Calling for Service: Mobilization of the Police Across Sociocultural Environments
Citations
187 citations
Cites background from "Calling for Service: Mobilization o..."
...However, all four studies that examined some aspect of police effectiveness showed that residents were more willing to report when police are more effective (Bennett, 2004; Bennett & Weigand, 1994;9 Tankebe, 2009; Zvekic & del Frate, 1993)....
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...Thus, Bennett and Lynch (2006) theorize police corruption and misconduct may directly diminish the public’s willing cooperation with police or do so indirectly through its influence on legitimacy. However, the evidence is limited and mixed. In a cross-country comparison with 42 countries (including both developed and developing nations), Bennett and Lynch (2006) found that nations with stronger civil rights and less corruption had more residents who were willing to report crimes to the police....
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...Bennett (2004) conducted an assessment of the relationship between perceptions about police and citizen reports to police in three Caribbean nations, including Trinidad and Tobago....
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...In Belize, the type of police service received is “related more to who the victim is than to the nature of the event” (Bennett & Weigand, 1994, p. 138), and access to police is geographically based or relies on access to a phone. Hence, we might expect demographic variables such as income to have considerable influence on the decision to cooperate and report crimes. Bennett and Weigand’s (1994) research examined actual reporting behaviors. Their results show that 45% of crime victims reported their offenses. The strongest relationship was between the number of household victimizations in the prior year and crime reporting. However, when household victimization experience was removed from the model, they found that crime seriousness was the most important predictor of reporting. Other important factors include respondent income and attitudes toward police regarding their service and effectiveness. Individuals with more favorable attitudes and more income were more likely to report crime. Factors that were not significant predictors included the perceived effectiveness of police at the neighborhood level; neighborhood diversity; perceived crime and drug prevalence in the neighborhood; neighborhood wealth; individuals’ fear of personal and property crime victimization; and respondent age, education, and gender. A study conducted in Jamaica in 2005 surveyed high-school students about their views and willingness to help police fight crime by reporting crime and suspicious activity to police. Like Trinidad and Tobago, Jamaica is a developing country that gained independence from Britain during the last half century, has a centralized police force, deals with high levels of violent crime and widespread perceptions of police corruption. Reisig and Lloyd (2009) report that residents are reluctant to provide police with information and serve as witnesses and frequently turn to area dons for protection. The survey found that high-school youth are more willing to cooperate when they viewed police as more procedurally fair and when the area was not under strong don control. Factors that were not significantly related to reporting include police legitimacy, distributive justice, and being male. Bennett (2004) conducted an assessment of the relationship between perceptions about police and citizen reports to police in three Caribbean nations, including Trinidad and Tobago....
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...The latter two motivations conform to a rational-choice, cost-benefit approach while the first motive is normative, consistent with Tyler’s processbased model (Bennett & Lynch, 2006). The relative influence of these three motives may derive from perceptions about police and security. One may be more inclined to perform civic duty when he/she perceives the police as more legitimate. Practical motivations may be more compelling if the citizen perceives the police are effective at retrieving property, or at the very least at filing a report. Fear of future victimization, however, may promote reporting serious offenses to police out of deep desperation, even if police are not perceived as effective or highly legitimate (in spite of opinions about police). Conversely, fear may also motivate people to choose not to report crimes to the police. Even those desperate to avoid future victimization may be dissuaded from reporting serious violence when they fear interactions with police to be more detrimental than the threat of additional victimization. For example, one-fifth of Belize victims who did not report offenses to police claimed they did not do so because they did not wish to be involved with police. Only 3% did not report to police out of fear of retribution from the offender (Bennett & Weigand, 1994). Fear of police may occur when police are perceived as highly corrupt or unfair. All of these elements may work together to influence reporting decisions. Kidd and Chayet’s (1984) examination of the literature and a national crime survey in 1979 found some support that perceptions about the effectiveness of police and their capacity to catch the perpetrator, feelings of vulnerability and fear of further victimization and the need to gain control over the situation, and the level of trust in authorities all contribute to reporting decisions....
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95 citations
26 citations
Cites background from "Calling for Service: Mobilization o..."
...…policing, the impact of crime on policing and policing on crime, ineffective and inefficient policing and Jamaica’s policing style (Harriott 2000, 2007; Bennett 2004; Bennett and Schaefer-Morabito 2006), and policy and organizational reform (Harriott 2000; McDavid, Clayton, and Cowell 2011)....
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...The literature highlights the problems of post-colonial policing (Harriott 2000, 2007; Bennett 2004; Deosaran 2007a; UNDP 2012), differential policing, the impact of crime on policing and policing on crime, ineffective and inefficient policing and Jamaica’s policing style (Harriott 2000, 2007;…...
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22 citations
Cites background from "Calling for Service: Mobilization o..."
...For example: Evaluations of police information systems have been made (Nizich 2010; Sheptycki, 2004); the distribution of calls made to police explored (Bennett, 2004); systems for criminal background checks of officers have been examined (Colbert, 2011)....
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16 citations
Cites background from "Calling for Service: Mobilization o..."
...Citizens do not tend to support and cooperate with organizations that they believe lack a legitimate role in society (Bayley, 2002; Bennett, 2004)....
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References
688 citations
"Calling for Service: Mobilization o..." refers background or methods in this paper
...Reiss (1971), using data from the Chicago Police Department, concludes that 83% of police activity was devoted to non-criminal incidents....
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...The work of Cummings, Cummings, and Edell (1965), Wilson (1968), Webster (1970), and Reiss (1971) show that, contrary to popular belief, the police spend most of their time delivering non-criminal services....
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...Calls for service designs rely upon citizen complaints communicated to the police and/or calls dispatched to patrol officers (Bercal, 1970; Cummings et al., 1965; Lilly, 1978; Reiss, 1971; Webster, 1970; Wilson, 1968)....
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...As examples, Reiss (1971) used one month’s data from Chicago, Shane (1980) used one week’s worth of data from Israel, Wilson (1968) used one week of data in Syracuse, and Bayley (1985) sampled days across four months....
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598 citations
597 citations
"Calling for Service: Mobilization o..." refers background in this paper
...As Crank (1998) notes, the police subculture is a powerful force in directing and controlling police behavior....
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356 citations
224 citations