Media coverage of stand your ground laws deters crime in some cities, but not in others

So-called ‘stand your ground laws’ – which give people the right to use deadly force to defend themselves – have now been in place for a decade. In new research which uses a Texas shooting incident as a case study, Ling Ren, Yan Zhang, and Jihong “Solomon” Zhao examine whether or not the publicity over shooting incidents where the law is invoked helps to deter crime – specifically residential and business burglaries. They find that such media coverage of high-profile incidents does have a deterrent effect in some nearby cities, but not in others

Acculturation and fear of crime among Hispanics

Fear of crime has attracted significant attention in academic research. One area that has largely been overlooked concerns fear of crime correlates among Hispanics, the largest ethnic minority group in the United States. Their unique cultural background as immigrants make them different from Non-Hispanic Whites and African Americans, and they all go through the acculturation process to some degree. However, the influence of acculturation has seldom been incorporated into the analysis. The current study attempts to use the acculturation thesis to examine two different types of fear among Hispanic residents in Houston, Texas. The findings suggest that acculturation is a significant predictor of crime-specific fear at home, but not of fear of crime in the neighborhood

The impact of race/ethnicity, neighborhood context, and police/citizen interaction on residents' attitudes toward the police

The purpose of this study was to extend the current knowledge of public attitudes toward the police. Independent variables derived from three models, the demographic, the neighborhood context, and the police/citizen interaction models, were used to explain public perceptions of the police. More specifically, public attitudes toward the police was measured in two dimensions-- General Attitudes toward the police and Specific Trust in the police. The data was obtained by a telephone survey of 756 respondents in Houston, TX in 2008. The primary findings suggested that race, gender, age, victimization, and satisfaction with police work were significant predictors. Hispanic respondents reported lower levels of General Attitudes toward the police than their White counterparts. In addition, there was no significant difference between Whites and Hispanics in terms of Specific Trust in police such as the use of Taser guns. These results and their practical implications for police agencies were addressed in discussion.

The effect of micro-level disorder incidents on public attitudes toward the police

Purpose: Drawing upon the police accountability model, the purpose of this paper is to advance the research on public attitudes toward the police (PATP) by examining the effects of reported disorder incidents at the micro level on the two dimensions of PATP. Design/methodology/approach: This study uses two waves of random sample telephone survey of 2,393 residents in Houston, Texas. The disorder data were provided by the Houston Police Department. Disorder incidents surrounding each respondent’s residence were extracted by using geographic information systems technology. Structural equation modeling was used for the analysis. Findings: The main findings suggest that while the observational measure of disorder exerts no direct impact on residents’ general attitudes toward the police; it has a significant impact on specific attitudes toward the police measured by using the neighborhoods as the principle geographical context. In addition, documented disorder incidents are found to be a robust predictor of perceptions of disorder in both models. Originality/value: The measurement of PATP was ambiguous in the research literature and scholarly attention to the observational factors such as reported disorder incidents has been lacking. This study fills the gap of the relevant literature by measuring PATP as a two-dimensional concept and incorporating reported disorder incidents into the analysis

The impact of political entity on confidence in legal authorities: A comparison between China and Taiwan

The current study compared the public confidence in legal authorities in two different political entities: China and Taiwan. Data from the 2005 World Values Surveys were used, and the results from the ordinal logistic regression models indicated that the Chinese had significantly more confidence in their police and the courts than did the Taiwanese. The variable, nation, was found to be the strongest predictor of the levels of public confidence in legal authorities between China and Taiwan. In addition, interests in politics and a sense of anomie were two other significant predictors of the confidence. Those who were interested in politics showed a higher level of confidence in legal authorities whereas those suffered from anomie demonstrated a reduced level of confidence in both societies. It is concluded that public opinions must be understood within the broader entity contexts and data from an authoritarian state should only be used with caution.

Determinants of public confidence in police: An international perspective

Previous studies concerning public confidence in the police had primarily focused on demographic, attitudinal, and contextual factors in the United States. Little research, however, has used country-level variables to explain variations that exist across countries. As a result, this study examined the impact of country-level predictors (e.g., homicide rate and level of democracy) as well as individual-level predictors on public confidence in the police by utilizing data sets collected from three international surveys. Using hierarchical generalized linear modeling (HGLM) for the multinomial dependent variable, this study found a significant and negative relationship between homicide rate and public confidence in the police. People living in a country with a higher homicide rate reported lower levels of confidence in the police. Level of democracy was also found to be positively related to public confidence in the police. Of the individual-level variables, age and education were found to be significant predictors. A positive relationship was also found between political conservatism or personal satisfaction and confidence in the police. In line with attitudinal and contextual predictors, individuals with higher levels of acceptance toward deviant subcultures reported lower levels of confidence in the police. On the other hand, those who were more satisfied with their country's democratic development showed more favorable attitudes toward the police. The findings of this study implied that police organizations should put greater efforts toward the reduction of crime while protecting democratic values within a society.