions for addressing traffic stop racial disparities. Yet, the increased demand for evidence‐based reform is fueled by a relatively low supply of evidence‐based research. This study adds to this evidence base by providing unique insights into the effectiveness of a program built specifically to reduce racial disparities in traffic stops, while also highlighting implementation challenges.
Reporting—often by ordinary individuals—is the most common means by which authorities become aware of crimes, misconduct, and other types of deviant behavior. In this article, I integrate research across a variety of disciplines and domains to review the role of social influence in the decision to report. Such influences operate at the individual, group, and societal levels to shape reporting behavior, as potential reporters respond to both direct and indirect pressures, along with considering the anticipated reactions of others were a report to be made. Together, these influences can either suppress or promote reporting, which shapes who is identified, investigated, and ultimately punished for deviant behavior within organizations, communities, and states.
In the United States, low-income Black men endure substantial stressors shaped by their social ecology (e.g., impoverished neighborhoods) and societal systems (e.g., criminal legal system) that produce racialized harm over the course of their lives. Although the stress literature has demonstrated a strong relationship between stressors and adverse health consequences, much remains unknown as to how low-income Black men experience trauma and adversity. This study draws on semistructured interviews with 20 men to understand how they experience and cope with trauma. Findings reveal that Black men experience multiple and enduring stressors—childhood trauma, interpersonal violence, loss of loved ones to violence, and police violence, throughout their lives. Participants’ chronic exposure to trauma resulted in adverse psychological outcomes including desensitization, hypervigilance, and fatalism. Finally, how low-income Black men responded to trauma, sometimes resulted in additional adversity and further involvement in the criminal legal system.
This review, published on the twenty-fifth anniversary of the publication of Code of the Street (1999), considers the legacies of Elijah Anderson's groundbreaking analysis of the interactional rules for negotiating street violence within the context of racism and structural disadvantage in Philadelphia. Empirical testing has yielded substantial support for Code of the Street’s key arguments. In the process of assessing its generalizability, such scholarship has inadvertently flattened and decontextualized the theory by, for example, reducing it to attitudinal scales. We identify a more politically conscious analysis in the original text than it is generally credited with, which we use to argue that “code of the street” has outgrown its reductive categorization as a subcultural theory. We conclude that the pressing issue of urban gun violence makes now an ideal time to refresh the theory by resituating it within the contemporary structural and cultural landscape of urban violence, analyze the social-ecological features that shape the normative regulation of violence, and study the prosocial and adaptive features of the code.
Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Criminology, Volume 7 is January 2024. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
Background
Urban racial arrest disparities are well known. Emerging evidence suggests that rural policing shares similar patterns as urban policing in the USA, but without receiving the same public scrutiny, raising the risk of biased rural policing going unnoticed.Methods
We estimated adult and adolescent arrest rates and rate ratios (RR) by race, rural-urban status, and US region based on 2016 Uniform Crime Reporting Program arrest and US Census population counts using general estimating equation Poisson regression models with a 4-way interaction between race, region, age group, and urbanicity.ResultsWith few exceptions, arrest rates were highest in small towns and rural areas, especially among Black and American Indian populations. Arrest rates differed between US regions with highest rates and racial disparities in the Midwest. For example, arrest rates among Black adults in the rural Midwest were 148.6 arrests [per 1000 population], 95% CI 131.4–168.0, versus 94.4 arrests, 95% CI 77.2–115.4 in the urban Midwest; and versus corresponding rural Midwest arrests among white adults, 32.7 arrests, 95% CI 30.8–34.8, Black versus white rural RR 4.54, 95% CI 4.09–5.04. Racial arrest disparities in the South were lower but still high, e.g., rural South, Black versus White adults, RR 1.86, 95% CI 1.71–2.03.Conclusions
Rural areas and small towns are potential hotspots of racial arrest disparities across the USA, especially in the Midwest. Approaches to overcoming structural racism in policing must include strategies targeted at rural/small town communities. Our findings underscore the importance of dismantling racist policing in all US communities.
In 1962, the FBI reported a national homicide clearance rate of 93%. That rate dropped 29 points by 1994. This Great Decline has been studied and accepted as a real phenomenon but remains mysterious, as does the period of relative stability that followed. The decline was shared across regions and all city sizes but differed greatly among categories defined by victim race and weapon type. Gun homicides with Black victims accounted for most of the decline. We review the evidence on several possible explanations for the national decline, including those pertaining to case mix, investigation resources, and citizen cooperation. Our preferred explanation includes an upward trend in the standard for arrest, with strong evidence that although clearance-by-arrest rates declined, the likelihood of conviction and prison sentence actually increased. That result has obvious implications for the history of policing practice and for the validity of the usual clearance rate as a police performance measure.
Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Criminology, Volume 7 is January 2024. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
Legal socialization is the process by which individuals develop values, attitudes, and behaviors related to the law and legal authorities. Legal socialization also includes beliefs about procedural justice, police legitimacy, and legal cynicism. To date, few studies have examined the legal socialization processes of transgender women, a worrisome omission given high rates of police contact, arrest, harassment, and violence among transgender women, particularly transgender women of color. This study examines transgender women's experiences with and perceptions about the police, including experiences of procedural injustice and how they impact police legitimacy and cynicism, among a racially diverse sample of transgender women living in Chicago. Participants described undergoing a secondary legal socialization process after beginning to transition. The study also documented strategies transgender women use to prevent police contact and arrest.
