Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Recent decades witnessed a growing commitment among local police agencies and communities throughout the United States to community-oriented policing. However, heightened public fear and government policies implemented following the events of September 11, 2001, placed new pressures on law enforcement. National directives aimed at increasing collaboration between federal and local law enforcement agencies have led to enhanced working relationships and the development of interagency initiatives and working groups. At the same time, new policies and concerns changed the landscape in which Arab American communities, in particular, found themselves. This paper explores findings from a National Institute of Justice funded study which examined the relationship between police departments and Arab American communities in local law enforcement jurisdictions throughout the country. The paper attempts to answer questions concerning changes in law enforcement’s role with intelligence-gathering and the enforcement of immigration violations since September 11.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Review Method: Peer Reviewed
Abstract: Objective: The Enforcing Underage Drinking Laws (EUDL) program is the first large-scale federal effort focusing exclusively on underage drinking. We report on the program’s one-year impact on law enforcement and youth drinking behavior in local communities funded in 1999 and 2000.
Method: We used a quasi-experimental design, comparing 69 communities that received EUDL funding with 69 matched comparison communities. A telephone survey was conducted with a repeated cross-sectional sample of youth at baseline (N=2384) and one-year follow up (N=2418) to obtain self-report data on alcohol use, alcohol risk behaviors, and negative consequences of alcohol use. Law enforcement officials in each community were surveyed at baseline (N=202) and one-year follow up (N=205) to obtain data on underage drinking enforcement efforts.
Results: After one year of intervention, law enforcement agencies in communities receiving EUDL funding showed relative increases in the median numbers of compliance checks, Cops in Shops operations, and arrests of youth for purchases, possession, or use of alcohol. Small reductions were observed in the number of youth reporting alcohol use, non-violent consequences of alcohol use, perceptions of alcohol use among peers, and attempts to purchase alcohol, although there were no statistically significant differences between youth in intervention and comparison communities.
Conclusions: The EUDL program has produced important changes in the ways local law enforcement agencies address underage drinking. However, these efforts have not yet produced concomitant changes in youth alcohol use.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Although several studies have found support for the proposition that variable indicators of racial composition have been associated with policing outcomes – e.g., police expenditures and deployment – they do not generally tap variations in actual levels of formal coercion that might result from threat processes. Drawing primarily on the minority-group threat and “defended neighborhood” perspectives, this paper examines associations between racial composition and arrest activities in both communities surrounded by other non-white communities and those that border primarily white communities. Using data from a major metropolitan setting and employing both global and local measures of spatial autocorrelation and clustering, the paper presents preliminary findings that refine our understanding of how police respond to differential community contexts.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Efforts to improve police officers' abilities to respond to persons with mental illness are being initiated in jurisdictions across the country. While many of these efforts have incorporated multiple stakeholder perspectives into planning and implementing interventions, the voice and experiences of persons with mental illness are silent in
the literature-as is a theoretical conceptualization of these types of encounters. In this study, we apply procedural justice theory to understand how persons with mental illness experience interactions with the police and how officer behaviors may shape cooperation or resistance. We apply a sequential qualitative to quantitative design to better understand these experiences and develop a measure to quantitatively test the influence of procedural justice in these encounters.

Publication Type: Conference Paper/Unpublished Manuscript
Abstract: Following China’s economic reform and an open-door policy in 1978, illicit drug use emerged in the mid-1980s and gradually developed into a serious social problem in the country. Heroin is the dominant illicit drug used in China. In an effort to improve the understanding of law enforcement's responses to heroin use in China, the study chose Kunming – the capital city of Yunnan Province – as the research site because of its severe heroin abuse problems. Women heroin users (N=90) were interviewed in the local communities by using theoretical sampling and snow-ball sampling strategies. The findings indicate that the incarceration rate of women heroin users (86%) was very high; most of them had been incarcerated either in compulsory drug rehabilitation centers or re- education-through labor (or both). The recidivism rate was extremely high; none of women heroin users reported that they had quit using heroin due to incarceration. The findings indicate that harsh narcotics control policies practiced by Chinese law enforcement have largely failed to curb women’s heroin use. In response to women’s heroin use effectively, China should alter its narcotics control policies from a focus on imposing harsh punishment to providing a broad range of social services.