NCJ Number
180696
Journal
Howard Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 38 Issue: 4 Dated: November 1999 Pages: 397-410
Date Published
November 1999
Length
14 pages
Annotation
This article examines the development of zero tolerance policing (ZTP) in Great Britain and America.
Abstract
The fundamental tenets of ZTP strategies have been a concentration on low-level public disorder offenses such as graffiti, vandalism, public drunkenness, etc. The premise of ZTP is that a strong and authoritative use of coercive police powers against these types of behaviors can prevent more serious types of disorder and crime from occurring. The legitimacy and effectiveness of the British approach to policing has been held to reside in the veiled nature of the available coercion, described as "an iron fist in a velvet glove." Under the rhetoric of ZTP, the disguised nature of the coercive enforcement functions of policing are foregone; the police function becomes that of an "iron fist in an iron glove." ZTP has, in the main, not been adopted as a wholesale policing philosophy in Britain; however, a number of forces have operated limited ZTP programs in targeted areas. Despite the claims of effectiveness of ZTP policies in America and in its limited application in Britain, it is clear that ZTP targets those groups and individuals who exhibit the most troubling public behaviors, groups that in previous times were referred to as "the dangerous population." ZTP must be viewed as part of a major shift of strategy, in which the mechanisms of social control are proliferating and diversifying, so that control is exercised through moral classification of targeted groups and individuals, rather than amelioration of the social or economic conditions that promote delinquent and criminal behavior. 15 notes and 40 references