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Following the velvet revolution of 1989 and the adoption of a democratic form of government, Czech policing has experienced a plethora of changes resulting in a new police force that has been understudied to date. This research seeks to address this void using an exploratory approach that utilizes survey research to gauge the attitudes of 70 Czech police officers regarding crime and criminal justice policies; police and government involvement in social and order maintenance problems; and police practices in the Czech Republic (e.g. community‐oriented policing). Several factors – historical, ideology and job tenure – are considered as potential explanations for observed trends in officer attitudes. The results indicate that there are no clear patterns to these officers' attitudes.

While there is a growing body of studies on the people's views of community policing, there have been a very few cross-national studies. The purpose of this paper is to compare and contrast students’ views on community policing from India and the USA.

The data were from a survey from a total of 434 Indian and 484 US college students.

Punitive orientation had a significant effect on attitudes toward community policing, but was related to an increase in the support in India and reduction of support in the USA. Among the Indian respondents, concern for crime and support for aggressive policing had positive associations with support for community policing, and police involvement in the community had a negative association. Among the US respondents, age, educational level, and perceptions of police effectiveness had positive associations with support for community policing, and holding a punitive orientation had a negative association.

This study represents the attempt to examine Indian perceptions of community policing empirically. Uncovering factors that affect public support for community policing can provide useful references for police administrators to develop policies and practices that encourage more active community involvement in crime control.

Although household firearm removal is a recommended strategy for preventing deaths among suicidal youth, appropriate mechanisms for household firearm disposal have not been identified. We surveyed members of an association of police chiefs about experience, polices and attitudes with respect to the collection of firearms turned in to prevent adolescent suicide. Over one‐third of the respondents reported recent firearm turn‐ins to prevent suicide. Three‐quarters of the respondents reported the existence of departmental policy to handle suicide‐related turn‐ins. The existence of departmental policy with respect to firearm surrender was significantly associated with recent suicide‐related turn‐in experience. Attitudes were associated with the existence of a policy and, for departments without a policy, intentions to implement a policy. Inspection of comments provided by informants suggested that attitudes were associated with knowledge about the role of firearms in completed suicide. Although further longitudinal research is needed to evaluate whether policies are a precursor to experience, our data support the viability of this causal hypothesis. A high base rate of existing involvement of police jurisdictions in suicide prevention suggests that prevention efforts focused on expanding police involvement may prove successful. We discuss the development of a written firearm turn‐in policy in one police department and append this policy as an example.

The purpose of this paper is to discuss citizen participation in crime prevention in Kuching, Malaysia. This is a study of how citizen participated in crime prevention has helped in crime reduction in Kuching. Roles of citizen in crime prevention with the police have been included in this study. Result showed that citizen and police joint crime prevention has succeeded in crime reduction in Kuching.

Three methods of data collection were used in this research study: first, face-to-face interviews of 500 head of households in Kuching. They are selected using systematic sampling among the 159,000 households in Kuching. Second, in-depth interviews of 36 respondents involving community leaders and crime watch groups; and third, secondary crime statistics from the Royal Malaysia Police. It is based on actual crime reported to the police.

Police and citizen involvement in crime prevention are effective in reducing crime. Citizen participation in crime prevention was 80.6 per cent. The higher the frequency police and citizen involvement in crime prevention patrols, the lesser the level of crime. With increased joint patrol by police and citizen in the neighbourhood, the level of crime will be lower, and safety will improve, and this is particular valid in the case of the nine geographical areas covered under Kuching police district.

This study focused on citizen participation in crime prevention in Kuching police district only.

Police and citizen participation in crime prevention play a key role in crime reduction. This study argued that police and citizen frequent patrol will improve safety in the community. Training plays a key role for citizen to participate in crime prevention. Joint crime prevention patrol calls for a new breed of police officers who can work with the citizens. In return, the citizens trust the police to lead them in crime prevention.

With citizen participation in crime prevention, the community will be safer, peaceful resulting in less crime. Citizens acted as an eye and ear to the police. As and when a citizen see a suspicious person in the neighbourhood, he informs the police. When the police arrives, the suspicious person who may have a criminal intent will either be arrested by the police or escaped before the police arrived.

This paper provides an insight into crime prevention exercise involving the citizens. The same concept can be implemented throughout Malaysia. Police needs to involve citizens always in crime prevention. Police and the community are one big family.

The Israeli National Police began to implement community policing on a large scale in January of 1995. In this paper we describe the main findings of a three year national evaluation of community policing in Israel that was initiated by the Chief Scientist’s office of the Israeli police in the Fall of 1996. When community policing was envisioned and planned in Israel it was seen as part of a total reformation of the Israeli police in structure, philosophy and action. Our research suggests that this broad idea of community policing was not implemented in Israel, and indeed the program of community policing was found to lose ground during the course of our study. While community policing did have specific impacts on the Israeli police, it did not fundamentally change the perspectives and activities of street level police officers. We explain the difficulties encountered in the implementation of community policing in reference to three factors: the speed of implementation of the program; the resistance of traditional military style organizational culture within the Israeli police to the demands of community policing models; and a lack of organizational commitment to community policing. In our conclusions we argue that these barriers to successful community policing are not unique to the Israel case, and are indeed likely to be encountered in the development of community policing in many other countries.

