Showing papers in "Policing & Society in 1990"

Taking police culture seriously: Police discretion and the limits of law†

Abstract: ‘Police culture’ tends to be seen negatively, as a contrary and perverse influence upon the ‘proper’ exercise of police discretion. It is seen, quite correctly, as often subversive of the ideals and demands of legality. Yet most modern societies are essentially dependent upon rule‐based forms of police accountability. This paper suggests that the police culture needs to be approached more positively, as a potential resource in the formulation of rules governing police powers and practices. This requires that police administrators and police officers participate in negotiated rulemaking, a process similar to collective bargaining, in which police culture perspectives are drawn upon in formulating rules regulating aspects of police practice.

Crime prevention facing the 1990s

Abstract: Crime prevention projects assumed an enhanced importance during the 1980s in a number of countries. This paper assesses the experience of crime prevention projects to date, and argues for a mixed strategy of situational, social and developmental crime prevention for the future. Additionally, potential problems in inter‐agency co‐operation in local crime prevention projects need to be more honestly faced, and evolving policies in the crime prevention field should be appropriately evaluated by adequately rigorous research. Attention should be paid to the relationship between crime prevention and wider social trends and policies.

Safeguarding the rights of suspects in police custody

Abstract: Reporting findings from research on the impact of the Police and Criminal Evidence Act 1984 (PACE), this paper assesses the effectiveness of rights provided for suspects in police custody which were intended to counterbalance increased police powers. It discusses (1) the involvement in the detention and questioning process of parents, social workers, and legal advisers; (2) the procedures which regulate the detention and questioning of suspects before charge; and (3) the effectiveness of sanctions and supervision. It concludes that these safeguards have had a significant, although variable, impact. Factors that have limited this impact are assessed. Claims that suspects’ rights are excessively hampering the detection of crime are criticized.

Police corruption and police reform: The Fitzgerald inquiry in Queensland, Australia

Abstract: The 1989 Fitzgerald Report in Queensland, Australia was one of the country's most far‐reaching investigations of police corruption and maladministration. Its recommendations, including measures to reorganize the police force and establish new modes of review of the criminal justice system, are made against a background of police reform in other States, including New South Wales and Victoria. The paper reviews the Report's findings in the context of the historical development of policing in Australia, centralized, marked by strong police unionism and with periodic crises of corruption and maladministration over the past century. The prospects for police reform are reviewed.

Foucault's Carceral and Ignatieff's Pentonville—English prisons and the revisionist analysis of control and penality

Abstract: During the 1970s the work of Michel Foucault and Michael Ignatieff challenged the earlier somewhat optimistic general analysis of French and British penality during the late eighteenth and early nineteenth centuries. Their accounts constituted a major revision of this subject and in the early 1980s there was a counter revisionist critique of their work in which it was argued that Foucault and Ignatieff had made substantial errors of fact and judgement. During the mid 1980s the dispute between revisionists and counter revisionists was further informed by the work of David Garland and Radzinowicz and Hood in relation to British penality during the late nineteenth and early twentieth centuries. In this article the author considers these analyses specifically in relation to methods of reforming the attitude and conduct of prisoners and argues that revisionist and counter revisionist analyses both offer important insights into the actual historical development of the English prison system between 1775 and 1939.

The soviet Militsiia: Agents of political and social control

Abstract: The paper provides an overview of the development of the Soviet militsiia (regular police) and its present structure, organization and functions. The paper concludes that the nature of Soviet policing differs from that of western democratic societies. Policing is a state monopoly; the militsiia closely controlled by the party with minimal input from the citizenry. Its responsibilities are broader and it is more intrusive into the daily life of the population. Since the revolution, the militsiia has had three primary functional areas—social, economic and political control. The functions of the militsiia have changed with the development of the Soviet state. The political responsibilities have receded but remain more important than in democratic societies.

The relationship between police practice, community characteristics, and case attrition∗

Abstract: More than half of the suspects arrested for felonies in the United States are released. Are police failing to provide enough evidence for prosecution of these suspects? This article summarizes a study of 25 Los Angeles County police departments and concludes that although such a conclusion seems logical, case‐attrition patterns may not be a valid basis for evaluating the quality of police work. For the two categories of crime studied, robbery and burglary, some departments convicted twice the number of their arrestees as others. Community crime rates play a slight role in this and the money and resources departments can devote to each arrest are also factors. Purely demographic differences between communities appear to account for little, if any, variation in case attrition. Although critics clamor for more convictions, the police may not see this as their role. According to the study, none of the respondents knew or cared where they stood in relation to other departments’ attrition rates. In most officer...

Police personnel re‐allocation: The Dutch case

Abstract: In 1987 the two police ministers in The Netherlands charged a committee with the task of making a proposal for the re‐allocation of the police. Re‐allocation was to be merely a technical operation and not an occasion for a debate on the police organization. Re‐allocation became necessary because assumptions underlying the former allocation system had become obsolete. In 1988 extensive and unique research was carried out on behalf of the committee. The article deals with the research, research outcomes and the allocation model. As the outcomes of the model were unacceptable to the committee, negotiations, redefinitions of the original problem and amending the allocation model followed. In the end some sort of allocation policy emerged. Subsequent political events showed that the research and the committee's activities did not solve the allocation problem but was important in setting the problem of police re‐organization.