Community policing in racialized communities: A potential role for police social work

ABSTRACT

Despite lack of strong empirical evidence about its effectiveness, community policing remains the approach of choice for police organizations in managing the complexity of crime and neighborhood disorder. It is also the preferred strategy for improving relations between police and racialized communities. Anchored in ongoing public conversations and protests about the tense relationships between police and racialized communities, this article offers a theoretical analysis of community policing. An overview of its objectives, principles, and use in Canada is first provided. Next, a critical reading of community policing is presented, which suggests that its end may be near, given that it has not fulfilled its promise of improved police-minority relations. Finally, the case of Abdirahman Abdi in Ottawa is discussed, to illustrate this failed promise. The author contends that, in the absence of a change model for transformation in police-minority relations, police social workers are an important but overlooked component of community policing. The article concludes with several recommendations, one of which is to employ police social workers in police organizations, since the challenge of community policing requires a multidisciplinary perspective that the police alone cannot provide.     

Reconstructing and re-conceptualising social work in the emerging milieu

Abstract

As we approach the twenty first century, social work as a collective activity is experiencing considerable uncertainty. This paper argues that the strategy embodied in promoting traditional professionalism, while moderately successful in the past, has become increasingly problematic. Similarly, the ongoing utility of current approaches to practice theory as a key part of the professional project is questioned. Identifying key challenges emerging in the environment, the paper suggests that an active debate about both the organisation and conceptualisation of Australian social work is vital for its future.     

Technology supported learning Tensions between innovation,and control and organisational and professional cultures

Abstract

The use of technology to support learning in institutions of Further and Higher Education has become almost ubiquitous. Institutions normally start with strategies aimed at introducing these innovations, but there is much about the organisational and cultural nature of educational institutions that acts as a barrier to innovation. Staffordshire University started this process in 1997, and by 2002 reached a point where innovation had slowed and the embedding of what had been achieved was at best partial. An embedding process based around the review and implementation of policy ensued which, by 2005, had proved highly successful in terms of embedding, but due to cultural and organisational factors, this had been at the expense of sustaining innovation and had created tensions within the organisation. This was compounded by changes in technology and the advent of new web-based services, which stimulated innovative practitioners. New initiatives to address the tensions between the need of the organisation to control its processes and the needs of practitioners to experiment and innovate have begun. These have highlighted the requirement for tools to enable strategy and policy to be considered against the processes making up the learning experience in terms of ownership and control.     

‘At home,he’s a pet,at work he’s a colleague and my right arm’: police dogs and the emerging posthumanist agenda

ABSTRACT

Increased attention is being paid to non-human animals, inspired in part by Human-Animal Studies and theoretical frameworks which reveal the fragility of human/animal dualism. Via the application of posthumanist performativity, we explore the recruitment and careers of police dogs via organisational analysis. It reveals a complex process of a dog becoming a police dog. Police dogs are placed within a speciesist hierarchy where they hold a position of ‘good’ non-human animals, rather than instrumental tools of the organisation. However, this position is tenuous, with dogs’ retirement often resulting in death. The paper concludes by arguing that posthumanist frameworks can be used to decentre the human subject. Contributions of our work include empirical insights on the use of non-human animals in policing coupled with the theoretical application of posthumanism to intersubjectivity in organisations.     

Foster parents exposed to political violence: The role of social support in addressing emotional and functional difficulties

BackgroundBeing a foster parent is stressful. It becomes even more stressful when foster parents face major threats to their own families and to the foster children in their care, such as during war situations. This study focuses on foster parents' reactions to the war with Gaza in southern Israel that took place in 2014. The first goal of this study was to describe posttraumatic symptoms (PTS) and problems in functioning among foster parents following their exposure to the war. The second goal was to identify background and social support predictors of PTS and functioning problems among these parents. The third goal was to examine the role of formal and informal support received by the parents as a moderator of the association between exposure to war events and PTS and problems in functioning.MethodsParticipants were 354 Israeli foster parents who were exposed to the war. Participants completed structured instruments of exposure to war events, PTS, functioning, and social support.ResultsExposure to war events was associated with PTS and related functioning problems. Education and religiosity were correlated with PTS and problems in functioning. Contrary to our hypothesis, more formal social support was associated with more PTS. Social support did not moderate the association between exposure to war events and PTS.DiscussionThe unexpected positive correlation between support and PTS was interpreted as either reflecting the fact that foster care agencies targeted foster parents who were most in need, or as a reflection of the inadequacy of the support they received. The findings indicate that foster parents need support during times of major stressful events such as natural disasters and wars, so that they will be able to help the children in their care. Specialized professional training for foster care workers needs to be implemented. Future longitudinal and mix-methods studies are suggested to help address the limitations of the present study.     

