Police and Social Work Relations--Problems and Possibilities

Summary The Barclay Report advocates a closer working partnership betweensocial workers and citizens; various policing policies are basedon similar foundations. Government policies place considerableemphasis on inter-agency work involving the police and the socialservices. In this paper, it is argued that co-operative inter-agencywork seems feasible between managers in the social servicesand in the police. When the perspectives of fieldworkers inboth services are considered conflict and suspicion seems toprevail. It is argued that once some of the myths surroundingthe practice of police and social work are pared away, a newbasis for the appreciation and development of inter-agency workmay be apparent.     

Indigenous people policing indigenous people: the potential psychological and cultural costs

This research reports on the link between feelings of spirituality and how Navajo police officers tend to enforce European-based law. Previous research suggests that a link exists between the officers’ depth of feeling of spirituality and the officers’ attitude toward the effectiveness traditional methods of social control; however, this research goes a step further and examines the impact of cultural dissonance on the stressors faced by Navajo police officers. The enforcement behavior of the Navajo officers was used as a proxy for the intensity of their feelings concerning the usefulness of traditional versus European-based forces of social control; the underlying assumption being tested is that self-determination is not only a state of law but a state of psychological being. A snowball method of sample development was used to select officers for intensive interviews. The findings suggest that the officers’ feeling of spiritual connectedness to his/her culture is inversely related to the strictness of the enforcement of European-based laws. In other words, the more spiritual the officer, the less likely the officer is to rely solely on European-based laws, and the greater the reliance on other methods of problems solving. The finding also suggest that in addition to the stressors normally encounter by all police officers, Navajo officers faced additional stressors that are specific to indigenous officers policing in indigenous communities.     

行政强制设定权的原则与规则

作者认为,我国行政强制设定权的基本原则是行政强制权与行政职权的关系,行政强制设定权与宪法和法律所确立的法律制度基本框架的关系,行政强制权与公民、法人合法权益的关系,行政强制与现代法治理念的关系。而行政强制设定应当遵守的法律规则有授权规则,权利规则,时限规则,事项规则,补充规则。     

Administrative into social control: The aliens police and foreign female servants in the Netherlands, 1918-40

This article has made it clear that the social control the Leiden aliens police were able to exert from 1918 onwards, both on aliens and Dutch citizens, was enabled by a combination of increased monitoring as well as the administrative power that went with it. More concretely, it was a logical consequence of the revolution in the migration regime that took place throughout the western world around the time of World War I. This case nuances the quite bleak picture of the attitude of the aliens police towards foreign female servants. Thus, it is argued that servants were not play-things in the hands of the local police, although their legal as well as discretionary powers were considerable. The combination of age, gender and social position made them a special category in the eyes of the police. Because they were young and female the police regarded them, on the one hand, as vulnerable. When this image dominated, policemen showed paternalistic behaviour and sometimes acted as surrogate parents. Their attitude is well captured by the concepts of 'bureaucratic paternalism' and 'caring power'. On the other hand, domestic servants could also be considered as a moral threat. Most of them having come from working-class backgrounds, they easily fitted the image of women of loose moral standing who could endanger the public morale of the Netherlands. This ambivalent image of foreign domestic servants explains the corresponding variation in the treatment of complaints.     

海上执法中武力使用问题研究

我国海上执法主体以海警为主，海事、海军为辅。一般来说，海上执法时如遇有以下情形可以使用武力：行使自卫权、行使执法权受阻和打击海上犯罪。海上执法中的武力使用应当符合“必要且合理”的原则，并按照国际通常程序进行，即使用武力的警告、进行警示性射击直至对船体的武力打击。武力使用必须根据有关授权、依照国家的法律法规、军队的条令和条例进行，并按照规定程序请示报告。同时，海上执法中的武力使用还要受我国批准或加入的国际条约、国际习惯和联合国安理会决议的约束，使用武力不当造成损害的，由国家承担相应的法律责任。     

