NCJ Number
99423
Date Published
1984
Length
280 pages
Annotation
This book outlines a realistic strategy on crime and policing in Great Britain from a socialist perspective, with attention to the extent of the crime problem, crime causes, relationships between crime and ethnicity, the drift toward military policing, and the increasingly confrontational nature of forces in modern British society.
Abstract
An analysis of crime statistics emphasizes the differential incidence of crime and victimization among certain groups and examines patterns in victim-offender relationships. The book discusses the impact of crime compared to other major social problems. An examination of the causes of crime from the socialist perspective argues that neither poverty, unemployment, nor lack of values or parental training cause crime; a high crime rate occurs where economic and political discontent and an absence of economic and political opportunities exist. The relation between ethnicity and crime is addressed, with the conclusion that the increased rate of black crime and police predisposition to associate blacks with crime have become part of a vicious cycle. Consensus and military policing styles are contrasted, and the effects of military policing on the family, social work agencies, and police-community relations are examined. The author argues that fundamental changes in policing, particularly in terms of local accountability, are necessary to redirect policing toward the consensus model. Approximately 100 references and an index are provided.