Representative Bureaucracy, Organizational Integrity, and Citizen Coproduction: Does an Increase in Police Ethnic Representativeness Reduce Crime?

Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Forthcoming

43 Pages Posted: 31 Jul 2015

Date Written: July 29, 2015

Abstract

In 1999, the UK government set force-specific 10-year targets for recruiting new police officers from ethnic minorities. Using these targets as instrumental variables, this study finds that this policy mandating an increase in the share of ethnic minority officers in a given force is associated with a decrease in the number of crimes in the area under the force’s jurisdiction during the 10-year period. It is argued that greater representativeness and diversity within a public organization improves organizational integrity, which influences bureaucrats’ attitudes and behaviors towards minority citizens. In the context of policing, diversity can mitigate the institutionalized practice of officers acting on implicit assumptions about minorities being inherently more unlawful than whites: police representativeness is associated with a decrease in the over-representation of black individuals among those subject to “stop and search.” Such a change may make minority citizens more willing to cooperate in the co-production of public values, facilitating the attainment of organizational goals.

Keywords: Diversity, Representative Bureaucracy, Race, Ethnicity, Bureaucratic Integrity, Accountability, Citizen Coproduction

Suggested Citation

Hong, Sounman, Representative Bureaucracy, Organizational Integrity, and Citizen Coproduction: Does an Increase in Police Ethnic Representativeness Reduce Crime? (July 29, 2015). Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, Forthcoming, Available at SSRN: https://ssrn.com/abstract=2637721

Sounman Hong (Contact Author)

Yonsei University ( email )

Seoul
Korea, Republic of (South Korea)

Do you have negative results from your research you’d like to share?

Paper statistics

Downloads
58
Abstract Views
539
Rank
653,722
PlumX Metrics