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To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2010.06.010 Byline: Yung-Lien Lai (a), Liqun Cao (b), Jihong Solomon Zhao (a) Abstract: 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. Author Affiliation: (a) College of Criminal Justice, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX 77341, United States (b) Criminology, Justice & Policy Studies, University of Ontario Institute of Technology, 2000 Simcoe Street North, Oshawa, ON, Canada L1H 7K4, United States

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2010.04.042 Byline: Yung-Lien Lai, Jihong Solomon Zhao Abstract: 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. Author Affiliation: College of Criminal Justice, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX 77341, United States Article Note: (footnote) [star] This paper was accepted under the Editorship of Kent Joscelyn., [star][star] Data collection for this project was funded by Houston Police Department (HPD), City of Houston, TX. The interpretations and opinions contained herein are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official opinion of the HPD.

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2010.03.003 Byline: Jihong Zhao (a), Ling Ren (a), Nicholas P. Lovrich (b) Abstract: Only limited research was available on the important question of the likely determinants of changes in budgetary allocations to municipal police agencies over time. Within that rather limited set of studies, three distinct perspectives on hypothesized key determinants of funding levels for police could be identified -- namely, the local political culture, the nature of socioeconomic conditions, and the prevalence of incremental budget decision-making processes. This study employed a longitudinal data set derived from municipal clerk surveys administered in four waves to the same cross-section of U.S. cities in 1993, 1996, 2000, and 2003. The authors examined the relative utility of these three hypothesized determinants through the use of a two-way random-effects panel model. The findings for 188 U.S. municipal governments suggested that the incremental budgeting aspect of annual budgeting in municipal governments largely explained the variation in share of allocation to police agencies in these cities, with political culture and socioeconomic conditions demonstrating only weak effects at best. Author Affiliation: (a) College of Criminal Justice, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX 77341, United States (b) Division of Governmental Studies and Services, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, United States

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2009.11.008 Byline: Hyunseok Jang (a), Hee-Jong Joo (b), Jihong (Solomon) Zhao (b) Abstract: 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. Author Affiliation: (a) Department of Criminal Justice and Legal Studies, Missouri Western State University, St. Joseph, MO 64507, United States (b) College of Criminal Justice, Sam Houston State University, Huntsville, TX 77341, United States

The current study attempted to expand the understanding victimization of police by examining the impact of a variety of factors related to community and aggressive policing styles on injurious assaults rates across 267 large municipal police departments. Regression analyses indicated that policing styles related to community meetings are associated with low levels of assault rates. Second. policing styles related to aggressive enforcement of drug laws has an aggravating effect on police victimization. Finally. departments that had high police-to-citizen population ratios also had lesser rates of injurious assaults.

The purpose of this study was to examine the efficacy of social control and social support policies associated with conservative and liberal political ideologies with respect to violent crime in large U.S. cities during the 1990s. Eighty-five cities with populations of 150,000+ were included in the analysis: these cities accounted for fifty-two million urban area residents of the U.S. The use of the two-way, fixed-effect panel data method of statistical analysis enabled the authors to assess the relationship between change in local government expenditures for police and court services (social control) and expenditures on community development and park/recreation (support policy) and corresponding changes in crime rates documented within these cities. The findings indicated that expenditure on both police services and community development initiatives had significantly suppressive effects on crime in these cities during the period of the 1990s. It appeared that both conservative and liberal policies had their merits as effective countermeasures to crime.

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2006.09.011 Byline: Jihong Zhao (a), Ni He (b), Nicholas Lovrich (c) Abstract: In research on policing, James Q. Wilson was among the first scholars to suggest that local political culture constitutes a significant factor in explaining variation among law enforcement agency practices. Almost forty years after the publication of Varieties of Police Behavior, a classic study of police organizational behavior, Wilson's monograph remains the basis of a widely held theory used to explain variation in police agency behaviors. More specifically, Wilson (1968) identified three distinctive styles of policing: the legalistic, the watchman, and the service styles. In his empirical work with these styles of policing, Wilson argued that local political culture was the major determinant of variation in policing styles. The purpose of this study was to retest the validity of Wilson's argument in today's policing environment. Using panel data collected among police agencies across the U.S. surveyed in 1993, 1996, and 2000, the authors found that there was little evidence to support the application of Wilson's theory to the practices of contemporary police organizations. Author Affiliation: (a) Department of Criminal Justice, University of Nebraska at Omaha, Omaha, NE 68182, United States (b) College of Criminal Justice, Northeastern University, Boston, MA 02115, United States (c) Department of Political Science, Washington State University, Pullman, WA 99164, United States

In research on policing, James Q. Wilson was among the first scholars to suggest that local political culture constitutes a significant factor in explaining variation among law enforcement agency practices. Almost forty years after the publication of Varieties of Police Behavior, a classic study of police organizational behavior, Wilson's monograph remains the basis of a widely held theory used to explain variation in police agency behaviors. More specifically, Wilson (1968) identified three distinctive styles of policing: the legalistic, the watchman, and the service styles. In his empirical work with these styles of policing, Wilson argued that local political culture was the major determinant of variation in policing styles. The purpose of this study was to retest the validity of Wilson's argument in today's policing environment. Using panel data collected among police agencies across the U.S. surveyed in 1993, 1996, and 2000, the authors found that there was little evidence to support the application of Wilson's theory to the practices of contemporary police organizations.

