NCJ Number
169570
Date Published
1992
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This analysis of crime problems and law enforcement responses emphasizes that the crime problem consists of disorder, fear, nonstranger crime, and stranger crime, whereas crime control policies remains narrowly targeted on a small subset of these problems.
Abstract
The common attitude is that crime control consists of the efforts of the public agencies of criminal justice to address the serious street crimes of murder, rape, assault, robbery, and burglary. This formulation is partially correct and largely incorrect. Nevertheless, powerful ideologies and simple and graphic metaphors keep this formulation in place and trap police, other criminal justice practitioners, and academics into conxventional ways of thinking and responding. Those who seek to rejuvenate policing need to understand these metaphors and how they perpetuate inappropriate thinking. The consequence of such thinking is that police patrol remains an underused police resource. However, many police agencies are beginning to move away from traditional policing. Police executives, unionists, line personnel, and academics need to find new metaphors for policing that capture the imagination of police and communicate the elements of police effectiveness to the public and elected officials. Notes and 22 references