Police and Society (2nd ed.)

Citation

Wolf, R. (2000), "Police and Society (2nd ed.)", Policing: An International Journal, Vol. 23 No. 4, pp. 555-556. https://doi.org/10.1108/pijpsm.2000.23.4.555.1

In this revised edition of Police and Society, the authors develop a very real sense of how police officers work in American society. The text explores both the historical circumstances of American police, and current trends facing modern law enforcement. Topics include police management and police methodology, change and innovation, the selection and development of officers, police ethics, behavior, and the use of force.

The book is intended for use as a college text in courses that explore the function of police in a democratic society. Roberg, Crank and Kuykendall carefully examine police recruiting, selection, and training of new officers and ethical issues surrounding law enforcement officers and management in America. In the first chapter, the authors note that “[t]he police, in both concept and practice, conflict with some of the important characteristics of a democratic society” (p. 7). In our desire to be free, we must have police that can take away that freedom in order to protect the rights of others in our society.

The book incorporates case studies and scenarios to explain the theories and terms presented throughout the book. While primarily written to students of criminal justice with little or no experience in law enforcement, the book also appropriately examines issues appropriate to practicing law enforcement professionals. In the discussion of “the police role”, the book examines the history of policing in England and North America. The chapter also looks at the emergence of modern policing in the USA. This section also discusses the emerging role of community policing and police‐minority group relations. Remiss however, is a discussion of how policing emerged on the European continent. While this is not a critical omission, these chapters could have benefited greatly by comparing and contrasting the system in England with the “informant” system used in France and other parts of the globe.

The second part of the book, entitled “Police administration”, documents various police management styles, including classical, behavioral and modern police management. Here they discuss how organizations, including police agencies, must plan for and accept change as an important part of organizational growth. This section includes chapters on the selection and development of officers including recruiting, academy training, screening processes, and field training programs. Additionally, this section addresses the role of the patrol officer and field operations in a police department.

Part three, “Police behavior”, examines various studies of police discretion, decision‐making, and police deviance. The theories of “noble cause” and the “slippery slope” are discussed in relation to types of deviance, the stages of deviant behavior, and the persistence of police corruption. This section also discusses police use of force, including a discussion of the use of force continuum. Although this chapter on police force elaborates on police training, firearms, weapons, tactics, and community reaction to use of force, it uses only one example of community standards for acceptable levels of force.

The final section of the book discusses “Contemporary issues” in law enforcement, including the development of higher education requirements for police officers, stress and stress factors, and the future of policing. This section also aptly discusses the historical context of women and minorities in police agencies in America. The authors also discuss modern attempts to appropriately recruit, train, and mobilize women and minorities including studies on the effectiveness of these officers.

One of the greatest strengths of this book lies in this section: the inclusion of a discussion of the environmental factors that affect how police are organized and factors that may influence their continued growth and prosperity. While no section would be complete if they did not mention the change in demographics of the jurisdiction in which they serve, what this book adds that many others omit is the influence of the federal government. Perhaps at no time in history has the influence of the federal government in policing been more important than today. This can be seen in the time lag between the introduction of ideas surrounding community‐oriented policing to the full‐scale development and dissemination of the ideology of community policing with the introduction of Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act of 1994. With this act, the government established the COPS office to distribute and disseminate funds to promote the ideas of community policing. While many in academe and policing readily acknowledge this influence, criminal justice students are generally slow to acknowledge this fact. The authors need to be commended for the inclusion of this section. This section is one of this text’s strengths.

By placing police agencies in the context of other public and private organizations, comparisons can be made illustrating to students how they are both similar and different than other agencies in the public and private sector.

No review would be complete without a market analysis of this text compared to others on the market today. This revision and the addition of John Crank to the text elevates this text to a different tier. While I would have liked to see more organizational elements included or a chapter on police organizations specifically, no text in print today can say that they give ample coverage the vast variety and plethora of topics in policing that this text does.

In sum, this text presents itself as a sound and viable alternative to many of the other policing texts on the market today. Clear, easy to understand tables, charts, and case studies make the book an excellent source for an undergraduate course on how the police fit in a democratic society. Roberg, Crank and Kuykendall do a wonderful job of providing a foundation of information for the study of policing and law enforcement, and also provide a wonderful literature review of current and historical studies about police. I heartily encourage those in academe who have not looked at this text to review it and consider it for adoption. While I am not a fan of repeatedly adopting the latest policing text, I consider this text to be the exception to the rule.