Police &Society
CCJ 4105
Syllabus
Course Procedures and Grading Policy
Fall 2001
Robert E. Ford, Ph.D. Office: UCF Campus Daytona
386-756-8245 (home) Building 140 (34) – rm. 200b
386-254-4412 (Office) 1200 Intrn’l Spdway Blvd
386-254-3000, ext. 4017 (direct) Daytona Beach, Fl. 32118
e-mail refmcf@bellsouth.net
reford@mail.ucf.edu
Office Hours:
Monday 1:30 to 4:00
Wednesday 1:30 to 6:00
Thursday 4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m. at Orlando (Orange County Command Center).
I will be available at other times. If you need to contact me please call me either at home or the office. If you can’t get me, leave a message. I will call you back. Students are encouraged to use email. Email is checked daily.
Course Description: Police and Society provides an in depth analysis of police and their functions in contemporary society. To understand where police are today, one needs to understand where police have been. Our analysis will thus begin with a discussion of the history of policing from its roots in Victorian England, to the contemporary changes wrought by community and problem solving policing.
American police upon which the majority of course lectures will focus, are unique in both their organization and distribution. Lectures and readings will provide an understanding of the structure of contemporary policing. Focus will then change to the functions performed by police, functions not often well represented by media. Policing often follows patterns at odds with Hollywood’s police imagery.
To understand the police function, one must understand the law and the greater criminal justice enterprise of which it is a component. The laws that authorize the police mission will be reviewed. The underlying justice system, the stage upon which police operate will be analyzed in terms of the system’s contribution to patterns of policing.
Lectures will look to who the police are and from where they are recruited. The transformations in personalities and life styles occasioned by their entry into policing will be probed. Interaction between police attitudes and community policed will be traced. The assigned text addresses the interaction between job tasks and working personality development in considerable detail. The host community has major impacts upon police style.
Finally, a series of specialized topics related to police will be presented. These topics will range from analysis of special types of policing, to unique police settings. Special attention will also be paid to Community and Problem Solving Policing, two themes that are transforming the face of contemporary policing.
Course Objectives:
1. Overview the history of American Policing to better understand its present status.
2. Provide the student with an understanding of the current structure of American Police.
3. Develop student understanding of the functions currently performed by police.
4. Familiarize students with the legal basis of police activity.
5. Develop an understanding of the police role in the Criminal Justice System.
6. To provide an initial understanding of the interaction between policy decisions, practitioner discretion and police street behaviors.
7. To develop students writing and analytic skills.
8. To provide to students an initial academic base to proceed to more advanced classes.
Method of Teaching:
Lecture and Class Discussion, Video and PowerPoint Presentations.
Topics to Be Covered:
August 22 Introduction and Class Overview.
Crank: Chapter 1 Perspectives on Police Culture
Chapter 2 Culture and Cultural Themes
August 29 History of American Police, Part 1
History of American Police, Part 2
Role of Sheriff in Law Enforcement
Crank: Chapter 3 Articulating Police Culture and Its Environments: Patterns of Line Officer Interaction
Chapter 4: The Moral Transformation of Territory
September 5 The Nature and Distribution of American Police.
The Sheriff: Another Law Enforcement Type
Interpol: The beginings of International Policing.
Crank: Chapter 5: Force is Righteous
Chapter 6: Stopping Power
September 12 Policing Job Task Analysis: Patrol.
Crank: Chapter 7: The Twilight World
Chapter 8: Danger Through the Lens of Culture
September 19 Patrol Policing, Issues and Concerns:
Crank: Chapter 9: Anything Can Happen on the Street
Chapter 10: No Animal out There is Going to Beat Me.
September 26 Policing Job Task Analysis: Investigations
Crank: Chapter 11: Seductions on the Edge
Chapter 12: Angels and Assholes: The Construction of Police Morality
October 3 , 10 Policing Job Task Analysis: Special Investigations.
U.S. Code 1983
Crank: Chapter 13: Common Sense and the Ironic Deconstruction of the Obvious
Chapter 14: No Place for Sissies.
October 17 Traditional Policing: The Professional Model.
Community and Problem Solving Policing: The New Paradigm
Zero Tolerance and Problem Solving Policing
Review for Test
Crank: Chapter 15: Mask of a Thousand Faces
Chapter 16: Americas Great Guilty Crime Secret
October 24 Midterm
October 31 Police Discretion: Understanding the Unique Nature of the Police Mission.
Crank: Chapter 17: On Becoming Invisible
Chapter 18: Individualism and the Paradox of Personal Accountability
Crank: Chapter 19: The Truth Game
Chapter 20: Cop Deterrence and the Soft Legal System
November 7 Becoming a Police Officer, the Socialization Process.
Crank: Chapter 21: The Petty Injustice and Everlasting Grudges
Chapter 22: Thinking about Ritual
November 14 Police Stress
Crank: Chapter 23: The Culture Eater
Chapter 24: Good-bye in a Sea of Blue
November 21 International (Comparative) Policing
November 28 The Future of Modern Law Enforcement
Class Review
December 5 Final Exam (Exam Week).
Course Requirements:
A. Required Text: John P. Crank, Understanding Police Culture Anderson, Cincinnati, 1998.
B. Course Requirements: One multiple choice – short answer Midterm and a Final (each counts 25% of grade); one research exercise (25% of grade), Attendance (25%).
C. Grading: Traditional 90 to 100 A 80 to 89 B 70 to 79 C 60 to 69 D, etc. Exams will be curved up if necessary.
D. Make-ups will only be granted for important reasons. Permission must be sought in advance.
E. Course Attendance is expected. Student will be marked down for unapproved absences. Attendance and class participation will account for one-quarter of grade.
F. Students will be responsible for the readings. They will be discussed in class and questions will be drawn for the examinations.
Research Exercise: A police related topic for a research paper will be chosen. The student will review and summarize available research, hypotheses and descriptive overviews for this paper. A bibliography will be developed describing the works utilized.
This exercise will follow the format below:
Topic (Introduction): Why is this topic important? Why did you choose it? What are the policy issues related to this topic?
Literature Review: Review each significant research, overview previous discussions on this topic, discuss current thinking and hypotheses relevant to the chosen topic.
Discussion: Analyze findings, review strengths and weaknesses of current research. Discuss current thinking and hypotheses relative to this topic. What are the policy implications of current findings?
Summary and Conclusions: What additional research is needed? What is the nature of the needed research? How should it be structured and conducted.
Bibliography: All items used or reviewed are to be cited. Materials reviewed but not cited should also appear in the bibliography. Tables and descriptive statistics are to be used when appropriate. All materials used must be cited. Reports are to be typed. Neatness, proper citation and grammar counts.
Key Dates: Choice of topic and an overview of how the topic is to be approached is due September 27. A preliminary draft of the literature review and the bibliography is due November 7. The final paper is due December 5th.