Drug Enforcement and Crime: Recent Evidence from New York State*

Objective. The objective of this article is to provide evidence about the effectiveness of drug law enforcement as a tool for reducing other types of crime. Considerable resources are devoted to enforcing our nation's drug laws, but existing research suggests that intensifying drug law enforcement may serve to increase, rather than decrease, crime. Method. Using data for 62 counties in New York State for 1996–2000, we estimate a set of models that evaluate the effects of recent drug arrests on reported rates of assault, robbery, burglary, and larceny. The estimated statistical model includes controls for fixed effects, time effects, autocorrelation, and heteroskedasticity. Results. The consistency of results is striking—there is no model in which drug arrests are found to have a significant negative relationship with crime. All crimes are positively related to arrests for the manufacture and sale of “hard drugs.” Increases in total per capita drug arrests and arrests for “hard drug” possession are accompanied by higher rates for all crimes except assault. Increased arrests for the manufacture or sale of marijuana are associated with increases in larcenies. Conclusions. The empirical findings raise serious questions about the effectiveness of drug enforcement as a crime‐control measure and suggest that significant social costs may arise from existing approaches to drug control.     

The Continuing Significance of Race: An Analysis Across Two Levels of Policing*

Objectives. Survey research has demonstrated that there is significant race variation in perceptions of the police, with black citizens holding lower levels of trust than do whites. Although these differences have been well documented, few studies have examined if and how these differences vary across police organizations. Using survey data from the North Carolina Highway Traffic Study, the objective of this research was to explore the influence of vicarious experience and perceptions of racial profiling in accounting for racial variation in trust across two levels of policing—highway patrol and city/local police. Methods. Ordinal logistic regression was utilized to assess both their independent and combined influences as the methodology. Results. The results suggest that across both police agencies, the race gap in trust is strongly associated with vicarious experience and perceptions of racial profiling. Conclusions. The results provide some support for examining perceptions of police across levels of policing as the results suggest that perceptions of one police organization are not necessarily generalizable across them all.     

Risk reduction or risk compensation? The case of mandatory safety-belt use laws

The technological approach to risk regulation seeks to lessen the incidence of mortality and morbidity by modifying environmental conditions. Insofar as risk-taking behavior is purposive, social scientists have predicted that technological progress may be negated by various forms of risk compensation. The validity of this hypothesis is tested in the transportation sector with data from the U.S. on the effects of new mandatory safety-belt-use laws. A fixed-effects model of traffic fatality counts is estimated using pooled data from 50 states during the 1975–1987 period. Results suggest that such laws have reduced mortality among car occupants to a degree that is compatible with the predictions of technologists. However, there is weak evidence of increased mortality among some nonoccupants, a pattern predicted by risk-compensation theorists. The lifesaving effects of belt-use laws are largest in states that permit primary police enforcement and appear to be somewhat larger for front-seat occupants age 21 and under. Although offsetting behavior appears to be small relative to lifesaving effects, it may take several more years for any compensatory behavior to achieve a new equilibrium.This research was supported in part by a grant from the Centers for Disease Control to the New England Injury Prevention Research Center.     

"Ask a Policeman": Community Consultation in Practice

This article examines the development of police-community consultation arrangements in one large county in southern England: arrangements made under Section 106 of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984. It analyses the various responses of the main parties in the process: the police, the police authority, and the local committees themselves; and considers the extent to which the practice of consultation relates to wider claims for the enhancement of police accountability. The main conclusions are that, at least in the force area concerned, the predominant conflict was not, as might have been expected, between police representatives and the local community, but rather between the police authority and the local committees, for which they were formally responsible. In so far as such tensions can occur, the article argues for a more cautious approach to the question of the democratic accountability of the police to the extent that the police authority is to be entrusted with a central role in the reform of the current system of police accountability.     

Welfare service privatization and opinions about service quality: The role of political ideology among local politicians and the public

In this article, we join the discussion about the potential consequences of welfare service privatization by examining the relationship between the privatization of welfare service delivery and public opinion about service quality in Sweden. Due to the politically polarized debate about welfare service privatization in Sweden, we also examine the extent to which individualsapos; ideological orientations influence this relationship in both local politicians and ordinary citizens. For local politicians, the results show that a higher municipal degree of privatization is generally associated with slightly lower levels of satisfaction overall with welfare services, although no such relationship exists for the public. Most importantly, however, the results indicate that political ideology constitutes an important moderator in the relationship between privatization and opinions about service quality. Local politicians and, to some extent, ordinary citizens who place themselves to the left on the ideological left–right scale tend to be less satisfied with services as the municipal degree of welfare service privatization increases. For local politicians who position themselves far to the right on the scale, the relationship between welfare service privatization and satisfaction is positive. These findings suggest that there is no clear-cut relationship between privatization and individualsapos; opinions about services; rather, this relationship depends on the ideological predispositions of local politicians and ordinary citizens.     