The police have the unique capacity to preempt and deter violence and to reduce the use of firearms in violent encounters. But overly aggressive policing tactics have contributed to a fraught relationship with low-income minority communities in which gun violence is heavily concentrated. Increased resources should be devoted to policing gun violence, but efforts of this sort must be targeted and disciplined. Effective policing requires a focus on the places and people that are at greatest risk; and there is a strong case for police agencies to increase the resources devoted to investigations of all criminal shootings, not just homicides. Successful policing of gun violence requires a productive working relationship with victims and their neighbors, which can be facilitated through observing community policing principles and respect for residents’ interests.
Objectives: This study examined the effects of crime severity and relational distance on bystanders’ willingness to report crime and provide a statement to police.
Methods: A sample of 1,438 adults in the U.S. completed a factorial vignette survey. Participants read three crime scenarios and indicated their willingness to report and provide a statement to police. Crime severity (major harm or minor harm), bystander relationship to the perpetrator (family member, friend, or stranger), and bystander relationship to the victim (family member, friend, or stranger) were manipulated across scenarios. Multilevel models were estimated.
Results: Crime severity increased the willingness to report, whereas a close relationship with the perpetrator decreased it. However, a close relationship with the victim attenuated the effect of relational distance to the perpetrator on the willingness to report. Crime severity and relational distance did not influence the willingness to provide a statement, with one exception.
Conclusions: Crime severity and relational distance influence bystanders’ willingness to report, but do not appear to influence the willingness to provide a statement. The willingness to report and provide a statement are related, but may be distinct dimensions of the willingness to cooperate.
Importance
A foundational issue in firearms policy has been whether the type of weapon used in an assault affects the likelihood of death.
Objective
To determine whether the likelihood of death from gunshot wounds inflicted in criminal assaults is associated with the power of the assailant’s firearm as indicated by its caliber.
Design, Setting, and Participants
Cross-sectional study with multivariate analysis of data on shooting cases extracted by the authors from police investigation files for assaults that took place in Boston, Massachusetts, between January 1, 2010, and December 31, 2014. These data were analyzed between October 1, 2017, and February 18, 2018. In all cases the victim sustained 1 or more gunshot wounds in circumstances that the Boston Police Department deemed criminal. The working sample included all 221 gun homicides and a stratified random sample of 300 nonfatal cases drawn from the 1012 that occurred during the 5-year period. Seven nonfatal cases were omitted because they had been misclassified.
Exposures
The primary source of variation was the caliber of the firearm used to shoot the victim.
Main Outcomes and Measures
Whether the victim died from the gunshot wound(s).
Results
The final sample of 511 gunshot victims and survivors (n = 220 fatal; n = 291 nonfatal) was predominantly male (n = 470 [92.2%]), black (n = 413 [80.8%]) or Hispanic (n = 69 [13.5%]), and young (mean [SD] age, 26.8 [9.4] years). Police investigations determined firearm caliber in 184 nonfatal cases (63.2%) and 183 fatal cases (83.2%). These 367 cases were divided into 3 groups by caliber: small (.22, .25, and .32), medium (.38, .380, and 9 mm), or large (.357 magnum, .40, .44 magnum, .45, 10 mm, and 7.62 × 39 mm). Firearm caliber had no systematic association with the number of wounds, the location of wounds, circumstances of the assault, or victim characteristics, as demonstrated by χ² tests of each cluster of variables and by a comprehensive multinomial logit analysis. A logit analysis of the likelihood of death found that compared with small-caliber cases, medium caliber had an odds ratio of 2.25 (95% CI, 1.37-3.70; P = .001) and large caliber had an odds ratio of 4.54 (95% CI, 2.37-8.70; P < .001). Based on a simulation using the logit equation, replacing the medium- and large-caliber guns with small-caliber guns would have reduced gun homicides by 39.5%.
Conclusions and Relevance
Firearms caliber was associated with the likelihood of death from gunshot wounds in criminal assault. Shootings with larger-caliber handguns were more deadly but no more sustained or accurate than shootings with smaller-caliber handguns. This conclusion is of direct relevance to the design of gun policy.
Objectives
This paper investigates the influence of case characteristics and investigative resources on homicide clearance rates.
Methods
We extend a previous evaluation of a problem-oriented policing project intended to improve homicide clearance rates in Boston. Data were collected on N = 465 homicide incidents that occurred between January 1, 2007 and December 31, 2014. Confirmatory factor analyses are used to identify latent variables representing investigative resources, initial crime scene results, and subsequent investigative actions and forensic testing. The effects of these investigative factors on homicide clearances net other covariates were estimated using mixed effects logistic regression models. Mediation analysis was then used to decompose the total, direct, and indirect effect of investigative resources on homicide clearances. Exploratory group comparisons were examined to distinguish investigative differences in gang and drug homicides relative to non-gang and non-drug homicides.
