Side-by-side: An evaluation of Connecticut’s police and youth interaction model

This study evaluated a community-based intervention program designed to promote positive youth development and to create positive interactions between police and youth in a non-enforcement environment. A pre–post-design was used to compare the results of the program for participating youth and police officers, particularly changes in each group’s attitudes toward the other. The results showed that participation in the program improved police officers’ and youths’ attitudes toward each other. For youth, the rate of change in attitudes was greatest for minority youth and for youth who had prior negative experience with the police. That is, youth who had negative prior experiences with police and began with negative attitudes toward police developed more positive attitudes toward police as a result of participating in the program. Furthermore, having opportunities for positive interactions between police and youth played an important role in decreasing negative perceptions of police for ethnic minority youth. This study suggests that community-based programs that involve police with youth can improve participants’ attitude toward each other, which might impact future interactions.     

Sex-positive criminology: Possibilities for legal and social change

This article provides an introduction to sex-positive criminology and its goals for change. Sex-positive criminology draws from the “thick desire” organizing principle, which is a rights-based approach to human sexuality, as well as from positive sexuality approaches. It also draws from critical, queer, and feminist criminological traditions and abolitionist sensibilities. We discuss examples that pertain to key tenets of sex-positivity: consent and bodily autonomy, education, medical access, harm reduction, and ways to increase agency. Main topics of discussion include addressing deeply harmful and sex-negative laws and policies that perpetuate state violence, such as coerced or forced sterilization, criminalization of abortion and pregnancy loss, sexual and physical assault of sex workers by police, criminalization through medically inaccurate laws, and legislation such as Allow States and Victims to Fight Online Sex Trafficking Act and the Stop Enabling Sex Traffickers Act that puts marginalized populations at risk. Throughout, we reflect on possibilities for sex-positive laws and policies and the social impacts they would have, such as improving health and well-being.     

Measurement and determinants of efficiency in the municipal police service

The purpose of this paper is to analyze the efficiency of the police service in Spanish municipalities with a population of more than 50,000 inhabitants. Using Data Envelopment Analysis, we obtain the efficiency levels and the targets that the input and outputs have to reach to be efficient in the provision of the police service. Next, and based on the literature, the effect of the following environmental variables is verified: young population, number of foreigners, unemployment, municipal per capita income, tourist level of the municipality, and ideology and political strength of the municipal government. Findings show that an increase in the number of young people in the municipality means an improved efficiency in the local police service. In contrast, cultural diversity (measured by the percentage of foreigners in the total population), unemployment, the mayor's ideology and political fragmentation of government do not have a significant effect on the level of efficiency. On the other hand, higher municipal per capita income means less efficiency, while an increase in tourism activity is related to the improvement of this.     

Police forces in late medieval Italy: Bologna, 1340–1480

Police forces (birri) in Italian cities in the fourteenth and fifteenth centuries were composed of outsiders, non-natives, employed on short-term contracts, usually of six months’ duration. There was therefore a huge circulating pool of these patrolmen, sergeants and constables, moving from city to city. These groups have been little studied, and are often assumed to be vile, odious and little better than criminals. This article draws on surviving records in one city of northern Italy (Bologna), to analyse the composition of these groups and especially their cosmopolitan, international memberships, which grew consistently across the period before tailing off towards the end of the fifteenth century. The article uses frames of reference from migration studies, particularly the large Balkan migrations of the fifteenth century, and from identity studies, to chart and assess the trajectory and reception of non-Italians among these groups. The article thus extends what is known about the integration of migrants in late medieval Italy, goes beyond what is known about the documentation of identity in the Middle Ages and raises questions about the quality of policing provided by multinational groups.     