Public Opinion and The Politics of Gambling

This paper examines the relation between the attitudes of the public toward gambling and recent changes in gambling laws. The nineteenth century wave of antigambling sentiment found expression in many state constitutions. Consequently, legalization or decriminalization of gambling became unusually difficult among that class of activities often referred to as "victimless crimes." Renewed interest in gambling as a revenue source, in the last few decades, has produced a number of surveys dealing with attitudes toward gambling and has required statewide votes on some 45 separate gambling items. Public attitudes are compared, along several dimensions, for results of a national survey and results of voting on particular gambling proposals. Attitudes are consistent between survey data and voting data, particularly as they pertain to administrative and regulatory form. Also, in one state, demographic variables discriminating favorability in the survey data predict voting outcome on a lottery proposal.     

Terrorism‐Centric Behaviors and Adversarial Threat Awareness*

This article estimates situational awareness in a diverse collection of police officers with respect to their individual ability to identify nine key behaviors that are indicative of terrorism activity. The selected group of police officers was drawn from state, county, and municipal law enforcement organizations. The terrorist‐centric behaviors were presented to the test group in multicomponent text‐based scenarios that emulate real‐world police events and respondents were instructed to rate each scenario component on an 11‐point Likert‐type suspicion scale. With the exception of terrorist fundraising, law enforcement personnel tended to view all of the terrorist‐centric activities and behaviors as at least “somewhat suspicious.” The activities that could also be associated with “conventional” criminality such as weapons acquisition received higher ratings than those activities more exclusively related to terrorism such as recruiting. We also noted statistically significant differences based on agency type, officers’ assignment (patrol or detective), experience, gender, agency size, and education. Race had no effect.     

警察与近代北京城市治安管理——以1901～1937年为中心的考察

近代北京[1]发生了一系列的社会变动,原有的治安管理体系几近瘫痪,城市秩序混乱。为稳定城市秩序,警察出现在市民生活中,具有现代社会治安管理职能的警察体系逐渐建立起来。北京治安在政府、警察与民众的互动作用下,出现了一些好转,但其中的问题依然不可忽视。     

Sheriffs,right-wing extremism,and the limits of U.S. federalism during a crisis

Background

During the COVID-19 crisis, sheriffs across the country vocally refused to implement mask mandates.

Objectives

In this note, we argue that resistance to mask mandates emerged out of successful efforts to recruit sheriffs into right-wing extremism (RWE) and its foundations in white supremacy, nativism, and anti-government extremism.

Methods

We draw on upon historical analysis and a national survey of sheriffs

Results

We show how RWE movements recruited sheriffs and that a substantial share of sheriffs adopted RWE attitudes. We argue that this radicalization of county sheriffs primes them to resist a core component of federalism: mandates by supra governments. We identify a relationship between sheriffs. RWE attitudes and their resistance to enforcing COVID-19 mask mandates.

Conclusion

Our work demonstrates the importance of considering the implications of violent extremism in the United States, particularly as it aligns with local law enforcement.     

The Eric Garner Case: Statewide Survey of New York Voters’ Response to Proposed Police Accountability Legislation

The Eric Garner case was unique because this police-induced death was caught on video from before the moment of physical confrontation. A mixed-methods representative household survey and Garner's arrest video were used to determine NYS voters’ opinions (n = 119) about police indictment and Governor Cuomo's request for expanded authority. Respondents were asked whether the officers should face indictment, shown the arrest video, and then asked again about indictment. Prior to the video, a majority of respondents (n = 86; 57.4%) believed involved officers should have been indicted. After viewing, the proportion increased by 13.7%. A majority supported Cuomo's call for expanded authority to appoint a special prosecutor in cases where police are involved in civilian deaths. Study limitations include prior exposure to the footage and a low response rate. NYS voters generally supported Cuomo's proposal for appointing a special prosecutor; however, a quarter of respondents disagreed with the method of reform and expressed a: 1) preference for every case to go to trial; 2) preference for a case-by-case basis; or 3) distrust in state-appointed special prosecutors. This research could inform discussions regarding proposed system reforms. Future research with a less well-circulated video is needed to determine the extent to which videos of police-induced deaths affect public opinion.     

