About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

30 Policing Soc'y: Int'l J. Res. Pol'y 1 (2020)

handle is hein.journals/pgsty30 and id is 1 raw text is: POLICING AND SOCIETY Routlede 2020, VOL. 30, NO. 1, 1-10 https://doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2019.1701453 Taylor & Francis Group INTRODUCTION Ethnography and the Evocative World of Policing (Part 1) Matthew Bacon', Bethan Loftusb and Mike Rowec 'Centre for Criminological Research, School of Law, University of Sheffield, Sheffield, UK; bSchool of Social Sciences, Bangor University, Bangor, UK; cManagement School, University of Liverpool, Liverpool, UK ARTICLE HISTORY Received 24 November 2019; Accepted 27 November 2019 KEYWORDS Ethnography; policing; police Introduction Ethnography has proved to be a crucial methodology for entering and understanding the world of policing. Recent developments in the fields of policing, and within police organisations themselves, have expanded the prominence of the police and other social control professionals, inviting new avenues for ethnographic research and debate. Within criminology and the sociology of policing, there has always been a recognition that the police are one of the most powerful institutions in society - not least because a defining feature of their role is the potential for the use of state sanc- tioned violence (Bittner 1970, Fassin 2013). But, as Manning (2014a, p. 24) notes, the symbolism and cultural significance of the police reaches further since they are 'connected to state legitimacy, tradition, social order, law, morality, national pride and visible state function' (see also Loader and Mulcahy 2003). Police officers across most societies are bestowed with discretionary powers to stop, search, arrest and detain members of the public (Weber and Bowling 2014, Skinns 2019). They are also permitted to undertake covert and intrusive surveillance against those people sus- pected of having committed - or are in the course of committing - crimes (Marx 1988, Loftus et al. 2016, Bacon 2016, Loftus 2019). Brodeur (2010) conceptualises these powers as 'extralegality in policing', in that police officers are authorised to use diverse means that are 'generally prohib- ited by statute or regulation to the rest of the population' (p. 130). Police powers, in other words, are what separate police officers from other members of society. Since (uniformed) police symbo- lise and represent the body politic, the practice of policing invariably provides members of the public with their most tangible experience of the state itself (Waddington 1999a). The police are also typically the first agency that suspects come into contact with and, in this sense, heavily influence who enters the criminal justice system and potentially comes to wear the label of criminal (McConville et al. 1991). It should be noted, however, that the collective identity of the police has been challenged by the arrival of other actors who are providing policing ser- vices. The contemporary 'pluralised' policing field comprises a multiplicity of public, private and voluntary organisations, a development which raises questions for governance, accountability and ethics (Johnston and Shearing 2003, Brodeur 2010). It is generally for these reasons that scholars from a range of disciplines have sought to uncover, document and understand policing from within. Ethnographic studies of the police span decades and continue to enrich knowledge and debates about their role and social impact. From Westley's (1970) pioneering study of Violence and the Police, to Manning and van Maanen's (1978) classic collection, Policing: A View From the Street, to the recent volume by Fassin (2017) on Writing the World of Policing, it is clear that ethnography retains its place as a vital scholarly enterprise and the signature of meth- odologies for illuminating policing cultures and practices in a variety of settings. It is against this back- ground that the rationale for this special issue, and the next, emerged. The impetus, however, was the CONTACT Matthew Bacon m.bacon@sheffield.ac.uk © 2019 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Short-term subscription options include 24 hours, 48 hours, or 1 week to HeinOnline.

Purchase Access

Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most