David Weisburd – författare

Proactive policing, as a strategic approach used by police agencies to prevent crime, is a relatively new phenomenon in the United States. It developed from a crisis in confidence in policing that began to emerge in the 1960s because of social unrest, rising crime rates, and growing skepticism regarding the effectiveness of standard approaches to policing. In response, beginning in the 1980s and 1990s, innovative police practices and policies that took a more proactive approach began to develop. This report uses the term "proactive policing" to refer to all policing strategies that have as one of their goals the prevention or reduction of crime and disorder and that are not reactive in terms of focusing primarily on uncovering ongoing crime or on investigating or responding to crimes once they have occurred.

Proactive policing is distinguished from the everyday decisions of police officers to be proactive in specific situations and instead refers to a strategic decision by police agencies to use proactive police responses in a programmatic way to reduce crime. Today, proactive policing strategies are used widely in the United States. They are not isolated programs used by a select group of agencies but rather a set of ideas that have spread across the landscape of policing.

Proactive Policing reviews the evidence and discusses the data and methodological gaps on: (1) the effects of different forms of proactive policing on crime; (2) whether they are applied in a discriminatory manner; (3) whether they are being used in a legal fashion; and (4) community reaction. This report offers a comprehensive evaluation of proactive policing that includes not only its crime prevention impacts but also its broader implications for justice and U.S. communities.

Putting Crime in its Place: Units of Analysis in Geographic Criminology focuses on the units of analysis used in geographic criminology. While crime and place studies have been a part of criminology from the early 19th century, growing interest in crime places over the last two decades demands critical reflection on the units of analysis that should form the focus of geographic analysis of crime. Should the focus be on very small units such as street addresses or street segments, or on larger aggregates such as census tracts or communities? Academic researchers, as well as practical crime analysts, are confronted routinely with the dilemma of deciding what the unit of analysis should be when reporting on trends in crime, when identifying crime hot spots or when mapping crime in cities. In place-based crime prevention, the choice of the level of aggregation plays a particularly critical role. This peer reviewed collection of essays aims to contribute to crime and place studies by making explicit the problems involved in choosing units of analysis in geographic criminology. Written by renowned experts in the field, the chapters in this book address basic academic questions, and also provide real-life examples and applications of how they are resolved in cutting-edge research. Crime analysts in police and law enforcement agencies as well as academic researchers studying the spatial distributions of crime and victimization will learn from the discussions and tools presented.

Statistics in Criminal Justice takes an approach that emphasizes the uses of statistics in research in crime and justice. This text is meant for students and professionals who want to gain a basic understanding of statistics in this field. The text takes a building-block approach, meaning that each chapter helps to prepare the student for the chapters that follow. It also means that the level of sophistication of the text increases as the text progresses. Throughout the text there is an emphasis on comprehension and interpretation, rather than computation. However, it takes a serious approach to statistics, which is relevant to the real world of research in crime and justice. This approach is meant to provide the reader with an accessible but sophisticated understanding of statistics that can be used to examine real-life criminal justice problems. The goal of the text is to give the student a basic understanding of statistics and statistical concepts that will leave the student with the confidence and the tools for tackling more complex problems on their own. Statistics in Criminal Justice is meant not only as an introduction for students but as a reference for researchers.

A number of changes have been made to the 3rd edition, including the following:

- Additional exercises at the end of each chapter

- Expanded computer exercises that can be performed in the Student Version of SPSS

- Extended discussion of multivariate regression models, including interaction and non-linear effects

- A new chapter on multinomial and ordinal logistic regression models, examined in a way that highlights comprehension and interpretation

- With the additional material on multivariate regression models, the text is appropriate for both undergraduate and beginning graduate statistics courses in criminal justice

Since 9/11, the threat of terrorism has become a key issue in police agencies throughout the world. How should the police change to counter terrorism threats? What implications do such changes have for traditional responsibilities of the police like combating crime, or in the resources or focus of modern police agencies? To Protect and To Serve: Policing in an Age of Terrorism brings together distinguished American and Israeli policing scholars, who pool their knowledge and experience to shed light on what has happened to policing since the turn of the century, and what trends can be expect over the next few decades.

To Protect and To Serve begins by asking what terrorism is and what forms it takes, and discusses how it raises new questions for democratic societies and democratic policing. While many scholars and lay people take for granted the fact that the police should play a central role in the fight against terrorism, the volume also examines critically the rationale for the police role. Accordingly a chapter also examines the role that the police should play in the complex task of preventing, and responding to terror, and responding to the outcomes of terror? Another chapter begins with a description of the specific strategies and tactics that police agencies have developed to deal with terrorism (and the outcomes of terrorism), and assesses what works both in preventing terrorism and in dealing with its consequences. A critical issue that has received comparatively little attention is addressed in another chapter, which examines how police agencies responded organizationally to the added responsibilities of fighting terrorism. Finally, the book also examines the impact of fighting terrorism on minority and majority communities, and the questions of legitimacy that are raised by new roles that police take on.