城管执法冲突的三方感知与对策建议——以昆明市五华区为例

从1997年全国第一个综合执法试点建立到现在,城管队伍已经经过了15年的发展。新闻媒体上越演越烈的城管执法冲突事件,给这个直面大众的城市管理部门蒙上了一层阴影。本文以昆明市五华区为例,探究执法者、被执法者以及第三方(其他城市居民)的心理情感和冲突感知,据此剖析城管执法冲突发生的原因,并从转变执法理念、完善法制建设、提高人员素质、调整执法方式、加强舆论宣传等方面提出解决冲突对策。     

‘Civic’ police and the condition of liberty: the rationality of governance in eighteenth-century England

In this article it is argued that previous attempts to understand the organization of eighteenthcentury systems of police have failed to take into account the political implications of governmental organization. Examining the office of constable in terms of the contemporary governmental imagination reveals that concerns with the independence of the officers and the need to ward against ‘corruption’ are not simply practical requirements. The unpaid, sequential nature of eighteenth-century police service was defined in terms of the classical model of civic duty, which saw active participation in government and the rotation of public office as key conditions of the free state, and as such the liberty of the citizens. This vision of freedom as a condition of freedom from dependence or domination, not an absence of interference, was instrumental in defining the way the system of police was debated and reformed over the course of the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Given that ‘police’ in this period represents a much wider programme of administration than the simple control of law and order, this has implications for our understanding of the structure of eighteenth-century government in general.     

Social Policy in Singapore: Insights from a Social Work Perspective

Social work practice, irrespective of the location of practice, is shaped by local conditions, particularly the laws and policies applicable to the practice. Most governments adopt some form of institutional arrangements pertinent to local conditions to meet local needs, such arrangements in Western contexts commonly being described as the welfare state. In other contexts, notably the East Asian context, the Western welfare state has been deemed inappropriate for meeting local needs. In this discussion there will be a focus on arrangements developed in Singapore, a country in the East Asian region. Although Singapore has eschewed any notion of a welfare state, this discussion will demonstrate that it does have in place a range of policy responses to meet Singaporean needs and that these measures are consistent with the frameworks adopted by emerging Confucian welfare states.     

Crime,correction, education and welfare in the U.S. – What role does the government play?

As federal, state and local governments continue to allocate a significant share of their resources to law enforcement and correctional spending, concerns have risen that spending in education and welfare is declining. With fiscal pressure in the United States mounting, it is important to determine the effectiveness of public spending in deterring crime. This paper compares the effectiveness of the impact of government spending on welfare and education with that of law enforcement and correction on crime. Using panel data from 50 U.S. states over a time period of 1994–2014, results of linear regression with panel corrected standard errors as well as GMM estimation reveals that public welfare and education spending can potentially lower violent and property crime rates but law enforcement spending can only deter property crime. However, correctional spending can exacerbate both types of crimes. There is little to no evidence of the presence of crowding out of one category of spending by another. This results in the policy implication that more resources be allocated towards welfare and education programs.     

Domestic Violence: Comparative Analysis of German and U.K. Research Findings*

Objective. This article examines the notion of the family and within its postmodern definition the research undertaken in the field of domestic violence and its consequences for criminal justice agencies in the United Kingdom and Germany. Has the notion of the family changed in Western culture? How has legislation changed regarding domestic violence in line with criminologists' and social scientists' hypotheses, reflections, and recommendations? How are victims and witnesses protected from perpetrators? Methods. The authors discuss how legislation in both countries has changed to meet the needs of victims and witnesses of domestic violence. The article looks at different forms of law enforcement in domestic violence and how the agencies assess future dangerousness. Results. Research analyses show that domestic violence is now taken seriously in both countries' legislation. But what is the impact on policing domestic violence in both countries? It is argued that U.K. law enforcement agencies are more advanced that the German police in dealing with domestic violence in a practical and pragmatic fashion. Conclusions. The authors explore the shift in cultural beliefs affecting male dominance in the family setting, how public attitudes to domestic violence have changed, and how law enforcement agencies are now dealing with violence within the family in both countries.