THE IMPACT OF POLICE LEVELS ON CRIME RATES

This article investigated whether increased policing levels reduce crime rates, focusing on methodological and statistical specifications which should be addressed to examine the relationship. A total of 256 findings out of 58 relevant studies were systematically analyzed. Although the types of crime rates used in each study varied, most of the findings produced negative relationships rather than positive ones between police levels and crime rates regardless of their significance levels. The overall results of this study, however, could not support firm conclusions on the deterrent impact of increased police levels on crime rates because most reviewed studies did not control essential variables and failed to resolve methodological issues in their analysis. A better specified and sophisticated research design and statistical techniques are needed to identify the relationship between police levels and crime.