NCJ Number
181492
Journal
Policing Volume: 22 Issue: 4 Dated: 1999 Pages: 646-674
Date Published
1999
Length
29 pages
Annotation
This paper describes four major developments in policing in relation to the U.S. political economy: pre-industrial police, industrial police, modern police, and postmodern police.
Abstract
The article places into historical context recent trends in policing in the United States, emphasizing the critical importance of political, economic, and social forces in the formation and development of police institutions and practices. Through an analysis of historically specific characteristics of and fundamental structural conditions for policing, the article contributes to a better understanding of the potential of contemporary police agencies to play a role in achieving either greater social justice or just greater social control. The primary role of the police in American society is to maintain the social order. This examination of the history and political economy of policing demonstrates the folly of believing that the community policing movement is not primarily about social control and maintaining the social order. Notes, references