Challenges Of Policing Democracies

In this text, the editors analyze the diverse situations that police forces operate under and the challenges that they face in different kinds of democracies. This cross-cultural comparison of various systems highlights the universal observation that police are a anomaly in a democracy and explores how various influences-for example, large-scale social violence, a zeal for crime fighting, and vulnerability to temptation-often find police incapable of behaving in a democratic manner. Challenges of Policing Democracies goes beyond just showing the similarities and differences of the policing challenges democratic societies face, it also examines the responses and remedies adopted by police in various countries at different levels of democratic achievement and how every society struggles with the challenges of preserving democratic values without sacrificing the effectiveness of policing.

Explains the persistence of violent, unaccountable policing in democratic contexts.

How does society hold its police to account? It’s a vital part of upholding law and liberty but changing modes of policing delivery and new technologies call for fresh thinking about the way we guard our guards. This much-needed new book from leading criminology professor Michael Rowe, part of the ‘Key Themes in Policing’ series, explores issues of governance, discipline and transparency, ranging across subjects including ethics, governance, discipline and transparency. The landmark new study: • Showcases how social change and rising inequalities make it more difficult to ensure meaningful accountability; • Addresses the impact of Evidence-Based Policing strategies on the direction and control of officers; • Sets out a game-changing agenda for ensuring democratic and answerable policing. For policing students and practitioners, it’s an essential guide to modern-day accountability.

This volume offers a much-needed analysis of police abuse and its implications for our understanding of democracy. Sometimes referred to as police violence or police repression, police abuse occurs in all democracies. It is not an exception or a stage of democratization. It is, this volume argues, a structural and conceptual dimension of extant democracies. The book draws our attention to how including the study of policing into our analyses strengthens our understanding of democracy, including the persistence of hybrid democracy and the decline of democracy. To this end, the book examines three key dimensions of democracy: citizenship, accountability, and socioeconomic (in)equality. Drawing from political theory, comparative politics, and political economy, the book explores cases from France, the US, India, Argentina, Chile, South Africa, Brazil, and Canada, and reveals how integrating police abuse can contribute to a more robust study of democracy and government in general.

Pt. 1. Europe -- pt. 2. Asia -- pt. 3. South America -- pt. 4. Africa.

There are enormous challenges in establishing policing systems in young democracies. Such societies typically have a host of unresolved pressing social, economic and political questions that impinge on policing and the prospects for reform. There are a series of hugely important questions arising in this context, to do with the emergence of the new security agenda, the problems of transnational crime and international terrorism, the rule of law and the role of the police, security services and the military. This is a field that is not only of growing academic interest but is now the focus of a very significant police reform ‘industry’. Development agencies and entrepreneurs are involved around the globe in attempts to establish democratic police reforms in countries with little or no history of such activity. Consequently, there is a growing literature in this field, but as yet no single volume that brings together the central developments. This book gathers together scholars from political science, international relations and criminology to focus on the issues raised by policing within developing democracies examining countries in Eastern Europe, Asia, South America and Africa.

This book, the second volume of a series entitled "The Uncertainty Series," contains articles exploring the relationships of policing and security and how these issues relate to democracy both in theory and practice in the United States and around the world. The articles are grouped under broad issues, and the first concerns the theoretical relationship between police and democracy as well as community policing as the primary form of democratic policing. Some topics include: police consent, problems in protecting civil and human rights, conflicts between community and government, changes within police governing power in terms of security and justice, and facing the new information age. The next section centers on issues of police and policing in places with a stable democratic system, with articles on such countries as Australia, Finland, and Japan. The following section concentrates on issues regarding policing in societies undergoing transition from repressive regimes to more liberal systems like Russia and China. The last section deals with police confronting specific problems growing out of new technical or social developments while having to cope with existing forces in such places as Brazil and Africa. Each article includes references, glossary, resources, and tables.