Family Man or Conqueror? - Contested Meanings in an Engineering Company

This paper explores significant symbols within a multi-national company called Engco . First, the metaphor of Engco as a family was prevalent among middle and junior managers. Second, there was a corporate image conveyed by top management through glossy publications, a masculine image of conquering competitors and the physical environment. These contradictory symbols appeared to co-exist at different levels of the organisation. Third, a symbol that appeared common to the entire organisation, although increasingly contested, was that of engineering, an image generally associated with male actors. Fourth, more equivocal, were references to a 'golden age' for the company in the post war period, when manufacturing was in its heyday. The paper discusses how these symbols worked with and against each other. All the symbols were found to differing degrees to shape particular constructions of masculinity and femininity within the organisation, which limited the expression of identity of both men and women. The paper suggests that Engco's organisational culture was in flux, and discusses both the role of management at different levels of the organisation as creators and consumers of image and identity, and the organisational construction of gender. The paper takes a symbolic interpretative approach and discusses both the theoretical background and methodology employed.     

Precinct Domestic Violence Teams: Whose Goals Should Determine Program Activities?

ABSTRACT

This article describes an urban community's attempts to increase domestic violence survivors' participation in the criminal justice system by combining social work advocacy, specialized police officers, and prosecutors into precinct domestic violence teams. An analysis of the outcomes of 1,057 domestic violence reports found that the presence of the teams did not result in increased survivor participation in prosecution. A survey of 265 of the survivors indicated that prosecution was rarely a goal of the survivors, whose participation was needed to meet the goals of the criminal justice system. This study illustrates the importance of learning the views of people that interventions are designed to help.     

Omniscience at the Edge of Chaos: complexity,defences and change in a Children and Families Social Work department

ABSTRACT

This paper will explore a period of organisational change in a Children and Families Social Work team, applying ideas from complexity theory and psychoanalysis to explore the changes that occurred. In doing so it will critique the Newtonian concept of cause-and-effect linear causality, instead positing a nonlinear model of an organisation as a complex adaptive system in flux as it interacts with its environment. The paper will go on to posit that Bion’s psychoanalytic concepts of Omniscience and K Activity are self-organising forces in social care organisations, and when anxiety is not managed effectively, reductionist technical-rationale approaches to Children and Families Social Work dominate practice. It will conclude by outlining how the organisation’s effective management of anxiety through the creation of containment, created a series of organisational changes. These changes better supported the management of the complexity and uncertainty inherent in the social work task, raising possibilities of improvements in social work practice beyond the organisation.     

Applying a US Police Integrity Measurement Tool to the Eritrean Context: Perceptions of Top-Level Eritrean Police Officers Regarding Police Misconduct

Abstract

This article presents an analysis of data from a police integrity measurement survey administered to 107 top-level Eritrean police officers. Respondents were asked for their opinions regarding the seriousness of police misconduct, disciplinary action recommended, and their willingness to report fellow police officers engaged in such misconduct. The surveyed police officers considered some types of misconduct (e.g. off-duty work and accepting gifts) to be significantly less serious than others (e.g. opportunistic thefts from crime scenes and bribery). The findings suggest that the greater the seriousness of the offence, the more likely the officers were to recommend more severe disciplinary action. The survey evidence also indicates that, for six of the ten police misconduct cases, the majority of the respondents revealed they would report the misconduct, which suggests the police code of silence in the context of the Eritrean policing environment is weak.     

The impact of a health education intervention on health behaviors and mental health among Chinese college students

Abstract

Objective: This study aimed to assess the impact of a health education intervention on health behaviors, self-efficacy, and well-being among college students. Participants: Between March and October 2016, a total of 532 undergraduates participated. Methods: A theory-based intervention was conducted at Wuhan University, China. Participants were assigned to a control or intervention group (IG). The IG attended a 7-week health education class on knowledge, attitude, and practice of health behaviors. Results: Participants in the IG, compared with those in the control group (CG), reported significantly increased prevalence of high physical activity and regular breakfast, as well as lower screen time, sugar beverage intake, and Internet addiction tendency. Furthermore, intervention students improved in health behavior scores (p?=?0.040), compared with the CG, while the changes in subjective well-being and self-efficacy remained similar between the two groups. Conclusions: Health education may promote health behaviors among Chinese college students.     

