Police effectiveness in dealing with crime: Some current British research

It is planned to undertake research into the effectiveness of some of the more central deterrent activities of the police, such as conventional patrol, surveillance and criminal investigation. The consequences of improvements in security will continue to be studied and it will also be necessary to mount what are likely to be difficult evaluations of those activities (e.g. work concerned with school liaison, juvenile bureaux, community relations) which are designed to raise public commitment to the law. One should be prepared for the fact that the outcome of this programme of research may simply be to lend weight to the interpretation already being placed upon the results of existing research, namely that the crime prevention value of a police force rests less on precisely what it does than on the symbolic effect of its presence and a public belief in its effectiveness. If the deterrent value of the police relies upon a public belief in their effectiveness, then showing that this rests upon misconceptions about their work may both weaken effectiveness and increase the fear of crime (a phenomenon which is perhaps only marginally related to the objective risk of becoming a victim). It might therefore appear that this kind or research should be stopped, but this would not be realistic given that much research is undertaken by independent bodies. Rather it would seem that other means of preventing crime should be explored.