Enabling and Constraining Police Power: On the Moral Regulation of Policing

Abstract

In this chapter we consider some of the ethical challenges inherent in the regulation of discretionary police power. Discretion is central to police policy and practice, but it also provides a level of freedom that opens up the space for injustice and inequity, and this is seen most vividly in recent debates about unfairness and racial profiling in the distribution and experience police stops in the US and UK. How to regulate discretionary power is a challenging question, and this is especially so in the context of practices like stop-and-search/stop-and-frisk. The ability to stop people in the street and question them is central to policing as it is understood in many liberal democracies, but under conditions of unfairness and questionable efficacy -when the application of this particular police power appears unethical as well as ineffective -one can reasonably ask whether the power should be dropped or curtailed, and if curtailed, how this would work in practice. Word count 12,100 words BiographyBen Bradford is Departmental Lecturer in Criminology, Faculty of Law, University of Oxford Jonathan Jackson is Professor of Research Methodology and member of the Mannheim Centre for Criminology at the LSE. AcknowledgementsJon would also like to thank Yale Law School and Harvard Kennedy School for hosting him during the research leave that allowed him to wrote this chapter; he is also grateful to the UK's Economic and Social Research Council for funding that research leave (grant number ES/L011611/1).

Identity, legitimacy and “making sense” of police use of force

“…But in most developed democracies these factors tend to be outweighed by procedural justice considerations. A clear implication of extant work into procedurally fair policing is that the need for police to generate and reproduce legitimacy serves to constrain police activity and limit police power (Bradford and Jackson, 2016;Coicaud, 2002). The fact that perceptions of procedural justice are consistently the most important factors shaping legitimacy judgments, coupled with the established notion that all social institutions rely on legitimacy for their continued existence (Zelditch, 2001), suggests that inasmuch as the police rely on legitimacy granted to them by those they police -and, to be sure, there are other sources of legitimacy, such as the location of the police within wider structures of power and authority -they cannot simply 'do what they want' to those they police.…”

Ethnic Minority Youths’ Encounters With Private Security Guards: Unwelcome in the City Space

“…For instance, suspecting ethnic minorities, but not ethnic majorities, eroded belief in the neutrality of control agents (also Wästerfors & Burcar, 2019). Moreover, targeting rather trivial incidents challenged the trustworthiness of security guards’ motives (see Bradford & Jackson, 2015; Tyler & Lind, 1992). Similar findings of discrimination and suspicion are found in police literature (e.g., Feinstein, 2015; Keskinen et al, 2018; Solhjell et al, 2019; Wästerfors & Burcar, 2019).…”

“…Procedural justice-based research has focused on police–citizen relations and on the importance of fair treatment. The procedural justice theory stresses that citizens’ perceptions of whether legal authorities treat them fairly, neutrally, or in a procedurally just manner is the primary influencer on trust in the legitimacy of the system (e.g., Bradford & Jackson, 2015; Murphy & Mazerolle, 2018; Schaap, 2018; Tyler, 1990). The procedural justice model is often contrasted with an instrumental perspective, according to which trust is based mainly on police effectiveness (e.g., Bradford & Jackson, 2015).…”

“…The procedural justice theory stresses that citizens’ perceptions of whether legal authorities treat them fairly, neutrally, or in a procedurally just manner is the primary influencer on trust in the legitimacy of the system (e.g., Bradford & Jackson, 2015; Murphy & Mazerolle, 2018; Schaap, 2018; Tyler, 1990). The procedural justice model is often contrasted with an instrumental perspective, according to which trust is based mainly on police effectiveness (e.g., Bradford & Jackson, 2015). Tyler (1990) suggests that the crucial elements that create perceptions of procedural justice and legitimacy are, first, neutral and unselective criminal justice processes and, second, the view that policing agents treat people with politeness, respect, and fairness.…”

«Hele skolen trenger ikke den oppmerksomheten»

“…Spesielt gjelder dette unge menn med etnisk minoritetsbakgrunn i mange vestlige samfunn (se for eksempel J. M. Gau & Brunson, 2015;Pettersson, 2013;Sollund, 2006). Dette er et tema som ofte blir diskutert i angloamerikansk litteratur (eksempelvis Brunson, 2007;Holdaway, 1996) og saerlig med et kvantitativt og/eller et juridisk utgangspunkt (Bradford & Jackson, 2015;Murphy & Mazerolle, 2016;Van Craen & Skogan, 2015). En ny norsk studie med 7000 elever ved videregående skoler i Oslo, Akershus og Buskerud viser også at førstegenerasjons innvandrere med bakgrunn fra Asia og Afrika skiller seg ut med lavest tillit til politiet.…”