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Street Justice - A Moral Defense of Order Maintenance Policing

NCJ Number
104201
Journal
Justice Quarterly Volume: 3 Issue: 4 Dated: (December 1986) Pages: 497-512
Author(s)
G W Sykes
Date Published
1986
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This article explores the functional role of 'street justice' and the related factors which require this kind of policing.
Abstract
The conventional wisdom of liberal due process maintains that it is the primary function of the judicial system to provide for incapacitation, punishment, and or treatment of offenders. However, the reality is that police officers perform all of these functions as a community-based institution. Despite administrative and legal due process, superficial professionalism, and constant exhortations which deny the validity of these functions, i.e., 'street justice,' it remains an important and essential role of the police institution. (Publisher abstract)