Results
Investigative resources, crime scene results, and subsequent investigative actions and forensic testing were found to increase the likelihood of homicide case clearance controlling for other covariates. Investigative resources were found to produce both direct and indirect impacts on homicide clearances mediated through its positive influence on initial crime scene results and subsequent investigative actions and forensic testing. Clearance through follow-up investigation was more difficult for gang and drug homicide cases when compared to other homicide cases.
Conclusion
While inherited case characteristics matter, enhanced investigative resources and improved practices increase homicide clearances. Beyond investments to improve investigations, gang and drug homicides remain particularly difficult to clear due to a lack of physical evidence and witness cooperation.
Legal authorities and the public live in two separate worlds. One world is suffused with law, and the other world is suffused with people’s lived experiences that support their evaluations of fairness. When legal authorities consider whether police policies and practices are desirable, a framework regarding the lawfulness of the relevant policies and practices dominates the conversation. Police departments, their policies, and police officers’ actions are viewed as right or wrong with reference to constitutional standards, as interpreted by prosecutors, judges, and other legal actors. In contrast, we argue that the public is generally insensitive to the question of whether police officers act consistently with constitutional standards. Instead, the public evaluates the propriety of police actions primarily by assessing whether police officers exercise their authority with “procedural fairness.” We rely on the results of an innovative nationwide experimental survey involving respondents from representative American cities. Each survey respondent completed a questionnaire and then watched and reacted to three videos of police-citizen interactions. We argue that the actual lawfulness of police action has at best a minor influence on public evaluations of appropriate police behavior. Public judgments about whether police officers should be disciplined for misconduct are largely shaped by people’s procedural justice evaluations. We believe that these findings strongly support the need for police to broaden the framework within which they evaluate a variety of types of policing policy-racial profiling, zero tolerance policing, street stops, mosque surveillance, etc.-to include an understanding of how these policies and practices impact public views about the appropriateness of police conduct. Whether policies comport with constitutional standards alone is an impoverished way to judge the rightfulness of police action. Further, our findings point the way toward creating relationships between the police and the public that both enhance cooperative efforts to maintain social order and build people’s identification with and commitment to both the communities in which they live and to law and government. That broader framework requires evaluating police policies and practices with reference to public conceptions of procedural justice.
Even though forensic evidence is collected at virtually every homicide scene, only a few studies have examined its role in investigation and prosecution. This article adds to the literature by providing the results of a study of 294 homicide cases (315 victims) occurring in Cleveland, Ohio, between 2008 and 2011. Through a logistic regression on open versus closed cases, the collection of knives, administration of gunshot residue (GSR) kits, and clothing at the scene were positively and significantly related to case closures, while collection of ballistics evidence and DNA evidence were statistically significant in the opposite direction. With regard to analysis, the clearance rate for cases with probative results (i.e., matches or exclusions) was 63.1% compared to a closure rate of 56.3% for cases without probative results. However, only 23 cases had probative results prior to arrest compared to 128 cases with probative results after arrest.
© 2015 American Academy of Forensic Sciences.
Legitimacy acts as the dividing line between a police force that merely possesses legal authority to enforce the law and one that enjoys both legal and moral authority. Research has shown that people who see the police as procedurally just are more likely to also view them as legitimate. Most of this research has been quantitative and has focused on the statistical link between procedural justice and police legitimacy. The present study offers a qualitative examination of in-depth interviews with young men residing in disadvantaged, urban neighborhoods to uncover the specific actions that police take that are seen as unjust and that erode legitimacy. In addition, evidence is revealed that compromised legitimacy can encourage young males to engage in certain self-protective behaviors that can, in turn, increase their risk of becoming the targets of police scrutiny. Implications of this finding for research and police policy are made.
At present, the average homicide clearance rate in the United States is approximately 65%, down roughly 15% from the mid-1970s. This research seeks to inform how police can best improve homicide clearance rates by identifying best practices in homicide investigations. To accomplish this goal, as part of a federally funded project, seven geographically representative law enforcement agencies were identified that had at least 24 homicides in 2011 and had a clearance rate of 80% or higher from which effective investigative practices could be gleaned. Qualitative findings indicate that a strong community policing presence, collaboration with external agencies, and an innovative culture facilitate high rates of homicide clearance. Implications for policy and future research are discussed.
The current controversy surrounding racial profi ling in America has focused renewed attention on the larger issue of racial bias by the police. Yet little is known about the extent of police racial bias and even less about public perceptions of the problem. This article analyzes recent national survey data on citizens' views of, and reported personal experiences with, several forms of police bias—including differential treatment of individuals and neighborhoods, police prejudice, and racial profi ling. We fi nd that attitudes toward the prevalence and acceptability of these practices are largely shaped by citizens' race, personal experiences with police discrimination, and exposure to news media reporting on incidents of police misconduct. The fi ndings lend support to the group-position theory of race relations. Racial bias by the police includes such things as racial profi ling of motorists, racial prejudice among police offi cers, and discriminatory treatment of minority individuals and minority neighborhoods. Little research exists on public perceptions of racially biased policing, though such perceptions may have important consequences. The perception of police practices as unfair or as racially motivated may lead to more frequent and severe confrontations between police and citizens and to greater distrust of the police. This article examines citizens' views of and reported experiences with police bias and the major determinants of citizens' perceptions.
