What are “consent decrees” in policing and how do they stop “harmful practices”?

As found in one of the studies in today's Crime Research Update

Hello! I'm Aaron Jacklin, and this is The Art of Explaining Crime, an independent newsletter that helps you think and write about crime.

Use this tip sheet to help you integrate the latest research into your work. It's a directory of new crime research published by the academic journals that I monitor. The directory includes, for example, this study listing:

“We Have a Long Ways to Go”: The Growing Pains of a Consent Decree in a Municipal Police Department

Journal: Police Quarterly
Keywords: police, policing, surveillance, policy, reform
First author: Zachary A. Powell (College of Social & Behavioral Sciences, School of Criminology & Criminal Justice, California State University, San Bernardino, San Bernardino, CA, USA) [+1 other author]

“Consent decrees”, in this context, are agreements between the federal government and a police department to improve that department’s practices.

In this study, researchers found that officers described “an arduous experience reflected through the stigma associated with the consent decree, the perception of organizational hyper-surveillance, and new policy requirements.” They did, however, also find that the decree was stopping “harmful practices.” As a restricted access study, only the Abstract was available, which didn’t go into detail about what those practices were.

You’ll find more listings for today’s new research below.

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Photo by Campbell Jensen on Unsplash. Modified by Aaron Jacklin in Canva.

The research listings for today's research are sorted by two broad categories: crime type and criminal justice/legal system stage. Research that doesn’t get sorted into those categories follows under “Unsorted Research.”

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