More about Police Literature
E. Caroline Gabard · The Journal of Criminal Law Criminology and Police Science · 1959
ment who writes, 17.3 bacteriologists also write. The present author received several comments, and among these was the statement: Yes, but enforcement only write about fifty percent the literature in their field. Never having considered this particular point, the present author first selected a representative time area, then made a study the January through June (1958) issues four non-restricted enforcement journals which enjoy national circulation. (Since European and Asian enforcement is somewhat different from our own, only American authors' works were studied.) The results the study are somewhat amazing. Law enforcement do not write most of their literature, as the present author had so blithely assumed. They do not write fifty percent their literature, as the forementioned commentator had innocently imagined. They barely write twenty-five percent their literature, if the four journals studied are any criteria! It is not a question civilians writing too much, but rather writing too little! If civilians ceased to write, police journals would be hard-pressed to fill their pages. In the study the journals, the present author defined law enforcement officer as any person who, when his appeared, identified himself with a police department. Thus, in the following discussion, civilian employees who wrote articles are included in the ranks officers. In addition, those articles written in collaborations in which only one author is a were considered to have been written by sworn personnel, thus more writing is attributed to peace officers than was actually produced by them. For the purposes the study, the word article was defined as anything beyond an advertisement, a note, an announcement, or a regular column. Even with this definition, questions could arise on whether material (included or omitted) is an article.