Although most police activities do not involve the use of force, those that do reflect important patterns of interaction between officer and citizen. After a brief survey of prior research, this study presents new data and findings to examine these patterns. The force factor applied and the sequential order of incidents of force is included in the analysis. The authors also examine police use of force from the suspect's perspective, and create a new conceptual framework, the Authority Maintenance Theory, for examining and assessing police use of force.

What are the public safety consequences of the fourfold increase in the number of individuals entering and leaving the nation's prisons each year? Many have speculated about the nexus between prisoner reentry and public safety. Law enforcement officials have attributed increases in violence in their communities to the influx of returning prisoners. Politicians have recommended policies that keep former prisoners out of high crime neighborhoods in the belief that crime would be reduced. The chapters in this book address these issues and suggest policies that will keep released prisoners from...

Describing the assumptions, issues, problems, and events that characterize, shape, and define the police response to gangs in America today, the primary focus of this book is on gang unit officers and the environment in which they work. The book is broadly focused on describing how gang units respond to community gang problems, and answers such questions as: Why do police agencies organize their responses to gangs in certain ways? Who are the people who elect to police gangs? What are their jobs really like? How do their responses to the gang problem compare with other policing strategies,...

Schools and Delinquency provides a comprehensive review and critique of the current research on the causes of delinquency, substance use, drop-out, and truancy, and the role of the school in preventing these behavior patterns. Examining school-based prevention programs and practices for grades K-12, the author identifies a broad array of effective and ineffective strategies. In the larger context of the community, she analyzes the special challenges to effective prevention programming that arise in disorganized settings, identifying ways to overcome these obstacles and make the most troubled...

Analysts have long noted that some societies have much higher rates of criminal violence than others. The risk of being a victim or a perpetrator of violent crime varies considerably from one individual to another. Some ethnic and racial groups have been reported to have higher rates of violent offending and victimization than other groups in societies with ethnically and racially diverse populations. This series of essays explores the extent and causes of racial and ethnic differences in violent crime in the U.S. and several other contemporary societies.

This book presents a comprehensive overview of anti-social behavior prevention programs in pregnancy and infancy, pre-school, parent education and school programs (including the prevention of bullying). It emphasizes preventing the intergenerational transmission of antisocial behavior by focusing on family violence. It reviews whether risk factors and prevention programs have different effects on females as compared to males. Cost-benefit analyses of early prevention programs conclude that adult antisocial behavior can be counteracted effectively and cost-efficiently.

In Understanding Crime Statistics, Lynch and Addington draw on the work of leading experts on U.S. crime statistics to provide much-needed research on appropriate use of this data. Specifically, the contributors explore the issues surrounding divergence in the Uniform Crime Reports (UCR) and the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS), which have been the two major indicators of the level and of the change in level of crime in the United States for the past 30 years. This book examines recent changes in the UCR and the NCVS and assesses the effect these have had on divergence. By focusing...

Drug-Crime Connections challenges the assumption that there is a widespread association between drug use and crime. Instead, it argues that there are many highly specific connections. Trevor Bennett and Katy Holloway draw together in a single volume a wide range of findings from a study of nearly 5,000 arrestees interviewed as part of the New English and Welsh Arrestee Drug Abuse Monitoring (NEW-ADAM) program. They investigate specific drug-crime connections and other topics, such as gender and drugs, ethnicity and drugs, gangs, guns, drug markets, and treatment needs.

Studies of the criminal career to date have focused on common criminals and street crime; criminologists have overlooked the careers of white-collar offenders. David Weisburd and Elin Waring offer here the first detailed examination of the criminal careers of people convicted of white-collar crimes. Weisburd and Waring uncover some surprising findings, which upset common wisdom about white-collar criminals. Their findings illustrate the misplaced emphasis of previous scholarship in focusing on the categorical distinctions between criminals and noncriminals.

Studies of the criminal career to date have focused on common criminals and street crime; criminologists have overlooked the careers of white-collar offenders. David Weisburd and Elin Waring offer here the first detailed examination of the criminal careers of people convicted of white-collar crimes. Weisburd and Waring uncover some surprising findings, which upset common wisdom about white-collar criminals. Their findings illustrate the misplaced emphasis of previous scholarship in focusing on the categorical distinctions between criminals and noncriminals.