Crime, Insecurity, and Community Policing
Experiments on Building Trust

Presents the outcome of a major research initiative into the efficacy of community policing in a diversity of political contexts.

Graeme Blair (Edited by), Fotini Christia (Edited by), Jeremy M. Weinstein (Edited by)

9781009235884, Cambridge University Press

Hardback, published 5 December 2024

588 pages
23.5 x 15.8 x 3.7 cm, 0.97 kg

'Community policing has been a popular strategy, aiming to combat crime while strengthening relations between citizens and states. Crime, Insecurity, and Community Policing reports on an extraordinary collection of collaborations between researchers and police forces that put these ideas to the test in 700 neighborhoods across 6 countries. Across research teams, across contexts, and for a wide range of behavioral and attitudinal measures, the findings show no support for the promised benefits of a switch to community policing. Rigorous and reflective, this book serves as a wake-up call to practitioners seeking to transplant policing models across contexts without also engaging with the underlying incentives facing police agencies.' Macartan Humphreys, Director of the Institutions and Political Inequality group at the WZB Berlin Social Science Center and Honorary Professor of Social Sciences at Trinity College Dublin and Humboldt University of Berlin

How can societies effectively reduce crime without exacerbating adversarial relationships between the police and citizens? In recent decades, perhaps the most celebrated innovation in police reform has been the introduction of community policing, where citizens are involved in building channels of dialogue and improving police-citizen collaboration. Despite the widespread adoption of community policing in the United States and increasingly in the developing world, there is still limited credible evidence about whether it realistically increases trust in the police or reduces crime. Through simultaneously coordinated field experiments in a diversity of political contexts, this book presents the outcome of a major research initiative into the efficacy of community policing. Scholars from around the world uncover whether, and under what conditions, this highly influential strategy for tackling crime and insecurity is effective. With its highly innovative approach to cumulative learning, this project represents a new frontier in the study of police reform.

Part I. Crime, Insecurity, and Policing: 1. Introduction Graeme Blair, Fotini Christia and Jeremy M. Weinstein
2. Crime, violence, and insecurity Graeme Blair, Fotini Christia and Jeremy M. Weinstein
3. The policing challenge Graeme Blair, Ellen Chapin, Fotini Christia and Jeremy M. Weinstein
4. Understanding community policing Graeme Blair, Fotini Christia, Andrew Miller and Jeremy M. Weinstein
5. Studying community policing Graeme Blair, Fotini Christia and Jeremy M. Weinstein
Part II. The Effects of Community Policing: 6. Meta-analysis of the effects of community policing Graeme Blair, Fotini Christia, Fatiq Nadeem and Jeremy M. Weinstein
7. Can trust be built through citizen monitoring of police activity? Evidence from Santa Catarina, Brazil Daniel Barbosa, Thiemo Fetzer, Caterina Soto and Pedro C. L. Souza
8. Do police-community meetings work? Experimental evidence from Medellín, Colombia Rebecca Hanson, Dorothy Kronick, Tara Slough and Eric Arias
9. Community policing, vigilantism, and the rule of law: Evidence from Liberia Benjamin S. Morse
10. Community policing and citizen trust in Pakistan Ali Cheema, Ahsan Zia Farooqui, Ali Hasanain, Jacob N. Shapiro and Zulfiqar Hameed
11. Community policing in the Philippines: Communication, trust, and service provision Dotan Haim, Matthew Nanes and Nico Ravanilla
12. Restoring police-community relations in Uganda Robert A. Blair, Guy Grossman and Anna M. Wilke
Part III. Reflecting on Community Policing: 13. Understanding partnerships with the police Graeme Blair, Ellen Chapin, Fotini Christia and Jeremy M. Weinstein
14. Conclusion Graeme Blair, Fotini Christia and Jeremy M. Weinstein
References.

Subject Areas: Comparative politics [JPB]