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Journal ArticleDOI

The Police on Skid-Row: A Study of Peace Keeping

Egon Bittner
- 01 Oct 1967 - 
- Vol. 32, Iss: 5, pp 699-715
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TLDR
Following the distinction proposed by Banton, police work consists of two relatively different activities: "law enforcement" and "keeping the peace." The latter is not determined by a clear legal mandate and does not stand under any system of external control.
Abstract
Following the distinction proposed by Banton, police work consists of two relatively different activities: "law enforcement" and "keeping the peace." The latter is not determined by a clear legal mandate and does not stand under any system of external control. Instead, it developed as a craft in response to a variety of demand conditions. One such condition is created by the concentration of certain types of persons on skid-row. Patrolmen have a particular conception of the social order of skid-row life that determines the procedures of control they employ. The most conspicuous features of the peace keeping methods used are an aggressively personalized approach to residents, an attenuated regard for questions of culpability, and the use of coercion, mainly in the interest of managing situations rather than persons.

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Journal ArticleDOI

Police (canteen) sub-culture. An appreciation

TL;DR: The authors reviewed the literature on police sub-culture and concluded that what occurs in the canteen is expressive talk designed to give purpose and meaning to inherently problematic occupational experience, where in contrast to the latter officers act before an audience of their peers.
Journal ArticleDOI

A Pragmatist Theory of Social Mechanisms

TL;DR: In this article, the authors argue that the major aim of sociological inquiry is to identify the mechanisms by which cause and effect relationships in the social world come about, and that sociologists have recently argued that a major objective of sociology is to find the mechanisms that make such relationships come about.
BookDOI

Equity, social determinants and public health programmes.

E. Blas, +1 more
TL;DR: This book was commissioned by the Department of Ethics, Equity, Trade and Human Rights as part of the work undertaken by the Priority Public Health Conditions Knowledge Network of the Commission on Social Determinants of Health.
Proceedings ArticleDOI

Re-space-ing place: "place" and "space" ten years on

TL;DR: In the ten years since the distinction between "place" and "space" emerged as a consideration for CSCW researchers and designers, the concepts have proven useful across a range of domains.
Journal ArticleDOI

Production of Crime Rates

TL;DR: In this paper, the situational conditions under which policemen write official crime reports in field encounters with complainants were investigated and found to be related to the legal seriousness of the complaint, the complainant's observable preference for police action, and the relational distance between the complainant and the suspect.