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Comparing regulatory and distributive police programs for crime reduction: An evaluation of effectiveness and efficiency

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Date Issued:
2003
Summary:
Lowi's "arenas of power" theory, one of the most basic policy typologies, was the theoretical foundation for this study. Most public policies can be classified as either regulatory or distributive. Regulatory policy addresses the enforcement power of government. Distributive policy is about providing benefits to selected members of society, financed as a public good. The intention of this study is to comparatively analyze two different police programs. The study stepped back from criminal justice literature to public policy theory, to consider other ways to assess police strategies to reduce crime. Theory was linked to the practice of policing by examining regulatory policy in relation to crime control and distributive policy to crime prevention. The Truancy Reduction Program was selected as an example of regulatory policy/crime control, and the School Resource Officer Program as distributive policy/crime prevention. This is an exploratory analysis, using a quantitative case study methodology. The Broward Sheriff's Office (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) was selected as the case study. The data were drawn from six consecutive school years (1995--2001) of actual documents. The intent was to explore, not establish a causal relationship between the programs and crime reduction, because other major external factors existed beyond the scope of this analysis. The "universal" concepts of effectiveness and efficiency were adapted to create a multi-criteria evaluation of the program outcomes. The central research question essentially asked if one program (and therefore, policy) was more effective and/or efficient than the other. In this study, effectiveness refers to the relationship between program goals and outcomes, while efficiency refers to the relationship between costs and outcomes. To examine effectiveness, the fixed effects pooled time series technique for panel data was employed. To examine efficiency, an efficiency ratio was created to compare program costs against the costs of crime. A relationship was established between each program, crime reduction, and effectiveness and efficiency. The final phase was comparative, employing a multivariate analysis of variance, to determine if one policy was more effective and efficient. The results were inconclusive. The study makes recommendations for future research, discusses implications of the analyses for public administration, and concluding comments.
Title: Comparing regulatory and distributive police programs for crime reduction: An evaluation of effectiveness and efficiency.
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Name(s): Carroll, John J.
Florida Atlantic University, Degree Grantor
Ben-Zadok, Efraim, Thesis Advisor
Type of Resource: text
Genre: Electronic Thesis Or Dissertation
Issuance: monographic
Date Issued: 2003
Publisher: Florida Atlantic University
Place of Publication: Boca Raton, Fla.
Physical Form: application/pdf
Extent: 249 p.
Language(s): English
Summary: Lowi's "arenas of power" theory, one of the most basic policy typologies, was the theoretical foundation for this study. Most public policies can be classified as either regulatory or distributive. Regulatory policy addresses the enforcement power of government. Distributive policy is about providing benefits to selected members of society, financed as a public good. The intention of this study is to comparatively analyze two different police programs. The study stepped back from criminal justice literature to public policy theory, to consider other ways to assess police strategies to reduce crime. Theory was linked to the practice of policing by examining regulatory policy in relation to crime control and distributive policy to crime prevention. The Truancy Reduction Program was selected as an example of regulatory policy/crime control, and the School Resource Officer Program as distributive policy/crime prevention. This is an exploratory analysis, using a quantitative case study methodology. The Broward Sheriff's Office (Fort Lauderdale, Florida) was selected as the case study. The data were drawn from six consecutive school years (1995--2001) of actual documents. The intent was to explore, not establish a causal relationship between the programs and crime reduction, because other major external factors existed beyond the scope of this analysis. The "universal" concepts of effectiveness and efficiency were adapted to create a multi-criteria evaluation of the program outcomes. The central research question essentially asked if one program (and therefore, policy) was more effective and/or efficient than the other. In this study, effectiveness refers to the relationship between program goals and outcomes, while efficiency refers to the relationship between costs and outcomes. To examine effectiveness, the fixed effects pooled time series technique for panel data was employed. To examine efficiency, an efficiency ratio was created to compare program costs against the costs of crime. A relationship was established between each program, crime reduction, and effectiveness and efficiency. The final phase was comparative, employing a multivariate analysis of variance, to determine if one policy was more effective and efficient. The results were inconclusive. The study makes recommendations for future research, discusses implications of the analyses for public administration, and concluding comments.
Identifier: 9780496283620 (isbn), 12025 (digitool), FADT12025 (IID), fau:8940 (fedora)
Note(s): Thesis (Ph.D.)--Florida Atlantic University, 2003.
Subject(s): Crime prevention
Criminal justice, Administration of
Distributive justice
Community policing
Held by: Florida Atlantic University Libraries
Persistent Link to This Record: http://purl.flvc.org/fau/fd/FADT12025
Sublocation: Digital Library
Use and Reproduction: Copyright © is held by the author with permission granted to Florida Atlantic University to digitize, archive and distribute this item for non-profit research and educational purposes. Any reuse of this item in excess of fair use or other copyright exemptions requires permission of the copyright holder.
Use and Reproduction: http://rightsstatements.org/vocab/InC/1.0/
Host Institution: FAU
Is Part of Series: Florida Atlantic University Digital Library Collections.