Street Justice: A Moral Defense of Order Maintenance Policing (From Police and Society: Touchstone Readings, P 139- 154, 1995, Victor E. Kappeler, ed. - See NCJ-151401)

• NCJ Number: 151407
• Author(s): G W Sykes
• Date Published: 1995
• Length: 16 pages
• Sale Source: Waveland Press, Inc.
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Justice Quarterly, 3 (4) (December 1986): 497-512. Reprinted with permission of the Academy of Criminal Justice Sciences.

Annotation

This article discusses the role of the urban police officer is meting out street justice, defined here as police behavior that is responsive to situational and organizational factors arising from the nature of the police role itself.

Abstract

Street justice is a police response to a community mandate calling for action to be taken when formal institutions will not or cannot respond for various reasons. This street justice function has created widespread concern, particularly when police officers simultaneously display ethnic or racial prejudice. Reformers who want to change police practices argue that the distribution of street justice violates the basic liberal understanding of how power should be held accountable in a democracy. While the author concedes that order maintenance policing provides the potential for abuses of power, the professional model of policing, which emphasizes officers' law enforcement role, leaves many citizens without recourse to resolve other types of problems. The author believes that order maintenance policing is the central function of police at the local level and is morally justifiable as a means of building and conserving community. 58 references