| How to Obtain
Documents |
| |
| NCJ Number:
|
NCJ 111102
|
| Title:
|
Interpreting Policework: Policy and Practice in Forms of Beat Policing
|
| Author(s):
|
R Grimshaw ; T Jefferson
|
| Sale:
|
Allen and Unwin
8 Winchester Place
Winchester, MA 01890
United States |
| Publication Date:
|
1987 |
| Pages:
|
322 |
| Type:
|
Theoretical research |
| Origin:
|
United States |
| Language:
|
English |
| Publication No.:
|
ISBN 0-04-363011-1 |
| Annotation:
|
There exists wide and often acrimonious disagreement over the purposes and objectives of police organizations, how these activities are structured, and their relations with the wider society. |
| Abstract:
|
This text provides an analysis of central theoretical and political thought in police sociology and relates it to present practice and political debate. An examination of descriptive and ethnographic materials based on 1978-1980 observations of a large metropolitan English police force using a unit and a resident beat system shows that the bipolar nature of police policies could not be explained by machine, subculture, environmental, or class functionalist conceptualizations of organized police work. Thus, the notion of policy as a universal, homogeneous entity (instructions, guidelines, or principles to inform practice) cannot withstand critical scrutiny. Rather, results support a conception of a policy embracing two distinct forms (administrative and operational), each possessing a distinctive discourse (rational-scientific versus common sense), and producing distinctive kinds of practical outcome. A structural analysis reveals that unit work is determined by a variety of legal demands from a variety of fora, all of which ultimately depend on the discretion afforded the police constable. Index and approximately 190 references. |
| Main Term(s):
|
Police policies and procedures |
| Index Term(s):
|
Police organizational structure ; Police community relations/ ; Police discretion ; Police legal limitations ; Police internal affairs ; Organizational theories ; Police subculture ; England |
| |
To cite this abstract, use the following link:
http://www.ncjrs.gov/App/Publications/abstract.aspx?ID=111102
|
* A link to the full-text document is provided whenever possible. For documents
not available online, a link to the publisher's web site is provided.
|
|
Help | Contact Us | Home
