New Foundations: Pseudo-pacification and special liberty as potential cornerstones of a multi-level theory of homicide and serial murder

Over the past 30 years the industrialized West has witnessed a move towards space, heterogeneity and subjectivity in the criminological study of violence and homicide. Although large-scale quantitative studies of the temporal and spatial distribution of homicide continue to provide a broad empirical context, aetiological explanations tend to be based on analyses of the heterogeneous psychological interactions and experiences of individual subjects at the micro-level. However, mid-range studies of the temporal and spatial distribution of perpetrators and victims of homicide between unrelated adults have provided a useful link between the micro- and macro-levels. Focusing primarily on British homicide and serial murder, this article attempts to strengthen this link by combining contemporary micro-analyses of the subjective motives of perpetrators with mid-range analyses of space, which can therefore be seen as part of the structural tradition of theorizing about homicide and serial murder. Placing these analyses in a broad underlying context constituted by major historical shifts in political economy and the cultural forms of ‘pseudo-pacification’ and ‘special liberty’ will lay the initial cornerstones for an integrated multi-level theory. © The Author(s) 2014

Assessing the Interrelationships between Perceptions of Impact and Job Satisfaction: A Comparison of Traditional and Community-Oriented Policing Officers

The relationship between officer involvement in community policing and job satisfaction is poorly understood and in need of greater empirical articulation. Using data collected as part of a federally funded community policing program in Philadelphia, this article analyzes the relationships between assignment to a traditional or community policing role, officer perceptions of impact, and three dimensions of job satisfaction. Structural equation modeling is used to explore the causal relationships between these constructs. A series of structural models suggest that, in general, the path leading to job satisfaction is very similar for traditional and community-oriented police officers. In addition, the results suggest that perceived job impact is largely determined by job satisfaction such that officers who are more satisfied with their job are more likely to perceive that they are having an impact, a finding that was invariant across officer patrol type (motorized or community). The implications for improved service delivery through assignment to community policing roles are discussed

The Path-Dependent City

Urban policy making approximates the components of a path-dependent model-random selection and self-reinforcement-which suggests that cities get locked into suboptimal policies. Thus, despite rigid rules of individual and collective behavior posited by many urban theorists, identical cities can evolve along drastically different paths. The author shows how simple time-series models can overlook path dependence and demonstrates the trends of a path-dependent series using budget data from Chicago and New York. New York exhibited policy lock-in in the decades following the Great Depression, but Chicago did not.Peer Reviewedhttp://deepblue.lib.umich.edu/bitstream/2027.42/69129/2/10.1177_107808749803300308.pd