Trends in police research: a cross-sectional analysis of the 2010-2014 literature

ABSTRACT

This review provides a cross-sectional analysis of the police literature for years 2000 to 2014. It represents the ninth special feature review of police research published in Police Practice and Research: An International Journal. The study reports on trends over time in police literature according to substantive categories, publication medium, and methodological typology. The study also relies on findings from prior police research reviews as a basis for a discussion of the long-term patterns of police research over time from 2000 to 2014. A topically organized bibliography of the 2010 to 2014 police literature reviewed is also provided.

KEYWORDS:

• Police
• police research
• police trends
• police literature review
• law enforcement

Acknowledgments

This research piece was conducted by the Police Research Group at the Department of Criminology, Law and Society, George Mason University, a graduate student organization under the direction of Professor David Weisburd. The authors would like to thank Professor Weisburd for his expert guidance as well as for providing the Item 1 in the  “Notes” appended to the Review Essay.

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the authors.

Supplemental data

Supplemental data for this article can be accessed here: https://doi.org/10.1080/15614263.2018.1507914.

Notes

1. This article is part of a series developed by the George Mason University Police Research Group (GMUPRG), supervised by Professor David Weisburd. The GMUPRG is a graduate student effort that focuses on developing knowledge and training in the area of police science. The original paper in the series was published in 2003 (when the group was located at the University of Maryland), and now covers the period from 2000–2014. However, two years were not covered in the reviews (2008–2009) because of the transition of the group between universities. The reviews are meant to provide a broad summary of how policing research has evolved and changed over time, thus adding to the literature on understanding police science. The bibliographies included (from this trends paper forward, the full bibliography is available on line) are expected to provide an important resource for police scholars and students who want to examine the policing literature. The GMUPRG expects to work on a 2008–2009 review over the next year, and will subsequently work to develop the next comprehensive review for the period 2015–2020.

The 2000 to 2007 police literature has been examined in the following prior special features: Beckman et al. (2003); Beckman, Wyckoff, Groff, and Beatty (2004); Beckman, Gibbs, Beatty and Canigiani (2005); Gibbs, Beckman, Miggans, and Hart (2006); Varriale, Gibbs, Ahlin, Gugino, and Na (2007); Telep, Varriale, Gibbs, Na, and Bartholomew (2008); Bartholomew et al. (2009); and Mazeika et al. (2010).

2. Social Science Abstracts (SSA) is used in previous studies. The current review used Social Science Full Text (SSFT) instead due to accessibility. We do not believe this will create any inconsistencies as there is no evidence to suggest that SSFT is less comprehensive than SSA.

3. The year of 2012 appears to deviate on a number of measurements. While the researchers strictly followed the same set of procedures in identifying and coding police publications for the five year period as introduced above, we are not able to connect the observed pattern to any exceptional event occurred in 2012 that affected the number and distribution of police-related studies. In light of potential bias and the publication circle that may have affected the number of studies published in certain years, we think it would be most appropriate and beneficial to understand the patterns of police-related publications in a longitudinal context as presented.

4. For a complete list of citations used in this essay, please contact the corresponding author.

Additional information

Notes on contributors

Xiaoyun Wu

Xiaoyun Wu, Sean Wire, and Jordan Nichols are doctoral students at the department of Criminology, Law and Society at George Mason University. The postal address is 4400 University Drive, MS 6D12, Fairfax, VA 22,030.

Julie Grieco

Julie Grieco is a Senior Research Associate at the Police Foundation. The postal address is 1201 Connecticut Ave NW, Suite 200, Washington D.C. 20,036.

Sean Wire

Alese Wooditch is an Assistant Professor at the department of Criminal Justice at Temple University. The postal address is 1115 W. Polett Walk, Philadelphia, PA 19,122.