Provide a response agreeing to what is referenced below with 1 source.
Module 1.1: Evolution of Policing
Policing within the United States has always and will continue to be shaped by numerous, wide ranging factors such as social, cultural, political, and legal developments. According to Burns there is no single history of policing in the United States, as the decentralized nature of policing results in a wide array of developments across a long period of time. Throughout history the primary police functions have changed almost little to none, being that there are no transformation shifts within the field. This module’s case study addressed concerns of how an instructor chose to contextualize the course material in the final part of the course in order to explain the history of early policing.
Maria’s Concerns
Maria was a sophomore studying criminal justice attending a small liberal arts college. As she enrolled in a history of criminal justice course recommended by her academic advisor , she experienced a bit of a rough patch in her starting weeks of the course. Although she made it through the first section with no problem by scoring well on her first exam, she began to be enlightened by the beginning of police work and the study of history. Maria read the articles with interest, but she questioned how select case studies that pertained to particular cities, and in some cases specific departments, could help her truly understand the evolution of policing in a country as large and diverse as the United States (Burns).
Maria began to question how the instructor’s implementation of organizing the history of policing in distinct time periods was so well put despite the varied levels of development of policing in the United States. After speaking with a few other students in her class, she learned that her fellow classmates had the same concerns as her. After understanding that her and her classmates had a mutual confusion on how the instructor organized the history of policing, she asked them to address the issues.
Contextualization
By collecting and discerning credible information and legitimate evidence from across multiple sources, historians can contextualize an event in order to more accurately reconstruct the event and interpret why it occurred. Maria’s instructor was extremely proformative in historical studies, specifically criminal justice, so he practiced teaching historical contextualization in the course material in order to inform his students on the history of policing. He explained to Maria that historical studies rely upon limited data, which ultimately results in piecemeal accounts of history. He explained that current studies suffer from many of the same limitations, for instance when researchers use small sample groups or focus on particular types of crimes (Burns).
The instructor contextualized the course material concerning the evolution of policing by requiring the students to read articles that he thought best portrayed the various levels of development across the country. He then explained that the articles that were chosen demonstrated how social, legal, political, economic, and technological developments impacted policing. His decision to discuss policing across time periods, he noted, was intended to help students understand the general evolution of policing, and he encouraged the students to recognize and understand that policing evolved with various levels of intensity in jurisdictions throughout the United States (Burns).
I believe that having students read snapshots of historical police practices helps them better understand the history of policing. Historical contextualization is one particular component of historical reasoning that remains difficult for students in history classes (Monte-Sano, 2010; Reisman, 2012b; Van Drie et al., 2015). Historical contextualization has been defined as the reconstruction of the chronology, geography, and social features of the time period in order to situate a source or historical phenomenon (Van Drie & Van Boxtel, 2008; Wineburg, 1991). This is why snapshots would be beneficial towards having students understand the history of policing, because students may have a hard time with knowledge about historical developments and the chronology. Reading the snap shots will allow students to gain knowledge and provide insight on the chronological, geographical, and social characteristics in order to create a historical context.
The Organization of History of Policing
I believe that the most effective way to organize a course based on the history of policing would be by time periods. To explain historical context a chronological frame of reference could be beneficial when understanding the history of policing. The history of policing involved three eras which were : Political , Reform, and Community Policing. My outline would include a timeline broken into three eras : (1840-1930), (1930-1980), (1980-present time ). We would first discuss the Political era to expose students when policing officially started and how it was run. At the end of learning about the Political era students will have to identify what the roles of policing were back then and who was able to work as an officer. Next we would discuss the Reform era and compare it to what we already know from the Political era. At the end of learning about the Reform era the students objective will be to compare and contrast the Reform and Political era. Finally we would discuss Community policing , since this is current day policing I will have students discuss what should be changed about policing while also comparing and contrasting the other Eras. I believe this organization will be most effective because chronological order allows students to go back on what they learned and apply it to the next steps.
After reading this case study not only did I obtain knowledge on the history of policing but also the contextualization of historical events. I was shocked but not surprised not much has changed about the history of policing. In my opinion I believe there needs to be immediate change on how policing works in the United States.
Sources
Burns, R.G. (2013). Policing: A modular approach. Upper Saddle River, NJ: Pearson Education, Inc. (ISBN-13: 978-0132559997)
Huijgen, Tim, et al. “Promoting Historical Contextualization: The Development and Testing of a Pedagogy.” Journal of Curriculum Studies, vol. 50, no. 3, 2018, pp. 410–434., https://doi.org/10.1080/00220272.2018.1435724.