Over-Policing and Under-Policing Social Exclusion (From Hard Cop, Soft Cop: Dilemmas and Debates in Contemporary Policing, P 54-68, 2004, Roger Hopkins Burke, ed. -- See NCJ-206005)

• NCJ Number: 206009
• Author(s): Chris Crowther
• Date Published: 2004
• Length: 15 pages
• Sale Source: Willan Publishing
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Legislation/Policy Analysis
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

After outlining Great Britain's current agenda for crime control, this chapter reviews a range of theories about the relationship between the police and police crime control strategies and social exclusion.

Abstract

In the first section, the promise of New Labour to be "tough on crime and tough on the causes of crime" is placed in the context of an emphasis on eliminating social exclusion in British society. It is too early to evaluate the effectiveness of the "tough-on-crime and tough-on-causes of crime" strategy and the anti-social-exclusion strategy; however, there are some unresolved theoretical debates. The second section of this chapter consists of a critical assessment of a range of theoretical perspectives that have focused on the policing of an underclass. This is done through the concept of the police-policing continuum, which attempts to establish connections between neo-Marxist/neo-Weberian and Foucauldian explanations of crime and crime control. Neo-Marxists and neo-Weberians portray the police as a specialist, formal state apparatus with the authority to use force in regulating a structurally excluded underclass. The police thus become the tool of the governing class, which promotes its own interests to the disadvantage of the underclass. Foucauldians have tended to focus on police and policing in terms of "police science," which connotes more general forms of administration and regulation. Instead of focusing on the delimited and specialized task of crime reduction, policing is viewed as the promotion of security, public welfare, general social stability, and economic prosperity. The police cooperate with other governmental agencies in these pursuits of the public welfare. The latter paradigm of policing best reflects current policing styles in Great Britain. This chapter argues, however, that both of these policing perspectives err in being overly pessimistic in one case (neo-Marxist) and overly optimistic in the other case (Foucauldian) in viewing the policing of the socially excluded and associated political economic conditions. In the latter case, the cooperation of agencies to promote public safety while reducing social exclusion may be compromised by scarce funds and competing agendas. As a consequence, the disadvantages of the underclass may persist.