The blue wall of silence - the rule that police officers will not testify against each other- has Its roots in an important asso-ciational virtue, loyalty, which, in the context of friendship and familial relations, is of central importance. This article seeks to distinguish the worthy roots of the blue wall from its frequent corruption in the covering up of serious criminality, and attempts to offer criteria for determining when to testify and when to respond in other ways to the flaws of fellow officers.
Objectives:
We surveyed young men on their experiences of police encounters and subsequent mental health.
Methods:
Between September 2012 and March 2013, we conducted a population-based telephone survey of 1261 young men aged 18 to 26 years in New York City. Respondents reported how many times they were approached by New York Police Department officers, what these encounters entailed, any trauma they attributed to the stops, and their overall anxiety. We analyzed data using cross-sectional regressions.
Results:
Participants who reported more police contact also reported more trauma and anxiety symptoms, associations tied to how many stops they reported, the intrusiveness of the encounters, and their perceptions of police fairness.
Conclusions:
The intensity of respondent experiences and their associated health risks raise serious concerns, suggesting a need to reevaluate officer interactions with the public. Less invasive tactics are needed for suspects who may display mental health symptoms and to reduce any psychological harms to individuals stopped.
Gang members have been found to engage in more delinquent behaviors than comparable nongang youth. Few empirical attempts have been made to identify the group processes associated with the gang experience that lead to such noteworthy behavioral outcomes. While not developed to explain gang behavior, Elijah Anderson's “code of the street” framework may prove insightful. Utilizing data from a diverse school-based sample of 2,216 youth, we examine the efficacy of street code-related variables to explain gang members’ heightened involvement in violent offending. Utilizing methods based on a potential outcomes framework, results suggest that joining a gang facilitates greater ascription to street code-related attitudes and emotions, and these constructs partially mediate the relationship between gang joining and the increased frequency of violent offending.
Ethnographic evidence reveals that many crimes in poor minority neighborhoods evade criminal justice sanctioning, thus leading to a negative association between the proportion of minority residents in a neighborhood and the arrest rate. To explain this finding, we extend recent theoretical explications of the concept of legal cynicism. Legal cynicism refers to a cultural orientation in which the law and the agents of its enforcement are viewed as illegitimate, unresponsive, and ill equipped to ensure public safety. Crime might flourish in neighborhoods characterized by legal cynicism because individuals who view the law as illegitimate are less likely to comply with it; yet because of legal cynicism, these crimes might go unreported and therefore unsanctioned. This study draws on data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods to test the importance of legal cynicism for understanding geographic variation in the probability of arrest. We find that, in neighborhoods characterized by high levels of legal cynicism, crimes are much less likely to lead to an arrest than in neighborhoods where citizens view the police more favorably. Findings also reveal that residents of highly cynical neighborhoods are less likely to engage in collective efficacy and that collective efficacy mediates the association between legal cynicism and the probability of arrest.
Objectives: The objective of this study is to advance knowledge on racial/ethnic disparities in violence and the structural sources of those disparities. We do so by extending scarce and limited research exploring the relationship between race/ethnic gaps in disadvantage and differences in violent crime across groups.
Methods: Using census place-level data from California and New York, we construct white, black, and Hispanic “gap” measures that take as a given the existence of disparities across race/ethnic groups in structural disadvantage and crime and subsequently utilize seemingly unrelated regression models to assess the extent to which gaps in disadvantage are predictive of gaps in homicide and index violence.
Results: Our results suggest that (1) there is considerable heterogeneity in the size of white–black, white–Hispanic, and black–Hispanic gaps in structural disadvantage and crime and (2) that race/ethnic disparities in structural disadvantage, particularly poverty and female headship, are positively associated with race/ethnic gaps in homicide and index violence.
Conclusion: In light of recent scholarship on the racial invariance hypothesis and on the relationship between structural inequality and crime, the current study demonstrates that disparities in disadvantage, particularly family structure and poverty, are important in driving racial and ethnic disparities in crime.
Objectives:
We estimated the association of an individual's exposure to homicide in a social network and the risk of individual homicide victimization across a high-crime African American community.
Methods:
Combining 5 years of homicide and police records, we analyzed a network of 3718 high-risk individuals that was created by instances of co-offending. We used logistic regression to model the odds of being a gunshot homicide victim by individual characteristics, network position, and indirect exposure to homicide.
Results:
Forty-one percent of all gun homicides occurred within a network component containing less than 4% of the neighborhood's population. Network-level indicators reduced the association between individual risk factors and homicide victimization and improved the overall prediction of individual victimization. Network exposure to homicide was strongly associated with victimization: the closer one is to a homicide victim, the greater the risk of victimization. Regression models show that exposure diminished with social distance: each social tie removed from a homicide victim decreased one's odds of being a homicide victim by 57%.
Conclusions:
Risk of homicide in urban areas is even more highly concentrated than previously thought. We found that most of the risk of gun violence was concentrated in networks of identifiable individuals. Understanding these networks may improve prediction of individual homicide victimization within disadvantaged communities.
