Synopses & Reviews
The relationship between police and the communities and citizens they serve has long been a topic of study and controversy. Sung provides a place-oriented theory of policing to guide strategies for crime control and problem-oriented policing. He contends that community policing is a product of power relations among communities. Sung also explores:
•how police and citizens interact with each other in stratified and residentially segregated communities
•how services are delivered by police
•how citizens respond to those charged with protecting them and enforcing the law
Illuminating the police-neighborhood and advancing a clear hypothesis for explaining and predicting changes in police behavior, this both provides a conceptual platform for public policy debate, planning, and evaluation of police, public safety, and democratic governance.
According to Sung, place has everything to do with the success of community policing, and the attitudes of both police and citizens contribute to the success or failure of police initiatives as well as the level of crime inherent in a community. By focusing on the social and political forces that shape the residential patterns of American cities and the organization of police work, Sung provides a theoretical framework for considering the relations between police and citizens in different neighborhoods. He concludes that current modes of police-community relations and crime prevention will improve only if the policies adopted encourage the transformation of marginal communities into communities where citizens feel a shared responsibility for maintaining and peace and order. This unique contribution to a growing field of study provides an ecological theory of police-citizen relations that begins with the inequality and segregation inherent in many American cities.
Review
[p]rovides a nice sociological understanding of the migration to and from various segments of American communities and provides the context of the crime issue in this broader, historical perspective.Criminal Justice Review
Review
This book is an elegant antidote to the prevailing notion that there are technical and managerial solutions under the control of the police to crime and the improvement of police-public relation. Sung shows persuasively that police are not autonomous social actors, but are constrained by the political/social/economic structures of the communities in which. Moreover, that their customary patterns of interaction with communities shape the possibilities for their own reform. In short, making the police more effective as well as more humane requires reform of more than the policeDavid H. Bayley Distinguished Professor School of Criminal Justice State University of New York at Albany
Synopsis
A testable theory of police-citizen relations capable of explaining and predicting the relationship between police and citizens in American cities is laid out in this illuminating study. Sung provides a "place-oriented" theory of policing to guide strategies for crime control and problem-oriented policing, as he contends that community policing is a product of power relations among communities. Also explored: - How police and citizens interact with each other in stratified and residentially segregated communities - How services are delivered by police - How citizens respond to those charged with protecting them and enforcing the law.
Synopsis
Lays out a testable theory of police-citizen relations capable of explaining and predicting the relationship between police and citizens in American cities.
About the Author
HUNG-EN SUNG is the Research Director for the Drug Treatment Alternative-to-Prison program at the Kings County District Attorney's Office in New York.
Table of Contents
Preface
Introduction
Police-Citizen Relations
The Residential Organization of American Metropolises
The Ecology of Police-Community Relations: Hypotheses
Data, Variables, and Analytical Strategy
Testing the Theory
Conclusion and Discussion
Bibliography
Index