Community Policing in Extremely Depressed Areas

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To residents of the suburbs, all economically distressed districts of the city may seem dangerous and threatening, however, to residents of these poor districts, it is just home. The local residents know the truly crime-ridden areas of each district. This essay will refer to these crime-ridden areas within poor communities as "hot spots" or "skid-row". Skid-row is generally an area of the economically distressed community that is plagued with vagrants, criminals, drug abusers and other individuals thought to be of exile from normal society (Bittner, 1967). This is an area where law abiding, poor citizens do not wish to venture (Bittner, 1967). Due to this stigma, skid-row is an area that is patrolled by police, who generally take on the role of a peacekeeper. Their role of peacekeeper is driven by their ability to apply a great deal of discretion in their law enforcement duties, as well as their need to contain the criminal activities specifically found in the skid-row areas.

The police are given a great deal of discretion in performing their duties. They make decisions on a daily basis, whether to arrest an individual on more minor offenses, or to give an individual a warning and promise to “keep an eye” on the person or area in the future (Bittner, 1967). When the officers make such decisions to not effect an arrest for a violation, they are essentially taking on the role of peacekeeper. The officer is trying to influence the actions of individuals, such as those in skid-row areas, to not commit further crimes (Bittner, 1967). The discretion not to arrest for certain crimes is likewise an attempt to contain the criminal activities to a specific area, as to not affect others (Bittner, 1967). Bittner (1967...

... middle of paper ...

...aining crimes to certain areas, has proven effective (Eck and Spellman, 1986).

References

Bittner, Egon. (1967). The police on skid-row: A study of peace keeping. American

Sociological Review, 32 (5): 699-715.

Brown, Michael K. (1981). Nonenforcement: Minor violations and disturbances. In Working the Street Chapter 7 (pp. 182-220). New York: Russell Sage Foundation.

Eck, John E. and Spelman, William (1987). Who ya gonna call? The police as problem

busters. In Crime & Delinquency, 33: 31-52.

Fyfe, James J. (1993). Good policing. In Brian Forst (ed.), The Socioeconomics of Crime and Justice Chapter 12 (pp. 269-289). Armonk, NY: M.E. Sharpe

Nowicki, Dennis E. (1998). Mixed messages. In Geoffrey P. Alpert and Alex Piquero

(eds.), Community Policing: Contemporary Readings. (pp. 265-274). Prospect Heights,

IL: Waveland Press, Inc.

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