NCJ Number
179840
Date Published
1999
Length
310 pages
Annotation
This analysis of policing throughout the modern world demonstrates how many of the issues surrounding the police in recent years -- from paramilitarism to community policing -- have their origins in the fundamentals of the police role.
Abstract
In defining the nature of policing, the first chapter concludes that policing is "the exercise of the authority of the state over the civil population." This authority is based on the monopoly of legitimate coercion. The second chapter addresses the nature and use of police discretion, as it first presents the current understanding of police discretion and then develops this understanding to consider the social organization of discretion. The third chapter uses a historical example to illustrate how the state is restrained in using coercion against those sections of its population it deems to be citizens, but shows much less restraint in suppressing dissent from those on the margins of citizenship and even less for those beyond those margins. The fourth chapter identifies factors that influence police behavior, including the characteristics of individuals drawn to policing and the police subcultural values that influence officers' behavior after they enter the profession. The remaining chapters address the dynamics of police abuse of authority, restraints on individual officers and the police organization as a whole, and current policing reform and change. The latter chapter focuses on community policing, police management styles, and privatization. A 1,118-item bibliography and a subject index