No description available.

No description available.

No description available.

This study analyses the dynamics of the police decision to invoke deadly force in a particular situation called encounters, using the Mumbai police as a case study. Police encounters in India are officially portrayed as spontaneous, unplanned 'shoot-outs' between the police and alleged criminals, in which the criminal almost invariably is killed but there are hardly any injuries on the part of the police. However the 'cover story' is always the same raising the suspicion that it is a cover up for facts that might not be legally defensible or permissible. The core of this study is to understand why in a free and democratic society like India, such abuse of police use of deadly force is not only tolerated, but also in many ways (both overtly and tacitly) encouraged. The study adopts a qualitative approach to understand police officers' perspectives of the issues surrounding the use of deadly force and compares it with the perspectives of a few influential opinion makers via in-depth semi-structured interviews. A broader examination of media, social, organisational and governmental responses towards police use of deadly force helps contextualize police justifications within the Denial Theory framework and the study draws upon wider policing literature in the UK, USA, South Africa and certain Latin American countries to explain why this form of police violence occurs. The abuse of deadly force has to be understood as not only a social problem, but also a sociological one. It gives rise to fiindamental questions such as - what makes ordinary, 'decent' human beings do horrible things. What motivational techniques and justifications are used to override social norms governing moral conduct. This problem has received little attention in the Indian context, to that extent the research will fill a gap in the existing criminological literature and allow for a more comprehensive understanding of these issues. Also, by drawing lessons from the experience of other countries who have tackled similar problems, it will provide broad guidelines and recommendations for reforms in policing policy and practice.

This thesis analyses "policing by consent" as an ideal of legitimate and effective public service provision, and the influence of that ideal on policymaking to reform policing methods, structures and powers in Britain during the 1980s. It considers the relevance of "policing by consent" both to the processes of policy initiation and adoption at the national level and to the practices of policy implementation at the local level in one rural provincial police force. The thesis explains the incoherent nature of the reforms adopted and the conflicting goals of the various participants in the policy debates. The ambiguity of the concept of "policing by consent" allowed different objectives to be pursued behind a discourse common to most of the participants. Improving the public's estimation of the police service was only one goal of the policy makers; increasing the effectiveness and efficiency of the 43 police forces of England and Wales was an equally important objective. The thesis explores and explains the non-coincidence of the aims and preoccupations of the national policy-makers with those of many of the police officers responsible for implementing the reforms on the ground. By analysing how police officers in a non-crisis area, a rural county, react to and interpret both the reforms and the discourse about "policing by consent", this thesis extends and complements existing studies of public opinion and police attitudes in problem urban areas. If those officers feel less isolated than their urban colleagues they nonetheless resent both the imposition of policies irrelevant to their local circumstances and their own loss of self-esteem because of association with the negative public image of an increasingly "nationalised" police service.

In the early 1980s, the American legal system introduced a novel legislative model for tackling the age-old problem of racist violence. Within less than three decades, this novel legislative model was adopted by 47 states across the US, and was 'imported' by dozens legal systems around the globe. Legislatures and advocacy organizations portray the introduction of hate crime laws as an effective instrument for minimizing the disproportionate vulnerability of racial minorities to criminal victimization Scholars have praised their virtues in symbolizing the commitment of the state to providing racial minorities with equal concern and respect. Yet there is something curious, even paradoxical, about the deployment of criminalization - a coercive form of governance so often associated with the perpetuation of structural disadvantage - with such emancipatory ends. This study considers how the embedding of hate crime policies within institutional and political structures which reflect broader patterns of racial and class inequality affect their suitability to achieve their declared emancipatory aims. In pursuing this goal, I place hate crime policies within broader historical and theoretical perspectives. Historically, I consider the way in which the idea of "pro-black" criminalization has been framed and institutionalized from the slavery era to the present. Theoretically, I explore a range of sociological and socio-legal questions regarding the distinctive institutional and ideological functions played by "pro- minority" criminalization regimes. I define ''pro-black" (or "pro-minority") criminalization as comprising of legislative and enforcement arrangements that are specifically aimed at protecting African-Americans (or other minority groups). My analysis shows that, throughout most of American history, "pro-black" criminalization regimes (including hate crime policies) were embedded within broader policy structures which worked to stabilize fundamental aspects of the prevailing system of racial stratification. This pattern was rooted in institutional and ideological features that are likely to characterize "pro-minority" criminalization reforms in various other contexts of social inequality. Overall, I argue, while "pro- minority" criminalization reforms serve to alleviate particular forms of violence and degradation which minorities are disproportionately subjected to, they also work to stabilize the broader systems of social inequality within which these symptoms are embedded.

Contacts between police and public form here the starting point for an investigation into trust, confidence and legitimacy in relation to the British police. The ways in which people 'read' and judge encounters with the police, the messages they take from them, and implications for trust and legitimacy are key empirical concerns. The procedural justice model developed by Tom Tyler and colleagues constitutes the key theoretical reference point. This theory suggests that in their dealings with legal authorities people value fairness, respect and openness over instrumental concerns, and that procedural fairness is linked to enhanced trust, legitimacy and cooperation. The social-psychological insights of the procedural justice model are combined with more sociologically oriented accounts of the nature of policing in 'late-modern' Britain. The five papers presented demonstrate, first, that the influence of contact experiences on public confidence in the police has grown over time, just as the salience of other factors has declined. Second, personal experience affects important aspects or components of trust; judgements about police effectiveness, fairness and engagement with the community. Third, individuals do appear to value procedural fairness over instrumental outcomes, and fair treatment is linked with both higher confidence and a greater propensity to accept police decisions. Fourth, wider concerns may be as important as personal experience. The social and cultural position of the British police - what it represents - is a key factor in trust judgements. Finally, police legitimacy is implicated in basic psychological needs to maintain and reproduce order, suggesting that it is to an extent prior to any active assessments of the police organisation. In sum, contact matters, and it is judged in ways congruent with procedural justice theory. But assessments of the effect of contact on confidence must be placed within a broader understanding of the social and cultural meaning of the police.

One hundred and one consecutive male admissions to the City of Edinburgh Prison at Saughton from the Edinburgh Burgh Court were interviewed and examined by the author over a period of three months on a once-only individual interview basis; one prisoner, who had been convicted of public drunkenness, refused to be interviewed and was omitted from the study. The remaining 100 prisoners were examined by means of historical data questionnaires, devised by the author; a validated, semi-structured mental status examination; and structured psychological questionnaires. By these means information relevant to current mental functioning, social demographic and past and present social functioning was obtained. All independent variables derived were compared to a scale of dependent variables concerning the presence or absence of previous prison admission for public drunkenness offences. An IBM 360/50 computer was used to handle data which were analysed by non-parametric statistics. The results are discussed in the light of information previously concerning the pattern off recidivism termed "The Habitual Drunkenness Offender" syndrome; and in terms of the current thinking concerning social, cultural, and medical-psychological variables which, it is believed, could influence the adoption and stabilisation of this mode of deviant social behaviour. An attempt is made to order the data so as to facilitate the construction of theories of development of the syndrome which might, in turn, allow a better understanding of the process and point the way toward improved methods of avoidance and rehabilitation. Problems concerning the validity of such an approach are considered.

No description available.

No description available.