Thinking About Research - The Contribution of Social Science Research to Contemporary Policing

• NCJ Number: 76228
• Journal: Police Studies Volume: 3 Issue: 4 Dated: (Winter 1981) Pages: 22-40
• Author(s): D J Farmer
• Date Published: 1981
• Length: 19 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Best Practice/State-of-the-Art Review
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

A selective survey of significant recent developments in the state-of-the-art of police research in the United States is presented.

Abstract

Four subject areas are addressed: operations management, overall administration, policing objectives, and general methodology. Research findings suggest that police agencies can make better use of their operational resources by undertaking certain changes. Thus, agencies can consider the relative advantages of using a differential response strategy, can develop more effective uses of resources now allocated to traditional preventive patrol, can employ their investigative resources effectively, and can put scientific and analytical skills to better use in operational management. The main advances in overall police administration may still be expected to come from the fields of public administration, political science, and management, as management of police agencies is similar to direction of any other government agency. But police research has been able to illuminate special problems of overall police administration, such as anticorruption management and the impact of civil service on police administration. Law enforcement has devoted disproportionate attention to means rather than ends, that is, to matters of internal institutional efficiency rather than to the results and end products of policing. At present, output studies are exploring problem-focused policing and internal and external access of crime-focused policing and the attention to ends is likely to gain force in coming years. Advances in the methodology of police research include renewed emphasis on cross-national comparisons, replications of police studies, and synthesis studies. Advances in these areas are significant but still rather limited. The vital role of research in upgrading the quality of policing is stressed. Footnotes and a bibliography of over 60 references are supplied.