NCJ Number
138928
Journal
Policing and Society Volume: 2 Issue: 4 Dated: (June 1992) Pages: 249-271
Date Published
1992
Length
23 pages
Annotation
This typology of citizen participation in crime control reflects two important trends in contemporary law enforcement, the growing significance of commercialism and technological and organizational refinements in surveillance and control.
Abstract
Citizen participants include those acting on a commercial or nonprofit basis, as well as volunteers. Collective action for crime prevention by citizen groups ranks with the growth of the private security industry as distinctive developments in the United States and Australia. The most common model of citizen participation is neighborhood watch, but such participation also involves community policing, citizen patrols, police auxiliaries, self-defense arming, vigilantism, oversight of criminal justice agencies, police monitoring, mediation, bystander intervention, victim assistance, citizen assistance rewards, hotlines, informers, covert facilitation, and the prevention and detection of white collar crime. The suggested typology of citizen involvement in crime control is based on open and repressive forms of voluntary and commercial involvement. Open modes of involvement include neighborhood watch and private security services, while repressive modes encompass vigilantism and police informers. The author contends that citizen involvement in crime control is essential but only up to a point. Beyond an optimal point, further citizen activity may be undesirable and threaten privacy, interpersonal trust, and the rights of minorities. 109 references and 1 figure