Trends in Police Research: A Cross‐Sectional Analysis of the 2001 Literature

Abstract

This review is the second in a special annual feature in Police Practice & Research: An International Journal. It provides a cross‐sectional analysis of the police literature for the year 2001 highlighting the substantive typologies that the literature falls under as well as publication mediums and methodological trends. In doing so, the authors provide a ‘snapshot’ of the current research trends in policing and, using the results of their 2000 review as a baseline, state both substantive and methodological research patterns in this specific field of criminology.

Keywords:

• Police
• Police Research
• Police Trends
• Police Literature Review

Notes

Correspondence to: Karen A. Beckman, Police Research Group, Department of Criminology, University of Maryland, 2220 LeFrak Hall, College Park, MD 20742, USA. Email: [email protected]

This research was conducted by the Police Research Group at the Department of Criminology, University of Maryland, a graduate student organization under the direction of Professor David Weisburd.

See Beckman, K., Lum, C., Wyckoff, L., & Larsen‐Vanderwall, K. (2003). Trends in police research: A cross‐sectional analysis of the 2000 literature. Police Practice & Research: An International Journal, 4(1), 79–96.

The reference date for database holding is 31 August 2003. Given the inherent limitations of abstract databases, readers are cautioned that the resulting bibliography may not be representative of all the police literature published in 2001. There was a significant increase in the number of eligible literature between 2000 (n = 335) and 2001 (n = 424). We believe that this increase is due to factors relating to abstract databases and not research methodology. Factors such as improvements in timely database updates and the addition of new sources are logical explanations of this increase.

Terrorism was the only new subcategory identified in the 2001 review. The analysis was conducted including and excluding this category and trends were not significantly affected by the addition.

In alphabetical order by subcategory.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Karen A. Beckman

Correspondence to: Karen A. Beckman, Police Research Group, Department of Criminology, University of Maryland, 2220 LeFrak Hall, College Park, MD 20742, USA. Email: [email protected]