DEPARTMENT OF POLITICAL SCIENCE

Interests

Research Interest(s): Crime Policy; Politics of Crime; Policing; Conflict Studies

Program Area(s): Law and Politics; American Politics

Regional Specialization(s): United States

Subfield Specialties: Law and Politics

Biography

Wesley G. Skogan holds a joint appointment in Northwestern University's Institute for Policy Research. His most recent books on policing are:  Police and Community in Chicago, and  Community Policing: Can It Work? Prof. Skogan was co-editor of a policy-oriented report from the National Research Council, Fairness and Effectiveness in Policing: The Evidence, and he chaired the committee that produced it. Another line of his research includes crime prevention; this led to his book Coping with Crime, and a number of articles on community responses to crime. Prof. Skogan has also been involved in research on criminal victimization and the evaluation of service programs for victims. He received the 2015 Distinguished Achievement Award in Evidence-Based Crime Policy from the Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy. This award is the center's highest honor and recognizes individuals who have made a significant contribution and commitment to advance the integration of science with criminal justice practice. This award celebrates CEBCP's core values of doing rigorous science and translating research into practice. The award was presented at the Annual Symposium of the Center for Evidence-Based Crime Policy at George Mason University.

Books

• Policing in France, (co-edited with Jacques de Maillard). Routledge, 2020.
• Police and Community in Chicago: A Tale of Three Cities. New York: Oxford University Press, 2006.
• Fairness and Effectiveness in Policing: The Evidence. Washington, DC: National Academies Press, 2004 (co–edited with Kathleen Frydl).
• Community Policing: Can It Work? Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company, 2003. (editor and contributor).
• On the Beat: Police and Community Problem Solving. Boulder, CO: Westview Publishing Co., 1999.
• Community Policing, Chicago Style. New York and London: Oxford University Press, 1997 (with Susan M. Hartnett).
• Disorder and Decline: Crime and the Spiral of Decay in American Cities. New York: The Free Press, 1990. 

Select Publications

• “Prospects for Reform? The Collapse of Community Policing in Chicago.” University of Chicago Law Review, Vol 8, No. 2, 2022, in press.
• “Accountability and Transparency as Levers to Promote Public Trust and Police Legitimacy: Findings from a Natural Experiment." 2021.Policing, 44:1046-1051.
• “The Commission and the Police”, Criminology & Public Policy 17, no. 2 (2018), 379-396.
• "Collective efficacy and violence in Chicago neighborhoods: a reproduction", Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice 34, no. 3 (2018): 245-265, with Christopher D. Maxwell and Joel H. Garner.
• “Officer Support for Use of Force Policy: The Role of Fair Supervision”, Criminal Justice & Behavior 44, no. 6 (2017): 843-861, with Maarten Van Craen.
• “Stop and Frisk and Trust in Police in Chicago” in Police-citizen Relations: A Comparative Investigation of Sources and Impediments of Legitimacy Around the World, ed. Dietrich Oberwittler & Sebastian Roché. Routledge, 2017, p 247-265.
• "Why Reforms Fail" in Monique Marks and David Sklansky (eds.) Police Reform from the Bottom Up: Officers and their Unions as Agents of Change. Routledge, 2012.
• "Community Policing in the Favelas of Rio de Janeiro", Police Practice and Research, 14 (No. 4, August), 2013, 308-318.
• "Collective Action, Structural Disadvantage and Crime", Journal of Police Studies, 25, 2012, 135-152.

Courses taught

• 230 Law in the Political Arena
• 321 Urban Political Processes
• 395 Police, Crime and Society