PRE-MENSTRUAL SYNDROME AND CRIME

    Pre-menstrual syndrome is a physical and mental affect that women have.  Headaches, fatigue, lethargy, tension, insomnia, and irritability are some symptoms that make it hard for daily activities to occur.  For some women, it can spark uncontrollable rages and acts of violence.  The purpose of this paper is to show that pre-menstrual syndrome can cause women to commit certain kinds of crime and have various encounters with police.

 Community Policing

    In today's society, police officers have a lot to deal with on a day to day basis. Due to this work overload, the majority of police departments have decided to move away from the traditional ways of policing by implementing community policing in their daily activity. This of course, is not a substitute for police officers doing their job, but it does reduce the workload, decrease the financial restraints on the police departments, reduces crime, and enhances public safety.

Literature Review

    Barry Goetz and Roger Mitchell discuss the community-building concept that help people understand policing practices and crime prevention partnership in their journal article, Community-Building and Reintegrative Approaches to Community Policing: the case of drug control. In this article, there were in-depth interviews done to study the organizational routines, social interactions, and officer's attitudes towards community policing.

    Cantillon, Davidson, and Schweitzer discuss social dis-organization within neighborhoods and the negative and positive aspects of it. The purpose of this study was to assess the viability of using sense of community as a measure of community social organization. The ideas and concepts studied were social dis-organization and the advances made in the field of neighborhood effects, the use of SOC (sense of Community policing), and a demonstration that SOC mediated the influence of neighborhoods.

    The Bureau of Justice Assistance for the United States department of Justice had devised this comprehensive community program. This program has two primary components, community mobilization and community policing, which brings together community residents and police officers to develop solutions to local problems.

    The bureau of Justice Assistance discusses the understanding of community policing. Within the article, implementing a community police strategy is also discussed thoroughly through several basics such as, city and community resources, a plan of action, efforts, mobilizing support, timing, managing internal change, supervision, human resource development, performance evaluation and reward, workload, control and information systems, and facilities. All of these basic components are part of the implementation process of community policing.

    Quint Thurman and edmund McGarrell discuss in their article, Community Policing in a Rural Setting: innovations and organizational change, the challenges of community policing, and the need for change. Within this article, challenges of community policing are a major issue discussed. It discusses the change from the traditional model and how there are many obstacles that need to be overcame. The discussion of the need for change emphasizes on the fact that people see community policing as an old concept with a new approach, while others believe that it is an extension of rural or small-town policing that seeks to maintain order of daily living.

    Kenneth Peak discusses the SARA process of community policing in the book, Justice Administration; police, courts, and corrections management. The SARA process provides officers with a logical step by step framework to identify, analyze, respond, and evaluate crime, fear of crime, and neighborhood disorder. the four steps of the process are to scan, analyze, respond, and assess.

    Michael Aiken and Paul Mott, the editors of the Structure of Community Power, discuss the structural basis and social consequences of the distribution of power. This article ties into community policing because without the figure-head or those who hold the power, their would be no organizational structure for community policing. If there were no methods of distribution of power to those in charge, then who knows what would happen and whether community policing would ever exist. Of course, with the distribution of power comes consequences that society will face, and that is why there needs to be a structural basis for distribution of the power.

    Brenda Blackwell and Michael Vaughn discuss in their article, Police Civil Liability for inappropriate response to domestic assault victims, how law enforcement agents respond to assault victims in an incomplete and problematic way. It discusses the issues and the legal aspects of them. It also discusses how police need more training and education on how to respond to domestic assault victims.

    John Crank, Andrew Giacomazzi, and Cary Heck discuss the fear of crime in their article, The Fear of Crime in a Nonurban Setting. This article discusses community policing and whether or not it would apply in a nonurban setting. It also discusses a fear of crime through victimization, social integration, and disorder/broken window models. Then the article provides a research study done on population growth, crime, and the fear of crime.

    Robin Engel discusses the resistance and disrespect against police officers in her article, Explaining Suspects' Resistance and Disrespect Toward Police. This article discusses research done that examined the factors influencing resistance using systematic observation data collected.
Kenneth Novak, Leanne Alarid, and Wayne Lucas, discuss how police officers feel and their attitudes toward community policing in their article, Exploring Officer's Acceptance of Community Policing: Implications for policy implementation. There was a research study done to see about the acceptance of community policing.

    In this book, NorthWestern University held a conference that discussed the studies of community policing. Some of the book discusses this issue on a national level, while the it also discusses it on a more local level like individual cities. This book focuses on trends in community policing and police organizations, methods for tracking the effects of organizational reform, and police subcultures.

