Date of Conferral

2017

Degree

Ph.D.

School

Public Policy and Administration

Advisor

Heather Mbaye

Abstract

While community-oriented policing was touted as a new paradigm in American policing, little data reflects its success in reducing crime and/or increasing crime clearance rates. Researchers have failed to definitively describe community policing as a successful style of policing, leaving much more research to be done on its effectiveness as a crime reduction method. Using Trojanowicz's seminal conceptualization of community-oriented policing as the foundation, the purpose of this correlational study was to determine whether there are statistically significant associations between community-oriented policing, crime rates, and crime clearance rates for the 9 municipalities of Carteret County, North Carolina. Data for community-oriented policing methods were collected from the police agencies via personal contact with an agency representative, while data for violent crime, property crime, violent crime clearance rates, and property crime clearance rates were obtained from the State Bureau of Investigation and the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Report. The results of Spearman's rho and a chi-square test for independence indicated that there was a statistically significant relationship between community-oriented policing and the violent crime rate (p = .03), the violent crime clearance rate (p = .03) and the property crime clearance rate (p = .009). This study may enhance positive social change for police agencies in North Carolina by providing specific recommendations to better implement successful community policing strategies in their communities.

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