NCJ Number
153233
Date Published
1994
Length
333 pages
Annotation
This book examines how and why policing policy in England has changed over recent years and what this indicates about the relationship between policing and democracy in Britain today.
Abstract
The research in England was conducted between 1990 and 1992. The overall aim was to describe and analyze how the various actors involved in the policymaking process interact to produce changes in the style, organization, and operation of policing. A central part of the research involved detailed case studies of four provincial police forces and relevant organizations in the four areas. The core of the book consists of an analysis of the making of policing policy within four English police forces during the 1980's and early 1990's. The authors first establish the framework of analysis within which the findings on the making of policing policy will be located. This is followed by a discussion of how this work grows out of a recent tradition of research and writing on the police, a review of the concept of policing policy, and a description of the scope and methods of the study. Subsequent sections describe the structure and powers of the institutions concerned with the governance of the police and identify from a discussion of the concept of democracy a set of criteria for judging in what ways a system might be considered to be "democratic." This prepares the way for the later chapters, which lay out the evidence on how and why certain major changes of policy have occurred. Particular policy issues discussed are the growth of crime prevention policing responses to crimes against women and children, the use of civilians in the police service, and the influence of community representatives in police policymaking. A 200-item bibliography, chapter notes, and a subject index