Science in Police Policy - A Comparison of the Situation in Belgium With That in the Surrounding Countries (From Strafrechtsbedeling en Wetenschappelijk Onderzoek, P 73-150, 1978, Marianne Geeroms, ed. - See NCJ-79664)

• NCJ Number: 79667
• Author(s): C Fynaut
• Date Published: 1978
• Length: 81 pages
• Publication Format: Document
• Country: Belgium

Annotation

The state of studies on the criminal police in Belgium is compared to that in France, Germany, and the Netherlands.

Abstract

A brief outline of the history of police research in those countries permits certain generalizations about police studies. First, police research has not been intensively promoted in any of the countries studied. The specific reasons why certain subjects are studied frequently in depth and other subjects are scarcely touched upon at all are unclear and appear to vary from country to country. For years, study of the police was devoted to judicial and historical areas and was conducted by police officers or police-affiliated jurists. Social science studies were launched 20 years ago with opinion polls and have expanded in the meantime to include a wide variety of social science and psychology approaches. Operational and economic research is at the elementary stage of development. Of the three countries considered here, only the Netherlands continues to pursue vigorously social science-oriented police research. In Belgium, research on judicial aspects of the police and the history of the police have received little or no attention. Operational studies have been of interest since the 1970's, and the first social science-oriented public opinion polls date from 1977. There have been no police psychological studies and only one police criminological study. On the whole, the research on the police in Belgium is far more limited in extent and variety and far more recent than in the other three countries. These findings suggest that the Belgian police, police services and responsibilities, and university curricula in police science require examination. Belgian researchers are much more dependent on police management for access to data than are researchers in surrounding countries. Belgian police tend to resist research because they are unfamiliar with the purposes and methods of empirical research, because the police organization has a closed military character, and because conflicts of interest exist among services, authorities, and groups. Priorities for study of the police and suitable research methods should be established. Extensive notes are supplied.