NCJ Number
197564
Date Published
2002
Length
21 pages
Annotation
This chapter discusses the changing ways in which France is addressing crime and disorder ("insecurities").
Abstract
Over the last 30 years, the political problem of crime in France has been disengaged from issues of the class struggle as citizen and governmental perceptions of crime causes have changed. As citizens have pressed for more effective ways of dealing with the insecurities that impact their daily lives, the national government has lost its centrality in crime control. There is now multi-actor (private firms, local municipal authorities, and national services at a local level) and multi-level (local and national) governance. Government ministers have broadened the spectrum of police work to include incivilities and disorder and have simultaneously produced an official policy that locates the national police as only one of the many services that contribute to security. As the state has lost control over the expanding enterprise of private policing, it has apparently focused on claiming the monopoly on policing under local municipal authorities. Any government initiative now must be viewed and implemented in relation to local government. The missing actor in the new governance of crime is the citizen. Successive governments have not been able to implement public participation schemes in crime prevention, and there is an effort to keep citizens from becoming involved in any role that resembles police work. Citizens, therefore, are not at the forefront of responses to crime in France. 13 notes and 40 references