Illicit drug traders are more likely to be victimized because they cannot report crimes committed against them to the police. Their inability to access law is seen as a major precipitating factor in retaliatory violence. But, as we demonstrate, sometimes victimized drug traders do ask for formal mediation. Based on evidence from prior research combined with experiences recounted to us in the course of interviewing twenty-five unincarcerated drug dealers, we propose a typology of how this happens. We suggest that victimized drug traders mobilize the police in four conceptually distinct ways: “BSing”; getting over; criminal concealment; and criminal disclosure. Our typology provides the empirical grounding for future work aimed at theorizing this behavior and for reducing retaliatory violence by enhancing victimized criminals’ access to law. We conclude by discussing the relevance of our “inconvenient” results for the broader ethnographic audience.
Gang members engage in a considerable amount of violence. Based on a three-year field study of active gang members in St. Louis, this paper examines five activities in which gang members use violence. Retaliatory gang violence is highlighted for its role in generating additional violence and contributing to the growth of gangs. We pay particular attention to the normative aspects of gang violence. In addition, gang violence is interpreted from the perspective of collective behavior.
This handbook shows how local police organizations in the United States have been the focus of reform efforts, especially due to a new crisis in the policing environment—terrorism. The problem of terrorism has raised a host of questions about how police should respond to this new threat, and this handbook aims to address these questions. It also discusses the social ill that is the drug market, which is often associated with violence and often occurs in disadvantaged urban communities. Alternative approaches are presented that can be used to address drug crime in these areas, such as problem-oriented policing, which calls for the identification of recurring crime problems; order maintenance policing, which defines and regulates the fair use of public spaces; and community policing, which is considered “a philosophy, not a program.” The rise of zero-tolerance policies in policing has shifted the focus from the problem-solving model to aggressive order-maintenance enforcement. This has led to a call for anti-authoritarian policing; police are urged to use discretion to support their own longstanding institutional interest in plural governance.
Neighborhood violence is a persistent source of danger, stress, and other adverse outcomes for urban youth. We examined how 140 African American and Latino adolescents coped with neighborhood danger in low, medium, and high crime neighborhoods throughout Chicago. Participants reported using a range of coping strategies (measured via a modified version of the Ways of Coping Scale; R. S. Lazarus & S. Folkman, 1984). In low and medium crime rate areas, using confrontive strategies was significantly correlated with increased exposure to violence, and no strategies were associated with perceptions of safety. Coping strategies were associated with perceived safety to a substantial degree only in high crime neighborhoods, and none were associated with exposure to violence. A k means cluster analysis identified groups that differed in coping profiles and varied in rates of exposure to violence. Moderating effects of gender, ethnicity, and neighborhood were found for both person level and variable level analyses.
High-profile cases of police violence—disproportionately experienced by black men—may present a serious threat to public safety if they lower citizen crime reporting. Using an interrupted time series design, this study analyzes how one of Milwaukee’s most publicized cases of police violence against an unarmed black man, the beating of Frank Jude, affected police-related 911 calls. Controlling for crime, prior call patterns, and several neighborhood characteristics, we find that residents of Milwaukee’s neighborhoods, especially residents of black neighborhoods, were far less likely to report crime after Jude’s beating was broadcast. The effect lasted for over a year and resulted in a total net loss of approximately 22,200 calls for service. Other local and national cases of police violence against unarmed black men also had a significant impact on citizen crime reporting in Milwaukee. Police misconduct can powerfully suppress one of the most basic forms of civic engagement: calling 911 for matters of personal and public safety.
Research Summary
The prevailing view is that follow‐up investigations are of limited value as crimes are primarily cleared by patrol officers making on‐scene arrests and through the presence of eyewitnesses and forensic evidence at the initial crime scene. We use a quasi‐experimental design to compare investigative resources invested in clearing gun homicide cases relative to nonfatal gun assaults in Boston. We find the large gap in clearances (43% for gun murders vs. 19% for nonfatal gun assaults) is primarily a result of sustained investigative effort in homicide cases made after the first 2 days.
Policy Implications
Police departments should invest additional resources in the investigation of nonfatal gun assaults. When additional investigative effort is expended, law enforcement improves its success in gaining the cooperation of key witnesses and increases the amount of forensic evidence collected and analyzed. In turn, the capacity of the police to hold violent gun offenders accountable, deliver justice to victims, and prevent future gun attacks is enhanced.
A number of studies have examined the relationship between the ‘code of the street’ and the concept of snitching (that is, informing the police). With some notable exceptions, these studies have generally focused on the pervasiveness of a ‘stop-snitching code’ or ‘code of silence’ among street offenders. In this study we seek to broaden understanding of the stop-snitching code by exploring perceptions of active, former, and non-offenders living in areas considered by residents to embody the street code. We find that informal cultural norms do in fact dissuade both offender and non-offenders from cooperating with police, but also that personal experience with police, proximity to offences and offenders, and types of crimes in question play major roles in the contextual framing of whether or not people choose to cooperate with the police.