Reducing Firearm-Related Violence on College Campuses—Police Chiefs' Perceptions and Practices

Abstract

Context: Firearms are used in the majority of college aged suicides and homicides. With recent efforts by various gun lobbying groups to have firearms more accessible to college students on campuses, there is the potential for more firearm-related morbidity and mortality. Objective: This study assessed university police chiefs’ perceptions and practices concerning selected issues of firearm violence and its reduction on college campuses. Participants: The Directory of the International Association for College Law Enforcement Administrators was used to identify a national random sample of campus police chiefs (n = 600). The respondents were predominantly males (89%), 40 to 59 years of age (71%), Caucasian (85%), and worked for 21or more years in law enforcement (75%). Methods: In the fall of 2008, a 2-wave mailing procedure was used to ensure an adequate response rate to a valid and reliable questionnaire. Results: A total of 417 (70%) questionnaires were returned. A firearm incident had occurred in the past year on 25% of campuses and on 35% of campuses within the past 5 years. The majority of campuses (57%) had a plan in place for longer than a year to deal with an “active shooter” on campus. Virtually all (97%) of the campuses had a policy in place that prohibited firearms on campus. The primary barrier (46%) to a highly visible campus plan for preventing firearms violence was the perception that firearms violence was not a problem on their campus. Conclusions: A greater awareness of the importance of a highly visible campus firearm policy and its potential for reducing firearm trauma on college campuses is needed.     

Establishing bonds with the future: The inclusion of posterity within social system boundaries

In this paper we consider three arguments for the inclusion of the concept of posterity within social system boundaries: (1) as a survival strategy, (2) as a response to an ethic of compassion, and (3) to develop a more nearly complete social system concept. In conclusion, suggestions for achieving the goal of including posterity within the social system are reviewed.     

Race-of-interviewer effects and survey questions about police violence

ABSTRACT

This research uses binary logistic regression to test for a connection between the race of interviewer and race of respondent on five questions in the General Social Survey about the use of physical force by the police. Results indicate two instances of race-of-interviewer effect: (1) black respondents were more likely to voice disapproval about whether the police can strike a citizen trying to escape when speaking to a black interviewer, and (2) white respondents were less likely to voice approval of police striking an adult male citizen in the presence of a black interviewer. Secondary findings indicate that education is consistently significant regardless of race of respondent and the survey question, while social class, sex, age, and region are significant in only limited scenarios.     

“Let’s talk about the real issue”: Localized perceptions of environment and implications for ecosocial work practice

ABSTRACT

This interpretive study investigated how residents from socioeconomically challenged communities in North St. Louis understand and make meaning of environmental change and its impact on their well-being. Based on these localized data, we argue that racial minorities facing socioeconomic challenges may experience some environmental issues as less of an immediate concern than violence and racism. However, race and racism shape both the realities of environmental threats as well as residents’ perceptions about environmental injustice in their communities. This study informs ecosocial work practices such as educating communities on local environmental issues and mobilizing community members toward environmental decision-making.     

‘They are harsher to me than to my friend who is blonde’. Police critique among ethnic minority youth in Sweden

ABSTRACT

Young people belonging to categories and living in areas that are targeted by the police find more arguments for detailed police critique than others. When they narrate their assessments there is a series of experiential references being made, which can be used to sort out their police critique. This article draws on 20 interviews with ethnic minority youth in so-called vulnerable neighborhoods in Sweden. It shows how young people portray the police as sometimes profiling and racist, sometimes just and legitimate, and how they do so by comparisons and identifications. Comparisons within Sweden and identifications with police targets tend to result in more negative assessments whereas comparisons with countries of origin and identifications with non-targeted categories may result in more positive or mixed assessments. These young people also evaluate the police with reference to the stigmatization of their neighborhoods. To be stopped because you are associated with a residential area is described as deeply unfair, even if the police are polite, and observations of how the police change behavior in different areas promote critique. Our findings point to the importance of extending a criteria-based model of how today’s young people assess the police with a more social and ethnographic understanding.     

