Craig D. Uchida - Böcker

Choose Drugs and Crime when you want a critical overview of public policy issues on law enforcement and regulation: It focuses on major policy initiatives and the implications of research conducted on their effectiveness. The evaluations of policy results are practical and focus on verifiable results. --The Midwest Book Review Addressing critical areas of drug control and system improvement, Drugs and Crime provides a clear and comprehensive examination of policy relevant research. Editors, MacKenzie and Uchida enlist outstanding experts in the field to produce a volume that explores the major problems related to drug trafficking and use. Each chapter focuses on a major policy initiative and discusses the problem area, policies designed to address the problem, research on the effectiveness of the policies, and policy implications of the research. Just how effective is the criminal justice system in its response to drug use by children and adolescents, prison overcrowding, backlog in the courts, increased criminal activity, youths in the drug distribution system, and serious illnesses such as AIDS? Policymakers, scholars, practitioners, and students will find the "what we know" and "what we need to know" presentations in Drugs and Crime a most unique and appealing addition to the literature and a valuable resource in the continuing effort to understand the complex relationship between drug use and crime.

Collective efficacy is a neighborhood-level concept in which community members create a sense of agency and assume ownership for the state of their local community. This concept is one of several forms of formal and informal social control that predict the overall functioning of a community. In this book, the authors examine collective efficacy and crime in eight Miami-Dade County, Florida neighborhoods, based on data they collected from across the country and in the Miami-Dade neighborhoods themselves. They discuss findings relevant to the theory of collective efficacy itself, ramifications for its use within communities, and make recommendations for future research and for translating these results into actionable, crime prevention activities.

This book takes an in-depth look at the LAPD over a 60-year period. It is about the ways in which the use of force, particularly deadly force, has been controlled (or not) by internal and external forces. The Department has been at the center of numerous controversies, including the killing of Eula Love (1977), the beating of Rodney King (1991), the riots that followed the acquittal of officers in the King beating (1992), the Rampart scandal (1999), questionable officer-involved shootings (OISs), and the complaints of over-policing during the George Floyd protests (2020). At the same time, however, the Department has been at the forefront of change and innovation. It continuously revises its policies regarding use of force, implements new training curricula, and has developed an extensive accountability process. Some of these changes have occurred voluntarily, others have been imposed or mandated upon them. Yet, despite these changes, the LAPD and its officers continue to be embroiled in issues regarding controversial shootings, charges of racial bias, and questionable tactics during social justice protests. The book is grounded in data, analysis, historical documents, and personal observations by the author. It provides details about each of the controversies and solutions that occurred, and, most significantly, it includes recommendations about how to make these positive changes permanent.

This book takes an in-depth look at the LAPD over a 60-year period, exploring the ways in which the use of force, particularly deadly force, has been controlled (or not) by internal and external forces.The Department has been at the center of numerous controversies, including the killing of Eula Love (1977), the beating of Rodney King (1991), the riots that followed the acquittal of officers in the King beating (1992), the Rampart scandal (1999), questionable officer-involved shootings (OISs), and the complaints of over-policing during the George Floyd protests (2020). At the same time, however, the Department has been at the forefront of change and innovation. It continuously revises its policies regarding use of force, implements new training curricula, and has developed an extensive accountability process. Some of these changes have occurred voluntarily, others have been imposed or mandated upon them. Yet, despite these changes, the LAPD and its officers continue to be embroiled in issues regarding controversial shootings, charges of racial bias, and questionable tactics during social justice protests. The book is grounded in data, analysis, historical documents, and personal observations by the author. It provides details about each of the controversies and solutions that occurred, and, most significantly, it includes recommendations about how to make these positive changes permanent.

This book on systematic social observation (SSO) methodology provides detailed, step-by-step guidance for researchers on using the method. It identifies varieties of approaches and uses of SSO, the different steps used when performing SSO, and the benefits and challenges associated with using SSO.