NCJ Number
146913
Date Published
1993
Length
25 pages
Annotation
This discussion of analytical issues in the study of alternative policing focuses on the analysis of policing styles, options for structural analysis, grouping policing styles, influences over policing style, the instrumental reality of policing styles, and models for explaining choice of policing styles.
Abstract
The analysis of policing styles should be done comparatively, since policing interacts with significant interests in a selected context. One way of minimizing the subjective limitations of a contextual/structural inquiry and of facilitating comparative discourse is to order the identified policing styles under broad headings. There are at least three levels at which the issues of power must be addressed: power relations that designate a particular policing style, power as it is negotiated through policing in practice, and power struggles that occur due to policing in practice. Options for structural analysis include examinations of indicators of policing styles, who participates in policing, the use of voluntarism, degree of professionalism, type of organization, focus on clients, visibility, jurisdiction, and the use of force. Research into policing styles can also group them into one of the following categories: covert policing, subcontract policing, entrepreneurial/private policing, consensual and "blind eye" policing, cooptive policing, compulsory/obligatory policing, and confrontational policing. Remaining sections of this chapter discuss, influence over policing styles, the instrumental reality of policing styles, and models for explaining choices of policing styles. 56 footnotes