|
|
||
|
Industries |
||
|
POLICE AND CRIME - More Information |
||
|
The subject of police and crime is beyond that of patrol and arrest. It involves several assumptions and strategies. Two Crime Control Assumptions 1. Police and citizens: Society’s primary mechanism for controlling crime is the police and the entire CJ system. This leads to isolation between the two. 2. Police and other social institutions: Only the police are responsible for crime prevention programs. The 1997 report from Univ. of Maryland identified seven institutions that are in a crime prevention continuum (communities, families, schools, labor markets, places, the police, and other CJ programs). Crime Control Strategies provided by Sherman 1. Proactive vs. Reactive 2. General vs. Specific (routine preventive patrol vs. directed patrol) 3. Particular crime (gang crack down, DWI, sting operation) 4. Specific places (hot spots programs) 5. Specific offenders (the repeat offender programs) 6. Specific victims (mandatory arrest programs in domestic violence cases) Measuring Effectiveness of Crime Control Programs This is quite complicated. It requires meaningful definitions of what is to be measured as well as valid and reliable data on the expected outcome. Also debatable is the quantitative vs. qualitative measurement issues. Criminal Investigation (CI) · Most police officers see CI as what policing is all about · Nationally, about 12% of personnel, largely reactive · CI units vary according to the size of department and the workload - small dept à no specialized detective unit - medium-size à a separate but unspecialized unit (handle all crimes) - Larger dept à detective unit with a separate units specialized according to type of crime (against person and property, homicide unit, robbery unit etc.) - Criminalities à again larger dept. will have their crime scene specialists while smaller ones will usually use state or federal facilities. Goals of criminal investigations (Gerald Williams) 1. Controlling criminals (3 basic mechanisms are deterrence, rehabilitation, and incapacitation) - Deterrence (chance of getting caught and severely punished are greater than the expected rewards of crime) - Rehabilitation or inducement to obey the laws (through punishment, psychological counseling, job training, or drug treatment) - Incapacitation (be caught and removed from the society by incarceration
These three mechanisms do not rely
only on the police. Each mechanism has only limited ability to
control crime. However, to be successful, offenders have to
identified, caught, prosecuted, and convicted, and the police is
the one who start the CJ process. 2. Pursuing justice - Police, as an arm of government, should enhance citizens’ feelings that people who committed crime will be punished and justice is being served - Civil proceedings vs. criminal proceedings (only police can take an offender in criminal cases to the court) - Police do justice by arresting offenders and providing evidence and by treating victims with sensitivity and showing a concern for their needs (if chance of solving a crime is little, police should give the victim an honest appraisal of the situation and suspend the case; otherwise, the police are deceiving the public).
3. Addressing problems - Address many problems (from criminality and injustice); the public feel the police should resolve (crime is just an element of a set of troublesome circumstances) - Addressing problems is like controlling criminals in that it aims to prevent future crimes; differs from controlling criminals in that the police may do much more than simply control crime - In addressing problems, the police do not need to rely on arresting criminals The appeal of detective work · crime-fighter image and status (created by the media) · Opportunity for self-initiated activities · less direct supervision · civilian clothes (individuality) · specific role (apprehension) · Most important, quality of arrests can be measured by numbers, importance of the case, and percentage of those resulting in conviction. The “Myth” -- capacity of detectives to really solve crimes is greatly exaggerated (TV cops show and movies feature detective work that is exciting and successful; in reality it’s neither). RAND Corporation study (1975) A) Sources of information · Survey responses from 153 of 300 jurisdictions employing more than 150 employees · site visits to 25 agencies B) Major findings 1. Differences in investigative training, staffing, workload, and procedures appear to have no appreciable effects on arrest or clearance rates. 2. Org. of investigators cannot be significantly related to variations in arrest or clearance rates. 3. Almost 65% of all serious crimes receive no more than superficial attention from investigators (i.e., reviewing reports, documenting files, and attempting to locate and interview victims). 4. The single most important determinant of whether or not a case will be solved is the information the victim supplies to the responding officer. 