SAGE Journal Articles

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Journal Article 1.1: Wells, W., & Wu, L. (2011, July). Proactive policing effects on repeat and near-repeat shootings in Houston. Police Quarterly, 14(3), 298-319.

Abstract: The spatial analysis of crime and community problems can inform police operations by revealing where resources can be most effectively deployed. Advances in understanding the spatial concentrations of crime show that some locations are repeatedly victimized and that some nearby locations are at an elevated risk for a subsequent crime during a relatively short period of time. These are known as repeat and near-repeat phenomena. Police may be able to have a strong preventive impact on crime if these risk patterns can be identified and disrupted. This analysis reports on whether a specialized, proactive patrol unit deployed to high-crime areas was effective in disrupting repeat and near-repeat patterns of shootings. Results suggest the proactive unit did not disrupt concentrations of shootings in a meaningful way. To improve effectiveness, police practitioners and researchers should seek to understand the factors driving these patterns and then design specific interventions to address them.

 

Journal Article 1.2: Huey, L. (2010, April). “I’ve seen this on CSI”: Criminal investigators’ perceptions about the management of public expectations in the field. Crime, Media, Culture, 6(1), 49-68.

Abstract: Police perceptions as to the influence of CSI and similar forensic and/or police procedural television programs on public expectations of the investigative process in the field is the focus of the present study. Through qualitative interviews with 31 members of Canadian police forces, I explore the question of whether police investigative personnel view media representations of their work as negatively influencing public expectations, thereby creating a source of occupational role strain for police officers. What is revealed is that the majority of investigative personnel interviewed have experienced citizen queries and demands attributed to consumption of unrealistic images of police work in television programs. Where a minority of investigators report feelings of frustration due to the role strain associated with having their expert knowledge and work methods questioned, the majority of those interviewed saw such queries as opportunities for educating the public about the realities of policing.