To link to full-text access for this article, visit this link: http://dx.doi.org/10.1016/j.amjsurg.2005.10.008 Byline: Shibin Yu, Jinrong Li, Zubing Li, Wenfeng Zhang, Jihong Zhao Keywords: Neck dissection; Oral cavity; Squamous cell carcinoma; Supraomohyoid Abstract: Supraomohyoid neck dissection (SOHND) has been identified as an appropriate staging procedure to provide valuable pathologic information of the neck for patients with oral squamous cell carcinoma. However, the role of SOHND as a therapeutic procedure, compared with the oncologic results of radical neck dissection, remains controversial for lack of adequate data in current literature. Author Affiliation: The First Department of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgery, School of Stomatology, Wuhan University, 237 Luoyu Rd., Wuhan, 430079, China Article History: Received 13 February 2004; Revised 5 October 2004

The interactive effects of race and gender in a multi-dimensional assessment of police occupational stress were examined in this study. The sample from a large urban police department was divided into four subgroups: White males, African-American males, White females, and African-American females. Comparisons were carried out to assess group differences in three major domains of stress process: stressors, coping mechanisms, and multiple psychological manifestations of stress. Specific attentions were paid to observe any similar or dissimilar interactive effects of race and gender on the stress process. The results showed that dynamic factors such as measures of work environment and coping mechanisms contributed more in explaining police stress than static factors such as race and gender. Additionally, destructive coping and work-family conflict (spillover) were the most stable correlates of police stress across all subgroups included in the analysis. The impacts of negative exposure and camaraderie on police stress were conditional on the subgroup statuses. Limitations and implications of the study are discussed.

The study of confidence in the police in Latin America is rare, partially for lack of interest and partially for lack of reliable data. Social, economic, and political instability in those countries also contributes to the problem. Relying on data from the World Values Surveys 1995-1997, the current research proposed a theory of the police in transitional societies and reported the results of analyses of confidence in the police in nine countries of Latin America. The levels of confidence in the police in the nine Latin American nations were compared with that of the U.S. The inclusion of a heterogeneous set of control variables in the multivariate analysis yielded several consistent predictors of confidence in the police. Similar to the findings in the U.S., confidence in the police in Latin America was part of the broader attitude complex. Different from the findings in the U.S., confidence in the police was positively related to one's employment status and religiosity, and negatively to income.

Using panel data collected on a representative sample of police departments serving populations of 25,000+ residents across the country in 1993, 1996, and 2000 (N = 281), fixed-effect panel models were used to assess the influence of environmental and institutional variables on the hiring of African American and Latino officers. The primary findings were that the presence of a substantial minority population was among the most important predictors of minority officer employment in city police departments. The presence of a Latino mayor and the presence of an African American or a Latino police chief were also significantly associated with increased minority police officer employment. Additionally, no evidence was found to suggest a detrimental impact caused by different minority groups competing with each other for limited police employment resources. Implications for future research are discussed in some detail.

This article examines the environmental impact on the programmatic implementation of community-oriented policing (COP) in large municipal police agencies during the 1990s. Three waves of nationwide surveys (1993, 1996, and 2000) based on a random sample of 281 municipalities and the corresponding police agencies were used for our analysis. Based on one-way generalized least square (GLS) panel data analysis, we found that post-Crime Control Act of 1994 federal funding and council-manager forms of government are significant predictors of COP implementation. To the contrary, other environmental factors such as personnel resources, city socioeconomic status, and mechanisms for citizen participation did not yield any statistically significant effects. Keywords: community policing; program implementation

Data from a five-wave panel probability sample of families in the State of Washington were analyzed to test the hypothesis that female headship and welfare experience increased participation in and frequency of juvenile delinquency. Appropriate statistical models of random effect probit and negative binomial were employed. Results indicated that there were no direct effects of female headship and welfare experience on either prevalence or frequency of juvenile delinquency. Instead, it was found that the number of adult presence in a household and the child's school attachment significantly reduced the probability of delinquency and the tendency of being referred again in court.

The authors studied the relative influence of demographic factors and work environment or management-related factors on job satisfaction of security police in the U.S. Air Force. Work environment factors were associated with job satisfaction, whereas demographic factors were not significant.

This paper attempts to identify and empirically test the important factors broadly assumed to be associated with the noteworthy increase in African American officers in U.S. municipal police agencies. Using data collected on a representative sample of police departments serving populations of 25,000 + residents across the country (N = 281), a path analysis statistical method was employed in order to assess both the direct and indirect influences of these hypothesized explanatory variables. The primary finding is that the size of the African American population is the predominant contributor to a statistical model accounting for substantial variation in the representation of African American officers in U.S. cities. Other hypothesized factors are far less important than generally believed.

Data from a national survey of police departments are presented to explore the progression of American policing from a traditional orientation to a community policing model. Despite widespread support for [...]

Competing models of prison rule violation exist in criminology. The deprivation model proposes that inmate rule infraction is the product of the stressful and oppressive conditions within the prison itself. In contrast, the importation model argues that characteristics of individuals that predate confinement, such as race and gender, are critical factors in determining modes of inmate adjustment. Individual-level data from the Ohio correctional bureau are used to evaluate the efficacy of these two models. The results of analyses support the importation model over the relative deprivation model. The implications of the study are discussed within the limitations of the data. [C] 1997 Elsevier Science Ltd

This article examines change in the organizational priorities of the three core functions of American policing -- crime control, order maintenance, and service provision -- in an era of community policing. The nature of contemporary organizational change in policing is analyzed using panel data from national surveys of 200+ municipal police departments conducted in 1993 and 1996. Two competing perspectives, contingency theory and institutional theory, are tested for their ability to account for survey findings. The primary findings indicate that police core function priorities have remained largely unchanged during this period. Rather than represent a systematic adaptation to a changing environment, in many police agencies, community-oriented policing (COP) seems to represent a method of strategic buffering of a largely unaltered core police operation reflective of the professional model.