NCJ Number
84731
Date Published
1982
Length
22 pages
Annotation
Research which has examined the effects of various police inputs on the crime rate is reviewed, and conceptual issues are discussed, followed by the outline of a proposed conceptual model and discussions of measurement and methodological issues.
Abstract
The research reviewed has examined the impact of the following input variables on police impact on crime: police expenditures, numbers of personnel, investigations, arrests and clearances, levels and strategies of deployment of patrol, and rapid response. For most of the propositions about the effect of police on crime, the evidence was found to be weak at best and often contradictory. Generally, knowledge about crime-effectiveness was found to be partial, often uninterpretable, and difficult to generalize. The proposed conceptual model of police crime-effectiveness indicates the clusters of variables that should be taken into account by researchers assessing police crime-effectiveness. The general categories are police inputs (organizational properties), organizational processes, intermediate goals, ultimate goals, and external factors. The measurement problems considered are the measurement of outcome variables and the measurement of police effort in dealing with crime-related problems. The methodological problems discussed focus on the types of research designs used and the associated types of analysis. Eighty-eight references are listed.