NCJ Number
223681
Journal
Crime Prevention & Community Safety: An International Journal Volume: 10 Issue: 3 Dated: July 2008 Pages: 190-202
Date Published
July 2008
Length
13 pages
Annotation
This article explores the punitive tendencies of a largely middle-class British community toward a marginalized group, i.e., "street-life people," and how these punitive tendencies can override the views of police officers and local-authority officials who hold more lenient views based on their direct interaction with the street-life people.
Abstract
Although there is no clear definition for "street-life people," this article describes their characteristics. They spend most of their time in the company of others in public places, performing a range of social and physical activities in public, including those that are generally regarded as private and/or inappropriate. They are generally unemployed and tend to be dependent on drugs and/or alcohol. The general public encounters them as badly dressed, rough-looking men and women of all ages clustered in the marginal areas of city centers in most British cities. In this study of one community, the resident majority demanded a punitive response to their perceived problem of street-people. As a result of the increased powers given to community residents through the guidelines for neighborhood policing, the views of criminal justice professionals became less important than those of the public under the overwhelming demands of the community. Rather than drawing marginalized people into the community as envisioned by government policy under neighborhood policing, in the case at issue, the public majority has pressed the local criminal justice system to do just the opposite. 1 note and 20 references