NCJ Number
224790
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 36 Issue: 5 Dated: September/October 2008 Pages: 461-468
Date Published
September 2008
Length
8 pages
Annotation
The purpose of this study was to expand the understanding of police victimization by exploring the influence of community policing and aggressive law enforcement influence on the likelihood of injurious assault used against officers.
Abstract
Regression analyses indicate that policing styles related to community meetings are associated with low levels of assault rates. Second, policing styles related to aggressive enforcement of drug laws have an aggravating effect on police victimization. Lastly, departments that had high police-to-citizen population ratios also had lesser rates of injurious assaults. Though the vast majority of police encounters with the public are peaceful, some incidents result in officers being assaulted or even injured. Several studies used organizational level factors to examine the correlates of officer victimization. However, a review of some studies revealed that the influence of policing styles on officer victimization had been overlooked by researchers in the past. This study attempted to expand the understanding victimization of police by examining the impact of a variety of factors related to community and aggressive policing styles on injurious assault rates across 267 large municipal police departments. Tables, notes, and references