IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/sae/anname/v651y2014i1p202-219.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

Staying out of Sight? Concentrated Policing and Local Political Action

Author

Listed:
  • Amy E. Lerman
  • Vesla Weaver

Abstract

In some urban neighborhoods, encounters with police have become one of the primary points of contact between disadvantaged citizens and their government. Yet extant scholarship has only just begun to explore how criminal justice interventions help to shape the political lives of the urban poor. In this article, we ask: What are the consequences of the increased use of stop-and-frisks (Terry stops) in disadvantaged neighborhoods for communities’ engagement with the state? Relying on a novel measure of local citizen engagement (311 calls for service) and more than one million police stops, we find that it is not concentrated police surveillance per se that matters but, rather, the character of police contact. The concentration of police stops overall is associated with higher levels of community engagement, while at the same time, a high degree of stops that feature searches or the use of force, especially when they do not result in an arrest, have a chilling effect on neighborhood-level outreach to local government. Our article marks a first step toward understanding what concentrated policing means for the democratic life and political agency of American communities.

Suggested Citation

  • Amy E. Lerman & Vesla Weaver, 2014. "Staying out of Sight? Concentrated Policing and Local Political Action," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 651(1), pages 202-219, January.
    • Handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:651:y:2014:i:1:p:202-219
    DOI: 10.1177/0002716213503085
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/10.1177/0002716213503085
    Download Restriction: no
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1177/0002716213503085?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Weaver, Vesla M. & Lerman, Amy E., 2010. "Political Consequences of the Carceral State," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 104(4), pages 817-833, November.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Megan Dias & Derek A. Epp & Marcel Roman & Hannah L. Walker, 2024. "Consent searches: Evaluating the usefulness of a common and highly discretionary police practice," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 21(1), pages 35-91, March.
    2. Brandon R Davis, 2023. "State Incarceration Policy in the U.S. Federal System: Assessing Recent Approaches to Reducing Incarceration Rates," Publius: The Journal of Federalism, CSF Associates Inc., vol. 53(3), pages 484-510.
    3. Marie Gottschalk, 2014. "Democracy and the Carceral State in America," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 651(1), pages 288-295, January.
    4. Heather Schoenfeld, 2016. "A Research Agenda on Reform," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 664(1), pages 155-174, March.
    5. Traci R. Burch, 2014. "Effects of Imprisonment and Community Supervision on Neighborhood Political Participation in North Carolina," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 651(1), pages 184-201, January.
    6. Desmond Ang & Panka Bencsik & Jesse Bruhn & Ellora Derenoncourt, 2023. "Shots Fired: Crime and Community Engagement with Law Enforcement after High-profile Acts of Police Violence," Working Papers 315, Princeton University, Department of Economics, Center for Economic Policy Studies..
    7. Kevin Petersen & David Weisburd & Sydney Fay & Elizabeth Eggins & Lorraine Mazerolle, 2023. "Police stops to reduce crime: A systematic review and meta‐analysis," Campbell Systematic Reviews, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 19(1), March.
    8. Jeremy R. Levine & Theodore S. Leenman & Carl Gershenson & David M. Hureau, 2018. "Political Places: Neighborhood Social Organization and the Ecology of Political Behaviors," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 99(1), pages 201-215, March.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Christopher Maggio, 2021. "State‐level immigration legislation and social life: The impact of the “show me your papers” laws," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 102(4), pages 1654-1685, July.
    2. Skarbek, David, 2012. "Prison gangs, norms, and organizations," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 82(1), pages 96-109.
    3. Anna Harvey, 2020. "Applying regression discontinuity designs to American political development," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 185(3), pages 377-399, December.
    4. Benjamin Lessing, 2017. "Counterproductive punishment: How prison gangs undermine state authority," Rationality and Society, , vol. 29(3), pages 257-297, August.
    5. Hedwig Lee & Lauren C. Porter & Megan Comfort, 2014. "Consequences of Family Member Incarceration," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 651(1), pages 44-73, January.
    6. Mooney, Alyssa C. & Neilands, Torsten B. & Giannella, Eric & Morris, Meghan D. & Tulsky, Jacqueline & Glymour, M. Maria, 2019. "Effects of a voter initiative on disparities in punishment severity for drug offenses across California counties," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 230(C), pages 9-19.
    7. Jingjing Zeng & Meng Yuan & Richard Feiock, 2019. "What Drives People to Complain about Environmental Issues? An Analysis Based on Panel Data Crossing Provinces of China," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 11(4), pages 1-18, February.
    8. Michael Leo Owens, 2014. "Ex-Felons’ Organization-Based Political Work for Carceral Reforms," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 651(1), pages 256-265, January.
    9. David Skarbek, 2014. "Prisonomics: Lessons from America's Mass Incarceration," Economic Affairs, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 34(3), pages 411-421, October.
    10. Becky Pettit & Carmen Gutierrez, 2018. "Mass Incarceration and Racial Inequality," American Journal of Economics and Sociology, Wiley Blackwell, vol. 77(3-4), pages 1153-1182, May.
    11. Vesla M. Weaver & Jacob S. Hacker & Christopher Wildeman, 2014. "Detaining Democracy? Criminal Justice and American Civic Life," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 651(1), pages 6-21, January.
    12. Gayitri Kavita Indar & Christine Sharon Barrow & Warren E. Whitaker, 2023. "A Convergence of Violence: Structural Violence Experiences of K–12, Black, Disabled Males across Multiple Systems," Laws, MDPI, vol. 12(5), pages 1-21, September.
    13. Christopher Muller & Daniel Schrage, 2014. "Mass Imprisonment and Trust in the Law," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 651(1), pages 139-158, January.
    14. Skarbek, David, 2016. "Covenants without the Sword? Comparing Prison Self-Governance Globally," American Political Science Review, Cambridge University Press, vol. 110(4), pages 845-862, November.
    15. Heather Millar & Matthew Lesch & Linda A. White, 2019. "Connecting models of the individual and policy change processes: a research agenda," Policy Sciences, Springer;Society of Policy Sciences, vol. 52(1), pages 97-118, March.
    16. Benjamin Justice & Tracey L. Meares, 2014. "How the Criminal Justice System Educates Citizens," The ANNALS of the American Academy of Political and Social Science, , vol. 651(1), pages 159-177, January.
    17. repec:pri:crcwel:wp11-19-ff is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Hunnicutt, Patrick & Henderson, Geoffrey, 2023. "Particulates Matter: Policy Failures, Air Pollution, and Collective Political Participation in the United States," Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, Working Paper Series qt51h8846s, Institute on Global Conflict and Cooperation, University of California.
    19. Kaitlyn Woltz, 2022. "David Skarbek, The Puzzle of Prison Order: Why Life Behind Bars Varies Around the World," The Review of Austrian Economics, Springer;Society for the Development of Austrian Economics, vol. 35(1), pages 135-141, March.

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:sae:anname:v:651:y:2014:i:1:p:202-219. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: SAGE Publications (email available below). General contact details of provider: .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.