Scholars have been interested in the culture of the police for decades. In particular, researchers have paid close attention to police coercion and use of force. More recent research has begun to explore the idea that neighborhood context impacts the decision to use force during a police-citizen encounter. The present study examines how neighborhood characteristics influence the likelihood of force being used during an encounter. The theoretical model of this study suggests that force is more likely to be used in socially disorganized neighborhoods, which is likely due to the "code of the street" operating in such neighborhoods (Anderson, 1997). The data used in the current analysis was provided by the Roanoke Police Department, which is located in southwestern Virginia. A series of OLS regression analyses allowed the researcher to identify three neighborhood-level variables that significantly predict self-reported police use of force incidents (black percent, family poverty rate, and public disorder rate); thereby, partially supporting the idea that force is more likely to be used in socially disorganized neighborhoods. A geographically weighted regression (GWR) allowed the researcher to further analyze the data and to identify which locations each variable was a significant predictor for police use of force. The results of the GWR dismantle the idea that the police are more likely to use force in socially disorganized neighborhoods, as the OLS regressions initially illustrated, due to the fact that the strength of each variable varies from one location to another (i.e., non-stationarity). Policy implications, limitations, and directions for future research are also discussed.

Hays examines how residents of socially disorganized neighborhoods become the victims of both criminals and rogue police officers. Following from theories of social disorganization and collective efficacy, Hays proposes a new theory for predicting police use of force. He argues that as neighborhood poverty, racial/ethnic differences, and residential mobility increase, it becomes more difficult for residents to know each other, to trust each other, and to help each other defend their neighborhoods from criminals and from rogue police officers. Using data from the Project on Human Development in Chicago Neighborhoods, he finds that residents of disorganized neighborhoods are doubly-victimized OCo both by the criminals who work their neighborhoods and the police who are supposed to protect them."

The book summarizes what we know about crime and place, and provides an agenda for future research in this area.

Unsparing and important. . . . An informative, clearheaded and sobering book.—Jonathan Yardley, Washington Post (1999 Critic's Choice) Inner-city black America is often stereotyped as a place of random violence, but in fact, violence in the inner city is regulated through an informal but well-known code of the street. This unwritten set of rules—based largely on an individual's ability to command respect—is a powerful and pervasive form of etiquette, governing the way in which people learn to negotiate public spaces. Elijah Anderson's incisive book delineates the code and examines it as a response to the lack of jobs that pay a living wage, to the stigma of race, to rampant drug use, to alienation and lack of hope.

Canvasses 3 different perspectives on "stop and frisk" (S&F) police activity in NY City. Provides the legal definition of, and constitutional parameters for S&F encounters. Considers S&F from the perspective of both the N.Y. City Police Dept. (NYPD) and minority communities that believe they have been most affected by the use of S&F. S&F is also examined as part of the NYPD's training regimen and from the point of view of officers who have used the technique. Provides an assessment of the S&F tactic from the perspective of persons who have been "stopped," and commentary from persons who have observed the tactic's secondary effects. Comprehensive!!