International Journal of The Sociology of Law 

About: International Journal of The Sociology of Law is an academic journal. The journal publishes majorly in the area(s): Criminal justice & Criminal law. It has an ISSN identifier of 0194-6595. Over the lifetime, 274 publications have been published receiving 4425 citations.

Too much security

Abstract: Major changes in the governance of crime are occurring within, on the margins, and outside the public sphere. Exemplified by the development of risk assessment, crime prevention, community safety, insurance, and private security, these changes call into question traditional modes of crime control and challenge existing criminal justice values. This article asks what exactly is on offer when security stands as the justification for public and private action, to whom, and at what cost. It goes on to identify several significant paradoxes entailed in the pursuit of security, whose attendant costs need to be taken into account. Yet, whereas punishment provokes us to ask why, how, and in what measure the state may inflict pain upon its citizens, security has not been thought to require special justification because in many ways it seems preferable to punishment. The paper contends both that security is in need of special justification and that it is necessary to develop guiding principles in order to regulate its pursuit. This leads to the larger question of whether and in what manner it is possible to regulate the ‘security society’ so as to ensure accountable, fair, and inclusive provision of protection.

Explaining Legal Implementation in the European Union

Abstract: L'A. examine de quelle maniere les legislations et les directives communautaires sont integrees et mises en pratique au sein des codes juridiques des Etats membres de l'Union europeenne. Il s'attache a definir les notions d'«implementation» et de «directive». Il passe en revue les theories qui permettent de comprendre le processus de modification du droit des Etats membres sous l'influence du droit communautaire. Il s'interesse plus particulierement a l'hypothese du cout dont il teste le bien-fonde. Il analyse l'application des reglementations communautaires en matiere d'egalite des salaires entre les sexes

From ‘pluralisation’ to ‘the police extended family’: discourses on the governance of community policing in Britain

Abstract: With increased pluralisation of security there has been a growing dispute about the governance (or ‘ownership’) of community policing: whether community policing is something that the police do on behalf of communities; that communities do on their own behalf, either through municipal, commercial or citizen-based provision; or that communities and police do in partnership with one another. This paper examines recent developments with regard to the governance of community policing in Britain. First, it considers municipal-led modes of community policing. By the provision of central government funding, municipalities have been able to employ neighbourhood (or community) wardens to undertake a variety of tasks including crime prevention and environmental improvement. The paper draws upon research from one community warden scheme—involving a partnership between local authority and a private security company. Amongst the issues considered are the potentially complex relations obtaining between wardens and the local police. While varied, the police response to pluralisation, in general, and to municipalisation, in particular reflects aspects of Stenning's (1989) analysis of the stages of police reaction to the growth of private security in Canada. Though there has been no single police ‘position’ on the governance of plural policing in Britain, an influential model (‘the police extended family’) has begun to emerge. In part, this model has arisen because of concern in some places—including London—that municipal governments might opt to set up their own police forces, thereby posing a threat of ‘Balkanization’ (Blair, 2002). The second part of the paper examines key aspects of this model particularly as it applies to the employment of ‘community support officers’ by constabularies in England and Wales.