5. Patrol officers are responsible for 60% to 90% of all arrests 6. Patrol officers made 87% of all arrests (Reiss’s study) 7. Most important information leading to arrests is eyewitness testimony of victims or witnesses (info that is typically obtained by responding officers) 8. In cases that are solved, an investigator spends more time in post clearance processing than in identifying the perpetrator. 9. Of cases ultimately cleared in which a perpetrator is not identified during the initial police incident report, almost all are cleared as a result of routine police procedures. Solving Crimes Clearance rates (traditional measure of success defined by FBI) · Agencies clear a crime when they have “identified the offender, have sufficient evidence to charge him, and actually take him/her into custody, or in exceptional instances, when some element beyond police control precludes taking the offender into custody.” · Arrest as 4 dimensions: legally, behaviorally, subjectively, and officially
Problems of clearance rates:
Solvability factors · Whether or not police can obtain the name or description of a suspect (most important). Clearance rates are higher for crimes of violence (against person such as murder (70%), aggravated assault (57%), and rape (52%)) than for property crimes (burglary (14%) and auto theft (15%)) due to the direct contact between offender and victim. Physical evidence (especially fingerprints) · It is not important factor in solving crime because: - difficult to obtain a useful print - the likelihood that the offender has prints on file (prior arrest) - In the past searching the files to match the prints is time-consuming, now is faster by using the Automated Fingerprint Identification System (AFIS) Managing investigations · RAND study (1975) commented that “most investigators received very little supervision on the performance of their jobs.” Improving investigation management 1. more efficient case screening (evidence rather than hunches and intuition) 2. closer working relationships between patrol and detectives and other officials 3. quality of PCR (COP idea) (a victim recon tact program in Houston, TX) 4. system approach (VICAP; NCAVC) Solving Crimes: The Investigation of Burglary and robbery by John Eck (1983)—(sponsored by PERF, Police Executive Research Forum) · Early research findings (1975 Rand Corporation study is the best known) - did not examine how investigations should be conducted - criticized investigative operations as wasteful and mismanaged - few cases receive more than superficial attention
-
declared that the
success of solving crime depend upon the information the
responding officers at the crime scene received from the victim · Methodology - PERF’s two-year study of criminal investigations in three jurisdictions, three counties in Georgia, Florida, and Kansas - analysis involved more than 320 robberies and 3,360 burglaries - data came from crime reports; other official records; information from patrol officers and detectives regarding the actions they took, the amount of time these actions consumed, and the information obtained as a result
· Findings · short investigation, with changing focus - most burglary and robbery cases are investigated for no more than four hours from preliminary to follow-up investigations (about 3 to 11 days between the report of the crime and the suspension of the case - in most cases, responding patrol officers did:
- check the crime scene
- interviewing the witnesses - collecting physical evidence - canvassing neighborhood for other possible witnesses - in screening process, initial investigations and the early stage of follow-up investigations focus on the crime victim and information obtained from the crime (which are outside the control of the police department) - Victims are relied too much upon for crime information, but in any given case information from the victims are the one that was less likely to lead to arresting the suspect. (Interviewing the victims by the detective has no effect on arresting criminals). - In contrast, four other sources (i.e., witnesses, informants, other members of the department, and department records) are consulted less often. But when they are consulted, they are more likely to yield fruitful information.
· Patrol officers and detectives contribute equally to solving cases - even when the preliminary investigation contains no suspect information, detectives can get the suspect’s name in about 14% of such cases and make an arrest about 8% of those cases Improving information collection (based on Eck’s study’s findings) · Preliminary investigation - collect more physical evidence (have policies defining when technicians should or should not be sent) - devoted more effort to canvassing neighborhoods for witnesses - use department records more extensively (design record systems that can be used through radio and telephone) - make greater use of informants (provide training and encouragement to help patrol officers develop informants) · Follow-up investigation - use more agency records - make more extensive use of informants (and how to handle informants)
Online resource (web links for more information)
|
