Situational policing: neighbourhood development and crime control

Abstract

Over the past two decades, the Broken Windows version of social disorganization theory has had a significant impact on law enforcement practices in the United States. Contemporary sociologists, however, have demonstrated that neighbourhood‐level collective efficacy (or a lack thereof) is a more significant predictor of violent crime than are physical and social disorder (i.e., broken windows). Collective efficacy is viewed as an evolving neighbourhood‐level property. We posit that neighbourhoods pass through, regress to, or get stuck in identifiable stages of development as they move toward (or away from) higher levels of collective efficacy. Giving consideration to both stage of neighbourhood development and level of neighbourhood crime and disorder, we construct four neighbourhood types: Strong, Vulnerable, Anomic and Responsive. The concept of “situational policing”, then, is introduced as a way to address effectively both the development of collective efficacy, and the occurrence of crime and disorder in each neighbourhood type.

Keywords:

• Situational policing
• Community policing
• Group processes
• Collective efficacy

Notes

James J. Nolan, III, Division of Sociology and Anthropology, West Virginia University, USA. Norman Conti, Department of Sociology, Duquesne University, USA. Jack McDevitt, College of Criminal Justice at Northeastern University, USA. Correspondence to: James J. Nolan III, Division of Sociology & Anthropology, School of Applied Social Sciences, West Virginia University, 307 Knapp Hall, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA. E‐mail: [email protected]

By causes of crime in neighbourhoods, we take Sampson and Raudenbush's view of neighbourhoods as “units of control” over public spaces as opposed to the “production of offenders”.

Throughout this article we discuss the role of the police in combating crime and disorder. Our thesis pertains to the order‐maintenance function of the police rather than their investigative, legal and scientific functions relative to the arrest and prosecution of individuals who violate criminal laws.

As Sampson and Raudenbush describe collective efficacy, it does not require personal friendship or kinship ties, but rather shared expectations for action in the public sphere.

On average, there were 120 face blocks per census tract in this study. A face block is defined as “the block segment on one side of the street” ( Sampson & Raudenbush, 1999: 616).

The area used in the Sampson and Raudenbush study was probably at Suttles” Level 3, a “community of limited liability”.

We acknowledge that in order to subject our thesis to empirical study, it will probably be necessary to define a small geographic area for which police and other social data are available.

The idea of situational policing comes partly from the literature on situational leadership—see Hershey and Blanchard (1982) as an example.

Nolan and Nuttall (1994) describe a process that was employed in a Weed & Seed (community policing) site in Wilmington, Delaware that involved the formation of a task force of city department heads that met monthly to coordinate efforts and resources on complex problems that cut across agency lines.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

James J. Nolan, III

James J. Nolan, III, Division of Sociology and Anthropology, West Virginia University, USA. Norman Conti, Department of Sociology, Duquesne University, USA. Jack McDevitt, College of Criminal Justice at Northeastern University, USA. Correspondence to: James J. Nolan III, Division of Sociology & Anthropology, School of Applied Social Sciences, West Virginia University, 307 Knapp Hall, Morgantown, WV 26506, USA. E‐mail: [email protected]