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The purpose of this study is to partially test the broken windows thesis, and to evaluate the effect of Houston's Differential Response Team (DRT) in particular at the patrol division level using crime-related calls for service data (CFS) in the city. Monthly DRT assignment data over a period of 13 years in five different space-time patterns were utilized to estimate the effect of targeted disorder enforcement from 2005 to 2017. Our findings suggest that the DRT overall did not produce significant effects on crime-related calls, with only one out of five space-time patterns showing demonstrable benefit. We highlighted the underlying features generating differential rates of crime across geographic areas as an explanation in the discussion section. The unique feature of this study was the focus on routine police activities as opposed to arrests as the key indicator of law enforcement intervention in the management of crime. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

This study made use of delinquent subculture theories developed in the United States to examine juvenile attitudes toward the police in China. The data were collected from face-to-face interviews conducted with 358 adjudicated youth offenders incarcerated in a province-run juvenile prison in an ethnic minority autonomous region of China. The analysis includes variables derived from delinquent subcultures theories as well as traditional models commonly employed in the U.S. literature. The findings suggest that juvenile offenders in the sample tend to rate the police positively and delinquent subculture theories have their utility in explaining juvenile offenders’ sentiments toward the police. Explanations were provided for findings that are distinctive for this Chinese sample. Study limitations and relevant policy implications were discussed. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Public attitudes toward the police (PATP) have become a key area of policing research. Even a cursory review of the literature shows that few studies pay attention to the development of theoretical constructs concerning outcome variable(s)—PATP. The purpose of this study is to advance our knowledge of the psychometric properties of PATP. More specifically, drawing upon Easton’s theory of public support, we examine the discriminant validity of diffuse PATP and specific PATP and explore whether there is a neighborhood-conditioning effect in the response to items tapping into the concept of PATP. We use the two waves of telephone surveys collected in Houston, Texas in 2010 and 2012, which include responses from more than 2,500 residents. Confirmatory factor analysis is utilized to conduct the psychometric analysis, as it is an appropriate approach to testing theory-driven factor structures for the attitude-based constructs. The initial results were validated and then replicated. The results lend support for a two-factor model of PATP, where neighborhood is identified as a key moderator. Three important observations concerning measures of PATP are highlighted. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]