Research Methods

Instead of showing a graph, I chose to show a sample survey that would be administered to the community and a sample survey that would be administered to the employees of a police department.

The basis of these surveys are taken from the book, Community Policing in a Rural Setting, written by Quint Thurman and Edmund F. McGarrell. If the surveys were actually being implemented, then they would be mailed with a postage paid, pre-addressed envelope. Also, both surveys would be completley voluntary and all answers would be kept confidential.

Employee Survey
There are seven sections to this survey. I have taken a question from each of the sections to demonstrate each type of question asked.

Section 1- These questions deal with aspects of your personal background and circumstances.

1)Are you a commissioned or non-commissioned employee?

Section 2- This part of the questionnaire asks you to express your judgments about how you believe three different levels of management operate.

1)This level of administration follows through on its promises regarding changes and reforms it expects employees to carry out. First line Supervisors Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Agree Middle Management Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Agree Top Management Disagree 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 Agree

Section 3- This part of the questionnaire asks you to describe your job, as objectively as you can.

1)To what extent does your job require you to work with mechanical equipment?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7
Very
Little Moderately Very Much

Section 4- Think of the majority of the people that you work with now. How well does each of the following words describe these people? 1=Yes,does describe 2=No,does not describe 3=cannot decide
_Stimulating _Talk too much
_Boring _Smart
_Slow _Lazy
_Ambitious _Unpleasant
_Stupid _Active
_Responsible _No privacy
_Fast _Narrow interests
_Intelligent _Loyal
_Easy to make enemies _Hard to meet

Section 6-Listed below are questions designed to explore the relationship between you and the public and your opinions about police work.Please indicate your opinion by writing a number in the blank space. 1-Strongly Agree 2-Agree 3-Undecided 4-Disagree 5-Strongly Disagree 1)Most citizens are really interested in personal and professional problems of the police. 2)There are few dependable ties between police and public. 3)Friendship between police and citizens is easy. 4)A good police officer is one who maintains the peace by making arrests.

Section 7-Please rank the terms of their importance to you, with 1 being the most important and 4 being least important. Increased emphasis on apprehending serious criminals.

Empowerment of officers for problem solving activity.

Empowerment of citizens through partnership between police and community.

Increased emphasis on ticketing or arresting disorderly persons.


Citizen Survey
This survey has eight sections and like the employee survey, I have taken a question from each of the sections to demonstrate the types of questions asked.

Section 1- This section asks your opinion on the service provided by your local police officers in terms of the level and quality of services provided. Level=the amount of frequency or provision of services. Quality=How good are the services that are provided? 1)Overall your local police department does a good job at providing both level and quality of service in your community. Strongly agree Strongly disagree Agree Undecided Disagree

Section 2-Questions in this section ask about specific problems that may exist in your neighborhood. Using the following scale, please write the number that most accurately describes the extent of these problems. (1)No problem (2)Problem (3)Serious problem (4)Uncertain 1)People breaking into cars 2)Stray animals 3)Noise 4)Vandalism 5)Police-community relations

Section 3-Listed below are items designed to explore the relationship between the community and the local police department. Please indicate Your opinion by writing (1) Strongly Agree (2)Agree (3)Undecided (4)Disagree (5)Strongly Disagree Local police officers are usually fair Local police officers are usually courteous Local police should spend more time talking to citizens about their problems.

Section 4-This section helps us learn about your neighborhood. 1)Where you raised in the same neighborhood(within a 15min. walk) as you live now?
_Yes _No

Section 5-This sections asks whether or not you are familiar with the programs run by your local police department.
Yes NO
DARE
School resource officer
Block watch
Bicycle patrol
Neighborhood resource officer
Citizens academy
Police department open house

Section Six-In this section you will be asked whether or not you support or do not support local programs. 1)I think police should concentrate on catching criminals than working with the public. Agree Disagree Strongly Disagree Strongly Agree Undecided

Section 7-In this section you will be asked about your contacts with the local police department.

1)In the past six months how many contacts have you had with your local police department? None One Two Three or more

Section 8-This section asks you questions about your background. This information is needed to ensure that all types of people participate in this survey.

1)Please indicate year of birth 19_
2)Ethnic Background
_Asian
_Black
_Caucasian
_Mexican
_Native American
_Latino
_Other
3)Gender
Male_ Female_

SUMMARY AND CONCLUSIONS

Community policing has become a large part of our communities and continues to grow. Like anything, it takes serious planning and dedicated people to see that it works. Even though community policing can have a negative aspects, there are certainly positive aspects, like reducing the workload of officers, reducing the financial restraints of the local police department, reducing crime, and enhancing public safety.
 

Last updated: 11/25/03