Read more
Much research on policing focuses on individual officer decision making in the field, but officers are positioned within organizations. Organizational characteristics, including structures, policies, management, training, culture, traditions, and the environmental context affect individual officer behavior and attitudes. Recent high-profile controversies surrounding policing have generated interest in examining what factors may have led to current crises.
In this book, contributors discuss how police department priorities are made; how departments respond to sexual assault complaints; how forensic scientists deal with job stress and satisfaction; how police use gun crime incident reviews for problem solving and information sharing; how police officers view the use of body-worn cameras given their perceptions of organizational justice; and how officers view their work culture. The purpose of this book is to give policy makers and scholars some guidance on the interplay between the individual and the organization. By understanding this dynamic, police administrators should be able to better devise reform efforts. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Crime and Justice.
List of contents
Introduction: Thinking about Police Organizations
1.
How perceptions of the institutional environment shape organizational priorities: findings from a survey of police chiefs
2. Active representation and police response to sexual assault complaints
3. Examining the impact of organizational and individual characteristics on forensic scientists' job stress and satisfaction 4. Gun crime incident reviews as a strategy for enhancing problem solving and information sharing
5. The impact of law enforcement officer perceptions of organizational justice on their attitudes regarding body-worn cameras
6. Understanding the culture of craft: lessons from two police agencies
About the author
George W. Burruss is an Associate Professor in the Department of Criminology at the University of South Florida and the Florida Center for Cybersecurity, USA.
Matthew J. Giblin is Professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, USA.
Joseph A. Schafer is Professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at Southern Illinois University, Carbondale, USA.
Summary
This book seeks to explain how individual police officers conduct themselves given the organizational structures that they work within. This book was originally published as a special issue of the Journal of Crime and Justice.
