Book Review: Policing in America: A Balance of Forces (3rd ed.). By Robert H. Langworthy and Lawrence F. Travis, III. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall, 2003, 492 pages.

• DOI: 10.1177/1043986203251078
• Date: 01 May 2003
• Published date: 01 May 2003
• Author: Gregory D. Russell
• Subject Matter: Review

REVIEWJournal of Contemporary Criminal Justice / May 2003BOOK REVIEWS

BOOK REVIEWS

Policing in America: A Balance of Forces (3rd ed.). By Robert H.

Langworthy and Lawrence F. Travis, III. Englewood Cliffs, NJ: Prentice

Hall, 2003, 492 pages.

DOI: 10.1177/1043986203251078

Reviewing a text book is, in my view, a difficult and treacherous task. Why?

Because, you not only must make inquiry about the overall intellectual value of the

book but also, at a far more instrumental level,must inquire as to its serviceability in a

plethora of programs, courses, and institutions, all of which differ in substantial ways.

That said, this review considers both sets of questions, with an emphasis on the latter

set of questions.

The authors are both highly respected researchers in their field. Accordingly, one

would expecta book in its third edition to be written well, organized in a fashion that is

meaningful to a wide range of readership, and relatively consistent to the plan of the

book. That is certainly true here. Generally speaking, the plan of the book is set on the

premise that policing is an organizational process that balances a set of competing

forces in American society and culture, some legal and formal and others social and

informal. In addition, the process of balancing is explained by the “correlates of polic-

ing” or those sets of social, institutional, and human attributesthat produce varieties in

police behavior.Although this paraphrases the author’s objectives, it fairly represents

the intent of the text—to discuss the formation, evolution, and operation of policing

organizations in the United States by reference to sets of social and political forces (to

which I would add institutional and economic, which the authors do eventually in an

offhand manner) that gave rise to and influence the operation of policing organiza-

tions. This is at least a reasonable setting within which to nest their discussion. But

again, this depends on the audience.

This is the primary issue with this text. I will say at the outset that I had not read the

second edition and that this is a good improvementover the first. So, in many respects,

given the interveningyears, this is a review of first impression. My initial observation

is that this book is heavily based in theory—social theory, organizationaltheory and

behavior,bureaucratic politics, and to a degree, criminological theory roughly stated.

I applaud the effortat basing a text so deeply in theory and find it useful in a number of

circumstances, but this comes with some critical observations as well. First, let us

examine the most appropriate setting for its use.

I think this text would be useful in an undergraduate course that focuses on social

interactions with police—police and society,in most programs. It would not be useful

in a program with multiple policing courses in which no single course examined the

overarchingevolution and practice of policing. I am not aware of any empirical analy-

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Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, Vol. 19 No. 2, May 2003 253-258

© 2003 Sage Publications