Community Policing Essay Example | Topics and Well Written Essays - 1500 words

Community Policing - Essay Example Understanding basic human behavior, including social disorganization theory regarding criminal activity will demonstrate how the activation of community policing programs becomes an effective tool for local police departments. Humans have the propensity to alter their behavior, beliefs, morals and ethics based upon real or perceived societal pressures because of the fundamental and universal need for acceptance by social peers. The failure to comply with conventional ‘norms’ of society often results in serious consequences; the most disconcerting is the segregation from and vilification of a desired group. People will go as far as to alter their deepest belief system and innermost values to be accepted by their friends, neighbors, community and those considered to be superiors. A person may often comply when prompted to act in a certain way by another whether or not they believe it is the correct course to take because the outcome of non-compliance lead to undesirable social consequences. Obedience differs from compliance. A person will obey a directive from a person accepted as an authoritative figure because they do not believe that they have a choice whereas complying is more of a choice. Both of these factors come into play through community policing efforts. In 1951, Solomon Asch demonstrated conformity by demonstrating how people can be routinely influenced by others (Asch, 1951). In his study, Asch gathered a small group of people together to compare a line drawn on one piece of paper to three lines drawn on another, one of which was obviously the same size as the one on the first paper. He then asked the group to determine which of the three lines matched the one. All but one of the group members was collaborating with Asch unbeknownst to the one actual subject of the test who was always positioned to choose last. The collaborators would choose the wrong line so as to determine if the test