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Current work tests an integrated contextual model of confidence in local police. The model addresses four questions. (a) Do incivilities, procedural justice, and local social climate each affect confidence? (b) Do incivilities more powerfully corrode confidence at some points along the urban versus rural continuum? (c) Where on the continuum is confidence weakest? (d) Does confidence in local police bolster confidence in the broader justice system? Surveys from households across the Commonwealth of Pennsylvania were supplemented with municipality-level census and reported crime data, and county-level urban versus rural continuum codes. Findings showed significant net effects of both procedural justice and incivilities on the outcome; strongest corrosive impacts of incivilities in rural counties; lowest confidence in rural counties; and connections between confidence in local police and confidence in the broader criminal justice system. Results underscore the broad importance of police simultaneously maintaining order and treating citizens fairly. [ABSTRACT FROM PUBLISHER]

The research reported here sought to determine whether there is a connection between arrests for minor offenses and subsequent reductions in serious crime, using county-level data collected from the state of California between the years 1989 arm 2000. Results from a series of fixed effects regression models suggest that arrests for disorderly conduct, disturbing the peace, and public drunkenness can reduce certain crimes, notably felonious assault and burglary. Moreover, the results suggest that assault appears to decline immediately, whereas burglary declines with a delay. [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]