Illegal guns circulating among high‐risk networks represent a threat to the security and well‐being of urban neighborhoods. Research findings reveal that illegal firearms are usually acquired through a variety of means, including theft and diversions from legitimate firearms commerce. Little is known, however, about the underground gun markets supplying the gang and drug networks responsible for a large share of gun violence in U.S. cities. In this article, we take a mixed‐methods approach, combining trace analyses of recovered handguns with ethnographic interviews of high‐risk gun users to develop new insights on the entry of guns into three criminal networks in Boston. We find that guns possessed by Boston gang members are of a different character compared with other crime guns; these guns are more likely to be older firearms originating from New Hampshire, Maine, and I‐95 southern states. The results of our qualitative research reveal that gang members and drug dealers pay inflated prices for handguns diverted by traffickers exploiting unregulated secondary market transactions, with significant premiums paid for high‐caliber semiautomatic pistols. Taken together, these findings provide an analytic portrait of the market for illicit guns among those most proximate to violence, yielding novel empirical, theoretical, and practical insights into the problem of criminal gun access.
Research Summary
Focused deterrence strategies are increasingly being applied to prevent and control gang and group‐involved violence, overt drug markets, and individual repeat offenders. Our updated examination of the effects of focused deterrence strategies on crime followed the systematic review protocols and conventions of the Campbell Collaboration. Twenty‐four quasi‐experimental evaluations were identified in this systematic review. The results of our meta‐analysis demonstrate that focused deterrence strategies are associated with an overall statistically significant, moderate crime reduction effect. Nevertheless, program effect sizes varied by program type and were smaller for evaluations with more rigorous research designs.
Policy Implications
The available empirical evidence suggests these strategies generate noteworthy crime reduction impacts and should be part of a broader portfolio of crime reduction strategies available to policy makers and practitioners. Investments still need to be made, however, to strengthen the overall rigor of program evaluations and improve our understanding of key program activities associated with observed crime reduction impacts.
Objectives:
To investigate the validity of the apparent downward trend in the national case-fatality rate for gunshot wounds from assault.
Methods:
We reanalyzed the estimated annual number of nonfatal firearm injuries the National Electronic Injury Surveillance System reported from 2003 to 2012. We adjusted the estimates for discontinuities created by the substitution of 1 hospital for another in the sample and for a downward trend in the percentage of gunshot injuries classified as "unknown circumstance." Firearm homicide data are from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System.
Results:
The unadjusted National Electronic Injury Surveillance System estimate increased by 49%, yielding a decline in the case-fatality rate from 25% to 18%. Our adjustments eliminated these trends; the case-fatality rate was 22% in both 2003 and 2012.
Conclusions:
With reasonable adjustments, the trend in nonfatal injuries from interpersonal firearms assault tracks the flat trend in firearms homicides, suggesting that there was no increase in firearms violence during this period. The case-fatality rate did not change, and trauma care improvements did not influence the firearms homicide trend. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print June 22, 2017: e1-e5. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2017.303837).
The available scientific evidence on the value of detectives in clearing crimes generally suggests that most crimes are solved through the random circumstances of crime scenes rather than special follow-up investigation. Other research, however, suggests that the work of criminal investigators can increase the likelihood that crimes might be cleared through arrest. After years of homicide clearance rates that were lower than the national average, the Boston Police Department engaged a problem-oriented policing approach to improve their post-homicide criminal investigation processes and practices. Our quasi-experimental statistical analyses suggest that the intervention significantly increased key investigative activities and improved Boston homicide clearance rates relative to existing homicide clearance trends in other Massachusetts and U.S. jurisdictions.
High-profile cases of police violence—disproportionately experienced by black men—may present a serious threat to public safety if they lower citizen crime reporting. Using an interrupted time series design, this study analyzes how one of Milwaukee’s most publicized cases of police violence against an unarmed black man, the beating of Frank Jude, affected police-related 911 calls. Controlling for crime, prior call patterns, and several neighborhood characteristics, we find that residents of Milwaukee’s neighborhoods, especially residents of black neighborhoods, were far less likely to report crime after Jude’s beating was broadcast. The effect lasted for over a year and resulted in a total net loss of approximately 22,200 calls for service. Other local and national cases of police violence against unarmed black men also had a significant impact on citizen crime reporting in Milwaukee. Police misconduct can powerfully suppress one of the most basic forms of civic engagement: calling 911 for matters of personal and public safety.
The major lesson from the 1990s is that relatively superficial changes in the character of urban life can be associated with up to 75% drops in the crime rate. Crime can drop even if there is no major change in the population, the economy or the schools. Offering the most reliable data available, this book documents the decline in the 1990s in American crime as the longest and largest since World War II. It ranges across both violent and non-violent offenses, all regions, and every demographic. All Americans, whether they live in cities or suburbs, whether rich or poor, are safer today. Casting a critical and unerring eye on current explanations, the book demonstrates that both long-standing theories of crime prevention and recently generated theories fall far short of explaining the drop in the 1990s. A careful study of Canadian crime trends reveals that imprisonment and economic factors may not have played the role in the U.S. crime drop that many have suggested. A combination of factors rather than a single cause produced the decline. It is clear that declines in the crime rate do not require fundamental social or structural change, but that smaller shifts in policy can make large differences. The significant reductions in crime rates, especially in New York, where crime dropped twice the national average, suggests that there is room for other cities to repeat this astounding success.