The scrapbooking detective: Frederick Porter Wensley and the limits of ‘celebrity’ and ‘authority’ in inter-war Britain

Frederick Porter Wensley was one of Scotland Yard's ‘Big Four’ detectives, head of the Metropolitan Police Criminal Investigation Department and responsible for establishing the Flying Squad. On his retirement in 1929, he used the two bound scrapbooks of press clippings and photographs he had collated to document his personal life and career to inform his 1931 autobiography Detective Days and serialized press articles. Through examining the interaction of material between scrapbooks and autobiographical writings, this article explores how Wensley constructed his post-retirement persona as ‘celebrity detective’ from a canny understanding of what had made him a commercial subject for the press. It argues that Wensley recast his life to promote his own successes at the expense of a narrative of police unity, providing a vehicle for him to suggest further changes to the structure of the police force without official sanction. By juxtaposing this against tightening legislation on police communication with journalists during the inter-war period under the Official Secrets Acts, this article demonstrates how the ‘celebrity’ that Wensley sought to occupy was increasingly regarded as irreconcilable with police ability to effect ‘impartial’ regulation, anticipating the concerns raised by the 2012 Leveson Inquiry into the Culture, Practice and Ethics of the Press. The article thus charts a turning point in defining the relationship between police and press.     

An exploration of the relationship between police presence,crime and firms in developing countries

Economic theory predicts that a rise in police presence will reduce criminal activity. However several studies in this field have found mixed results. This study adds to the literature by exploring the relationship between the size of the police force and crime experienced by firms. Using survey data for about 12,000 firms in a cross‐section of 27 developing countries it is found that increasing the size of the police force is negatively associated with crime experienced by firms. Results are confirmed using a panel of firms for a subset of countries for which data are available. It is also found that this negative relationship is stronger under certain macroeconomic circumstances.     

“I Will Be Out There Every Day Strong!” Protest Policing and Future Activism Among Ferguson and Baltimore Protesters

An established body of literature shows that people engage in protest events for a number of reasons, including grievances, collective identity, increased efficacy, and emotions. However, it is unclear what happens to individuals’ motivation toward protest participation as they experience the reality of repressive policing. This study contributes to the theoretical body of knowledge of protest policing and social movements by investigating the microlevel processes that affect protest participation. Specifically, we build from the insights of previous research by examining how 102 Ferguson and Baltimore protesters with varying levels of commitment—revolutionary, intermittent, tourist—experienced repressive policing and how such tactics affected their subsequent decision to engage in future activism. Our findings suggest that those with the strongest commitment toward protest goals experienced the most repressive tactics, and yet did not seem to be deterred in their motivation to be engaged in future protests. In contrast, while repressive tactics appeared to deter the less committed individuals from street protests, they remained motivated to engage in other forms of civic engagement.     

Pandemic and macho organizations: Wake‐up call or business as usual?

The COVID‐19 pandemic is one of the greatest challenges of our generation. The global spread of the virus is affecting societies’ gender dynamics in general and in organizations in particular. Based on ethnographic research being carried out in a police organization in Brazil, this piece discusses how COVID‐19 is impacting hegemonic masculinity in organizations. Police organizations are prototypical hegemonic masculinity organizations. I argue that the COVID‐19 pandemic at first encouraged the performance of the typical police macho masculinity, but as the disease progressed, it created a situation that challenged it. I explore that even though the pandemic threatens macho masculinity in organizations, it is still unclear if an alternative gender dynamic will emerge from this crisis in macho organizations.     

Beyond the Low-Hanging Fruit: Reducing Racial Inequality by Rethinking School Safety Efforts

In this essay, I examine the problem of excessive and racially disproportionate school discipline. I begin by considering how each of the four most popular Democratic candidates in the presidential primary race as of January 2020 addresses this issue. Excessive and racially disproportionate school discipline harms students, schools, and communities, and it deepens existing racial inequalities. Each candidate promises some remedy, and all represent a step in the right direction. However, all of their proposals are shallow. To fruitfully address these issues, policymakers must consider the cultural embeddedness of school discipline, how it is implemented within complex school bureaucracies, and the underlying racial inequality that shapes school discipline. Policymakers must also draw attention to the fact that schools are, overall, safe and do not require the massive investments in security personnel and technology that draw funds away from more effective supports for students.     

民族地区警察职业能力培养探析——以青海藏区为视域

历代中央政府大都采取"安藏必先安青"的政策,所以加强公安工作,注重警察职业能力的培养,对青海藏区的稳定和发展有着重要的意义.了解青海藏区的基本情况和重要地位,认识警察职业能力的内涵和价值取向,分析和探讨青海藏区警察职业能力培养的途径,充分发挥公安教育在维护青海藏区稳定中所起的重要作用.