Rates of Asymptomatic Nonurethral Gonorrhea and Chlamydia in a Population of University Men Who Have Sex With Men

ABSTRACT

Objective: To evaluate a text message (SMS) program as a booster to an in-person alcohol intervention with mandated college students. Participants: Undergraduates (N = 224; 46% female) who violated an on-campus alcohol policy over a 2-semester period in 2014. Methods: The SMS program sent drinking-related queries each Thursday and Sunday and provided tailored feedback for 6 weeks. Response rates to SMS drinking-related queries and the associations between weekend drinking plans, drinking-limit goal commitment, and alcohol consumption were examined. Gender differences were explored. Results: Ninety percent of SMS queries were completed. Weekend binge drinking decreased over 6 weeks, and drinking-limit goal commitment was associated with less alcohol consumption. Compared with women, men had greater reductions in alcohol consumption when they committed to a drinking-limit goal. Conclusions: Preliminary evidence suggests that an SMS program could be useful as a booster for helping mandated students reduce weekend binge drinking.     

Off-centring empire in the Anthropocene: towards multispecies intimacies and nonhuman agents of survival

ABSTRACT

This paper examines colonial legacies in human-nonhuman relations to off-centre empire in the Anthropocene. Imperial methods of collecting, preserving and displaying nature profoundly shaped species perception, which in turn affected the scientific attention and ecological relevance a species was granted. In particular, I reflect on the category of invasibility to show how empire sanctioned the mobility of specific population groups and animal species as border-crossing. This further shows how speciesist logics served to extend, maintain and legitimize imperial power. This analysis is relevant in the Anthropocene where invasibility is mobilised to police movement in the context of increased human and nonhuman migration. Further, I discuss how invasibility is considered as one of main threats for biodiversity, which may misdirect conservation efforts. Overall, the article examines the potential in human-nonhuman encounters to challenge colonial legacies. Based on an ethnographic example of multispecies homemaking with species considered invasive in (hetero)normative modes of intimacy and domesticity, I argue that colonial legacies of racialized, gendered and speciesist hierarchies can be disturbed by human-nonhuman relations of companionship, care and interdependence. Finally, I scale-up the analysis to the landscape, by tracing the transformation of a former imperial wasteland in Vienna’s peripheral South from being perceived as economically and aesthetically worthless to a natural monument. Attending to multispecies entanglements is key here to understand the transformative process that led to the recovery of this wasteland. Here I off-centre empire by challenging anthropocentric narrations of how landscape transforms in favour of a narration that re-centres nonhuman agency. I argue that stories of wasteland recovery guided by nonhuman animals are crucial due to the increase in industrial wasteland and environmental degradation in the Anthropocene.     

“You Don’t Get Respect if You Give No Respect”: How Black and Latino Youth Make Sense of Encounters with Police

ABSTRACT

The study documents opinions about the police among black and Latino youth and explores how these assessments reflect differences in lived experiences and frames of interpretation of police encounters across gender and race/ethnicity. This specification is important to better understand how youth navigate interactions with law enforcement and how discrete experiences are interpreted in the context of other contacts of racial and gender inequality. We draw on interviews with 43 black and Latino youth, ages 13–21, compiled as part of a project on police stops in New York City. Although our findings indicate that youth tend to see the police negatively, we note considerable heterogeneity, with Latinos/as conveying more mixed views of law enforcement and females signaling more negative perceptions. We tie these differences to variation in the type, volume, and quality of encounters with the police, as well as the saliency of direct and indirect experiences.     

A synergy of contemporary activism to address police maltreatment of Black males: An intersectional analysis

ABSTRACT

A panoramic overview of contemporary and historical activism to address the perennial tension between police and young Black males in the United States of America is extensively articulated. Furthermore, an intersectional analysis framework is utilized to provide, and explain the unintentional synergy of activism among different groups in the Black community such as the Black Lives Matter movement, the inveterate political class, and the venerable Black church to mitigate police maltreatment of Black males during the era of the nation’s first Black president. Moreover, we discuss the various aggressive policing tactics used in maltreating Black males, some criminal justice reforms achieved in the last eight years, and more importantly we offer suggestions to improve the relationship between police and the Black community.