Police Community Engagement and Evidence-Based Crime Reduction Strategies

Dear Colleagues,

Police having systematic positive interactions with the community is important for building trust and legitimacy and is key for encouraging both the community and the police to be more willing to work together to prevent and reduce crime. It is particularly important now as police departments seek to improve their relationships with the community while, at the same time, implementing proactive crime reduction strategies. This Special Issue requests papers that seek to understand the opportunities and challenges that police face in carrying out proactive crime reduction strategies along with proactive community engagement. The goal of this Special Issue is to provide examples and guidance for police practitioners, city officials, and communities to work together to address crime and disorder in their communities.

Areas of inquiry might include the following: implementation by police and impacts on organizational culture and change; impacts on trust in and legitimacy of the police; the impact of crime reduction/prevention efforts on community perceptions and engagement; the impact on crime and disorder. In particular, papers that focus on how police organizations combine and integrate evidence-based approaches that are problem-oriented, place-based, person-focused, and community-based are sought. Other specific areas of focus might be the use of crime analysis to support crime reduction and community engagement implementation and mechanisms that lay out expectations and hold personnel accountability for proactive crime reduction strategies and/or community engagement. Papers might include results from surveys, interviews, observations, evaluations, and case studies. We also encourage submissions that consider the cross-national examination of these concepts.

Dr. Rachel Boba Santos
Dr. Scott M. Mourtgos
Dr. Roberto G Santos
Guest Editors

Manuscript Submission Information

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