The Stream of Homicidal Violence: Procedural Justice, Legitimacy, and a the Next Phase of Community-Oriented Policing. This item is unavailable.The Stream of Homicidal Violence: Procedural Justice, Legitimacy, and a the Next Phase of Community-Oriented Policing

After 28 years of experience as a police executive, Dr. Raimundo Socorro, Dean of the School of Justice at Miami Dade College has led the charge to redefine policing. Early in his career he spent time on a "crime control" crusade with an intense desire to arrest and convict any and all criminal offenders. In time, he learned that there was a better, more humane, and effective methodology to policing. While earning his Ph.D. in Leadership, he learned that a system of Procedural Justice is a worthy and necessary manner in which to engage policing.In the current era, the police and policing processes have come under fire and tremendous scrutiny. The traditional crime control model has come under fire for violent and excessive use of force, particularly when the alleged offender is a minority. Dr. Socorro has structured the Miami Dade College Police Academy to recalibrate their approach to working with offenders, Procedural Justice.It has long been held that the police are a reactive paramilitary organizational structure. They stand on the sidelines waiting for crime to happen rather than becoming active participants in the community. Socorro contends that there are structural and cultural forces that shape the forces that shape homicide within communities. These forces comprise the stream. In order for the police to be effective at driving down homicide, they must be networked into the stream and not stand on the "crime control" banks. This permits the police to be a part of the communication system within the flow.He notes that pulling levers and focused deterrence is far stronger in reducing violent crime than the use of force. By empowering locally selected violence interrupters to be the "eyes and ears" of local conflict, they can deter crime through grassroot level conflict management. In working with the police, there is a respectful dialogue that breaks down the walls that have built so high.Procedural Justice is starting to garner acceptance. The focus is to maintain legitimacy by building public trust and maintain interactions that provoke images of fair treatment. The four core principles that allow this method of policing to work is to give the public (and alleged offender) a voice, establish fairness, impartiality, and do so with transparency.