This is a book about policing styles in the broadest sense, looking at zero tolerance policing at one extreme and 'softer' approaches to policing at the other. It is particularly concerned to explore the dilemmas and moral ambiguities inherent in the tensions between different policing approaches. Rather than seeking to juxtapose 'hard' and 'soft' policing styles the guiding thread of the book is the notion that policing is both pervasive and insidious. Different policing styles, whether conducted by the public police service, private security or social work agencies, are all part of a multi-agency corporate crime control industry which provides the essential context for an understanding of these different approaches.
More than half a century after the first Jim Crow laws were dismantled, the majority of urban neighborhoods in the United States remain segregated by race. The degree of social and economic advantage or disadvantage that each community experiences-particularly its crime rate-is most often a reflection of which group is in the majority. As Ruth Peterson and Lauren Krivo note in Divergent Social Worlds, "Race, place, and crime are still inextricably linked in the minds of the public." This book broadens the scope of single-city, black/white studies by using national data to compare local crime patterns in five racially distinct types of neighborhoods. Peterson and Krivo meticulously demonstrate how residential segregation creates and maintains inequality in neighborhood crime rates. Based on the authors' groundbreaking National Neighborhood Crime Study (NNCS), Divergent Social Worlds provides a more complete picture of the social conditions underlying neighborhood crime patterns than has ever before been drawn. The study includes economic, social, and local investment data for nearly nine thousand neighborhoods in eighty-seven cities, and the findings reveal a pattern across neighborhoods of racialized separation among unequal groups. Residential segregation reproduces existing privilege or disadvantage in neighborhoods-such as adequate or inadequate schools, political representation, and local business-increasing the potential for crime and instability in impoverished non-white areas yet providing few opportunities for residents to improve conditions or leave. And the numbers bear this out. Among urban residents, more than two-thirds of all whites, half of all African Americans, and one-third of Latinos live in segregated local neighborhoods. More than 90 percent of white neighborhoods have low poverty, but this is only true for one quarter of black, Latino, and minority areas. Of the five types of neighborhoods studied, African American communities experience violent crime on average at a rate five times that of their white counterparts, with violence rates for Latino, minority, and integrated neighborhoods falling between the two extremes. Divergent Social Worlds lays to rest the popular misconception that persistently high crime rates in impoverished, non-white neighborhoods are merely the result of individual pathologies or, worse, inherent group criminality. Yet Peterson and Krivo also show that the reality of crime inequality in urban neighborhoods is no less alarming. Separate, the book emphasizes, is inherently unequal. Divergent Social Worlds lays the groundwork for closing the gap-and for next steps among organizers, policymakers, and future researchers. Copyright © 2010 by the American Sociological Association. All rights reserved.
The effects of gang membership on individual social, behavior, cognitive, and health outcomes are well documented. Yet, research consistently has shown that gang membership and the boundaries of gangs are often fluid and amorphous. The current study examines how social proximity to a gang member in one's co-offending network influences the probability of being a gunshot victim. We re-create and analyze the social network of all individuals who were arrested, summonsed for a quality-of-life violation, and subjected to noncustodial police contacts in Newark, New Jersey, during a 1-year time period (N = 10,531). A descriptive network analysis finds an extreme concentration of fatal and nonfatal gunshot injuries within a small social network: Nearly one third of all shootings in Newark occur in a network that contains less than 4 percent of the city's total population. Furthermore, a series of logistic regression models finds that being directly or indirectly linked to a gang member in one's co-offending network has a significant effect on one's probability of being a gunshot victim. Implications of these findings for the study of gangs, gun violence, and a public health approach to violence are discussed.
A cluster of recent police killings of African American men has sparked an unprecedented amount of public debate regarding policing in the United States. Critics and protesters have made sweeping allegations about the police; a presidential commission has been formed to study police misconduct; and reforms are being debated. These events provide a backdrop for this article’s review of recent poll data and discussion of research regarding police relations with African Americans, Latinos, and whites.
We conducted an in-depth interview study with 77 young men in three moderate to high-crime neighborhoods in Philadelphia to hear their stories about community violence and relations with police. In this article, we have analyzed how Latino, African-American, and white young men experience policing and how they discuss the guidelines around cooperation with the police and what they view as snitching. Contrary to popular perception, talking to the police is not always banned in poor or high-crime neighborhoods. Instead, the respondents present a variety of personal rules that they use to assess when cooperation is called for. We argue that the policing they experience within disadvantaged neighborhoods shapes their frame of legal cynicism, which in turn makes decisions not to cooperate with the police more likely.
