Listening?
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X9606900213 |
| Author | S.E.K. Hewitt |
| Published date | 01 April 1996 |
| Date | 01 April 1996 |
| Subject Matter | Article |
S.E.K.
HEWITT,
BA (Hons)
LISTENING?
Introduction
Regretfully, it appears that the public are losing faith in the police. The
politicians hold the purse strings and ought to bear the brunt of the
complaints. Financial and commercial institutions ought to
playas
robust
a part in expressing concern about the consequences of crime. This article
aims to provide an holistic approach to the social and economic
repercussions of rising crime. It is not a scientific piece, since most crime
which affects the public is not itself scientific but is carried out by young
opportunists. The reaction to the sight of a home turned upside down and
the loss of objects of sentimental value is not akin to the search for theories
and empirical evidence. I do not always watch the television discussion
programme
Kilroybutldid
see
iton
Wednesday March 8, 1995. The show
was broadcast from Nottingham where, it was stated, there had been a
marked increase in crime. A number of people in the audience related their
experiences, some of whom had come face to face with intruders on their
property. There was a lady who had returned home with her young son one
afternoon only to find a youth in the house. She chased the youth over
fields and said that she felt like strangling him. One man related how he
had found someone in his house, had run after him and cornered him on
part of the estate on which he lived. The man described how he was
trembling, perhaps with nervous excitement, and how he could have killed
the person he had trapped. The viewer came to the conclusion that the
public, as represented by the group in Nottingham, were fed up with
burglars.
The Guardian newspaper recently carried the story of the PC who had
hit a train passenger for making "a wholly inappropriate and offensive
comment", as defending lawyer had put it. The public response in support
of PC King's action was enormous. It appears the public want some order
and support those whose
job
it is to keep it whilst not condemning some
of the methods used. I was once "a citizen locally appointed" and served
for 25 years. In my training there was, undoubtedly, some degree of "think
first", but out on the streets it had to be jolly fast thinking and I suppose,
by pure mathematical chance, one was lucky to get it right so often. The
public expected prompt action.
Policing, of recent times, has become a subject of interest to academia
somewhat beyond the scope of Dr Hans Cross and his book Criminal
Investigation written three-quarters of a century ago. There is a growing
number of criminologists and sociologists taking an interest in the topic
but it should still interest economists, educators and architects more.
Psychology
for
Police Officers was published in this country in 1983, and
it is only in the last decade that so much literature has been produced by
sociologists and criminologists on the topic of crime and its causes, on
rehabilitation and on policing. Little of this has contributed towards the
178 The Police Journal April 1996
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