Paradoxes of Police Work: Walking the Thin Blue Line

• NCJ Number: 179875
• Author(s): Douglas W. Perez Ph.D.
• Date Published: 1997
• Length: 118 pages
• Sale Source: Copperhouse @ Atomic Dog Publishing
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This book discusses some of the psychological roadblocks that await the new officer on the street.

Abstract

The book is divided into 13 chapters, with selected sub-chapters: (1) What Are We Doing Out There? (consequences of vague goals, conflicts between goals); (2) The Limits of the Law (policing a free society, freedom and due process); (3) Curbside Justice (the Dirty Harry syndrome, the big excuse); (4) Defining Police Power (exhortative, reciprocal and coercive power); (5) The Paradoxes of Coercive Power (dispossession, detachment, face, irrationality, the police officer as victim); (6) Police Work Is All Common Sense; (7) The Downside of Police Discretion (community-based policing and discretion); (8) Violence and Survival; (9) Stereotyping and Making Mistakes; (10) Defending Fort Apache (the police subculture); (11) Corruption and Paramilitarism (the cyclical nature of isolation); (12) Some Thoughts on Avoiding the Paradoxes; and (13) The Great Challenge (take pride in doing the "world's toughest job"). Bibliography