We advance here a neighborhood-level perspective on racial differences in legal cynicism, dissatisfaction with police, and the tolerance of various forms of deviance. Our basic premise is that structural characteristics of neighbor-hoods explain variations in normative orientations about law, criminal justice, and deviance that are often confounded with the demographic characteristics of individuals. Using a multilevel approach that permits the decomposition of variance within and between neighborhoods, we tested hypotheses on a recently completed study of 8,782 residents of 343 neighborhoods in Chicago. Contrary to received wisdom, we find that African Americans and Latinos are less tolerant of deviance--including violence--than whites. At the same time, neighborhoods of concentrated disadvantage display elevated levels of legal cynicism, dissatisfaction with police, and tolerance of deviance unaccounted for by sociodemographic composition and crime-rate differences. Concentrated disadvantage also helps explain why African Americans are more cynical about law and dissatisfied with the police. Neighborhood context is thus important for resolving the seeming paradox that estrangement from legal norms and agencies of criminal justice, especially by blacks, is compatible with the personal condemnation of deviance.
This paper examines activist black clergy involvement in local youth violence reduction initiatives and efforts to improve police-minority community relations in Boston, Massachusetts. In-depth interviews were conducted with activist black clergy, community organizers, and Boston Police Department (BPD) managers. Study findings highlight how the work of a specific group of black ministers supports that of BPD and vice versa. The research suggests that police-black clergy partnerships can improve police legitimacy in minority communities and enhance informal social control elements of youth violence prevention strategies.
This research explores the utility of Black's theory of law for explaining differences in homicide clearance rates across large cities in the United States. Using insights from the social disorganization literature, we develop and evaluate hypotheses regarding homicide clearance rates and aggregate measures of stratification, morphology, culture, organization, and alternative social control. Our findings support the argument that the rate of clearing homicide cases varies according to the social characteristics of the location where they occur. In particular, clearance rates were highest in cities marked by greater racial disparities in education, income, employment, and residence; greater residential stability; higher levels of educational attainment; higher expenditures for educational programs; and lower rates of homicide. We discuss the implications of our analysis for both the social disorganization literature and Black's theory, and we suggest directions for further inquiry into the relationship between structural conditions in urban areas and homicide clearance rates.
This paper examines the intersection of social disorganization at a community level with responses to crime. In contrast to other works examining the impact of social disorganization on the production of crime rates, we examine the role of social disorganization theory in responses to crime rates (i.e. the arrest and conviction of perpetrators of crime). In an effort to examine these dynamics, we use law enforcement data from Cleveland, Ohio to explore the role of social disorganization in the ability of police and the courts to respond to homicide cases. Such an examination suggests not only how far the law extends in community responses to homicide but also reveals an extension of social disorganization theory beyond its established role in explaining the production of crime rates.
The percent of offenders arrested for murder in the United States has declined in all reporting cities from 92% in 1960 to 66% in 1997. This paper evaluates three sources of evidence that account for the decline in homicide arrests: police-based programs; changes in the character of homicides; and community and social factors. In the final section we suggest a view of homicide as self-help and explore third party behavior in relation to police cooperation, fear of retaliation, and type of homicide.
In recent years a troubling trend has emerged within a number of poor, black communities. Termed “Stop Snitching,” it has manifested itself in the form community members’ refusing to cooperate with police investigations of community crimes. The result of this widespread refusal to cooperate has been a reduced number of crimes solved within these communities; without cooperating witnesses, it has proven exceedingly difficult for police to make criminal cases. Reactions to Stop Snitching have taken two predominant forms, both of which are mistaken. The first, most often attributed to law enforcement officers, is contempt. To them, community members who do not assist in criminal investigations are violating the ethical obligation all citizens have to aid in the arrest and prosecution of criminal actors. The second reaction to Stop Snitching, most often coming from citizens largely isolated from poor, black communities, is confusion. Assuming the police to be allies of the citizenry, they wonder why anyone would even entertain the notion of refusing to help the police solve community crimes. This Article suggests a different understanding of Stop Snitching, arguing that poor, black community members’ refusal to cooperate with police investigations should be viewed as neither ethically condemnable nor inexplicable, but rather as a natural extension of the innate human aspiration to be loyal. It does so by situating Stop Snitching within the existing literature on loyalty and asserting that the refusal to cooperate with police represents a privileging of community loyalty over loyalty to the state. Throughout the various strata of contemporary society, such privileging of the familiar over the remote is common, and Stop Snitching is neither puzzling nor reprehensible when viewed as a manifestation of this manner of prioritization. Once Stop Snitching is understood as a reflection of the weak loyalty bonds that exist between police officers and the poor, black communities they serve, it becomes clear that it can only be curtailed and ultimately eliminated through police efforts aimed at strengthening these bonds. This Article closes with a discussion of the steps police should take in order to succeed in this regard.
Very little attention has been devoted to studying factors associated with how quickly murders are cleared. This dearth of knowledge is mainly due to a lack of available data, especially at the national level. Currently the Uniform Crime Reporting Program is undergoing a large-scale conversion from its traditional summary system form of data collection to the National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS). One benefit of NIBRS is that it enables law enforcement agencies to report incident-level clearance information, including the incident and clearance dates. The present study utilizes NIBRS data to compare characteristics of homicides that are cleared quickly with those cleared over a longer period of time and those that are not cleared. Findings from this exploratory study confirm the conventional belief that murders are cleared quickly if at all, as a large drop in the percentage of cleared cases is observed one week after a murder occurs. The present research also suggests that incident characteristics play a dynamic role in predicting not only whether a murder is cleared, but how quickly. These findings provide new insights for studying clearance and suggest policy implications.