NCJ Number
186023
Date Published
2000
Length
600 pages
Annotation
This is a comprehensive introduction to policing in the United States.
Abstract
The book discusses both historical perspectives and current knowledge regarding the process of policing, police behavior, and organizations and operations. It also addresses contemporary issues and prospects for the future. The book emphasizes the relationship between police and community and how that relationship has changed through the years. It explores the impact of this change on current police practices, especially with respect to community policing. To adequately explain the complex nature of police operations in a democracy, the book attempts to integrate the most important theoretical foundations, research findings, and contemporary practices in a comprehensive yet analytic manner. The book contains a critical assessment of the movement toward community policing, including definitions and concepts, management practices and policies, and processes of change and innovation. It examines the challenges facing police in the 21st century, the broad changes in ethnicity occurring in the United States, and the development and use of modern technology. This edition discusses many new topics, including: crime prevention through environmental design; police subcultures and employee organizations; Police Paramilitary Units, compstat, and zero-tolerance policing; computerized crime mapping; pregnancy and maternity issues; new forms of police stressors, including community policing; officer safety; and fatality reduction. Figures, tables, glossary indexes