This study reports findings about what factors affect the job commitment and satisfaction of lower‐ranked police officers. Over the past decade, there have been significant attempts to reform organisational processes within police services of a number of Western democracies. These reforms have changed the organisational context within which policing takes place and, consequently, the work practices of police officers have changed and, in turn, their commitment and satisfaction may also have been affected. The study used Metcalfe and Dick’s instrument for measuring police commitment and Johlke and Duhan’s instrument for measuring the employees’ satisfaction with communication processes between supervisors and service employees. The findings first suggest a relatively high level of pride in the police service, with reasonable levels of identification with the police service’s goals and increased involvement with rank (from constable to sergeant). On the other hand, there is increasing dissatisfaction with appraisal/promotional procedures and information communication modes as rank increases (from constables to sergeants) and an inverse relationship between rank and organisational commitment overall.

This paper seeks to explore the perceptions of both staff and patients to the involvement of the Criminal Justice System (CJS) as a response to physical assaults committed by patients. Even though the ‘zero tolerance’ policy advocates the prosecution of perpetrators of violence, problems can arise when attempting to take legal action against psychiatric patients as the displaying of violent behaviour can be due to their mental illness. Nevertheless, the impact of an assault on victims, including both patient and staff members, can be detrimental. To the best of the author's knowledge these issues have not been investigated in a women's enhanced medium secure service (WEMSS). The conclusions drawn from this research are that the majority of respondents perceived the involvement of the CJS as crucial to maintaining high levels of morale among patients and practitioners, as well as assisting in deterring patients from committing subsequent assaults. However, police reports illustrated reluctance on the part of the Police and the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) to prosecute inpatients.

The present study aims to examine the relationship between public and informal social control by investigating whether perceptions of neighborhood policing exhibit a positive or negative relationship to informal control. The influence of police‐resident coproduction (police attendance at community meetings, police accessibility, police‐resident problem solving) on informal control is contrasted with general perceptions of police effectiveness and legitimacy.

Survey data from 81 neighborhood leaders representing 81 Portland, OR neighborhoods (i.e. unit of analysis), along with crime and census data is used. Analysis involves multivariate OLS regression and correlations.

A frequency of police attendance at community meetings was negatively related to informal social control, controlling for neighborhood demographics, crime, and social cohesion. Results indicate a community style of policing may not be enough to overcome deeply entrenched attitudes toward the police in the most disadvantaged communities and at worst may discourage informal social control. Perceptions of neighborhood social cohesion and government responsiveness are the best predictors of increased informal social control.

Further research is needed to understand the development of attitudes toward the police, especially in the most disadvantaged communities. The conclusions of the study are limited by the cross sectional design and use of a single neighborhood leader informant.

This paper attempts to identify how clear, tactical methods of collaborating with residents are related to informal social control.

This is one of the few studies to empirically assess whether public social control through neighborhood policing, in particular police‐resident coproduction and police legitimacy, is related to informal social control.

When elder abuse first surfaced as a social problem, the response to the problem was grounded in the belief that the victims would be best served with as little criminal justice involvement as possible. This changed in the late 1980s and early 1990s when elder abuse was criminalized by politicians, and police were expected to treat the problem as a crime problem despite the fact that very little research had considered the best law enforcement response to elder abuse. In this research, we surveyed 119 police chiefs to see how their departments handled allegations of abuse. We also address the problems they confront in elder abuse cases and the special programs and policies they have implemented to deal with the victimization of elderly persons. Results show that traditional criminal justice techniques are followed for the most part, and only about a third of the departments implemented special elder abuse programs. Also, they confront numerous problems that are common when police are expected to enforce new laws.

This study aims to examine Chinese college students' support for community policing.

Ordinary least squares regression was used to investigate support for community policing based on survey data collected from over 400 college students.

Results showed that college students in general had positive attitudes toward the philosophy and practices of community policing. Support for community policing was significantly related to concerns of crime, perceptions of police, and attachment to conventional society. Individual background characteristics had no significant effect on support for community policing.

The use of a college student sample has its weaknesses in that findings of this study have a limited generalizability, and some important predictors in explaining public perceptions, such as neighborhood characteristics, were not included. Future research should collect data from the general public and examine public attitudes toward different elements of community policing, and both perceptual and behavioral dimensions of support for community policing.

This study represents the first attempt to examine Chinese perceptions of community policing empirically. Uncovering factors that affect public support for community policing can provide useful references for police administrators to develop policies and practices that encourage more active community involvement in crime control.