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Abstract
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VioLit summary:
OBJECTIVE:
The purpose of this study by Guarino-Ghezzi was to explore how police might alter their procedures for dealing with youth of inner-city neighborhoods. A model is suggested that combines community policing and correctional strategies.
METHODOLOGY:
The author employed a non-experimental review of literature about police work as well as a study of communication patterns between Boston police officers and juvenile offenders.
FINDINGS/DISCUSSION:
The first section of this article discussed the implications of police policies in controlling disorder among inner-city youths. The author reported that the ambiguity of disorderly conduct rules may unintentionally reinforce the behavior those rules are trying to eliminate. The author stated that these ambiguities are partly due to vaguely worded statutes, the proscription of constitutionally protected conduct, and the dependence of police on non-legal cues in determining the nature of the conduct. These ambiguities, according to the author, fail to provide youth with definitive rules of conduct and create an impression of haphazard justice. The author also noted that coercive tactics by police fail to provide lasting order because they fuel long-term resentment and frustration by youth. According to the author, a Boston study found that coercive tactics such as "stop and frisk" tended to deplete police-youth relations. Formal and informal interventions by police initiated by citizen complaints created random control patterns from the point of view of street youth. The effect of this perception was that youths saw police as harassing them rather than maintaining specified rules of conduct.
According to the author, police have recently tended to overlook or misinterpret cognitive development factors because of recent trends in law that have (1) granted adult protection to juveniles, and (2) began to treat juvenile offenders as adults. The author also noted that police have been focusing on gang suppression or break-up rather than the moral development of members of youth gangs. In response to these problems, some jurisdictions have implemented community or problem-oriented policy models. According to the author, one advantage to these models is that police goals incorporate the values and needs of community residents. However, this advantage is equivocal because definitions of conduct emerge that are grounded in the socio-economic and political desires of a certain population of citizens. The author said that reports showing negative feelings toward police by racial minority groups demonstrate how citizen controlled police responses are affected by demographic influences. Improving police relations with inner-city youth will be difficult, according to the author, given that police have a general dislike of gangs. The author also said that police and inner-city gangs have similar reputations that suggest a mutual pattern of hostilities. It was also stated that the Boston study showed that residents of crime infested areas were afraid to report crimes. Moreover, the author found that police officers with reputations for citizen abuse were often permitted to remain on the force despite consistent complaints from citizens. Youths in the Boston study reported a high degree of fear of the police. Additionally, the author cited studies that have shown that many youth offenders have difficulty showing deference to authority.
The second section of this article discussed the lack of protection that police provide to inner-city youths. According to the author, many inner-city crimes such as homicide have been left unsolved; the clearance rate for murder and nonnegligent manslaughter in cities with populations greater than 250,000 declined by 25% between 1971 and 1991. The author also stated that a style of retaliation against familiar aggressors has emerged as a response to police mistrust. Additionally, levels of violence in inner-city neighborhoods has increased to such an extent that youths are adapting by quickly defining themselves as aggressors. The author stated that increased urban violence may be due to an increasing number of ex-offenders returning to the streets. Moreover, police control practices have faced difficulties because more and more victims are offenders and vice versa.
The third part of this study focused on the service gap for youths in transition from correctional facilities back to the community. The author cited a study that said recidivism was chiefly a function of failed reintegration strategies. The author noted that reintegration, selective incapacitation, and police are importantly linked in that police tend to focus their attentions on repeat offenders. The effect of this focus, however, is that the correctional goals of rehabilitation work in contrast to the labeling effect of selective incapacitation. Similarly, police and correctional agents work in tension due to bureaucratic turf lines. The author reported that lack of trust between police and probation and parole officers produced unfavorable stereotypes by the members of both groups. The author said that police could stand to learn a great deal from correctional officers. Regardless of evidence showing increased public safety using a reintegrative approach, political support has been difficult to achieve and maintain.
AUTHOR'S RECOMMENDATIONS:
The last section of this article considered how the police role needs to be reexamined such that their actions are not misinterpreted by youths. It was suggested that police and correctional agents interact and exchange information regarding effective mechanisms for controlling behavior. The author also recommended a process of "reintegrative shaming" whereby youth are accepted back into the community and pressured into authentic remorse. The author suggested that frequent contact between police and ex-offenders take place. This communication is essential because (1) the greater the distance between the police and ex-offenders, the more likely stigmatic reactions will occur that hinder reform, and (2) when police are involved in neighborhoods they are more effective at diffusing violent confrontations. More specifically, the author supported the use of programs that were able to achieve the following goals: (1) give first time offender mandatory community service, (2) place police officers in schools to serve as educators, counselors, and community service agents, and (3) witness-to-violence programs that bring psychiatrists and children who have witnessed crimes together. The author voiced support for a particular program called the Community-Based Youth Authority. Their mission consisted of six objectives: (1) socialization, (2) education, (3) family support, (4) training and employment, (5) social control, and (6) community mobilization and agency coordination. Under this plan, police, probation, and parole agencies would work together under a common agenda, however, police would play a limited enforcement role. The author concluded by recommending that field patrol officers be retrained so that harassment by police is reduced and gradational sanctions to minor offenses are applied.
(CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado)
Massachusetts
Juvenile Offender
Juvenile Crime
Crime Intervention
Police Intervention
Police Community Relations
Police Youth Relations
Law Enforcement Intervention
Law Enforcement Personnel
Law Enforcement Techniques
Reintegration
Community Policing
Urban Crime
Urban Youth
Model
05-05 |