Catégorisation des usagers et rhétorique professionnelle: Le cas des policiers sur la voie publique

Placing “users” or even “customers” at the center of concern has been the keystone in reforms in several French public services. As the example of police officers shows however, the idea of a user takes on quite specific meanings depending on the values and objectives defended by the occupational group in question. Placing those who commit offenses, their victims or mere citizens into categories is part of the process of constructing what the police officer's “real work” should be by disqualifying and stigmatizing those who “don't fit in”.     

On deaf ears: anti-black police terror,multiracial protest and white loyalty to the state

In this essay, we explore the racialised dimensions of policing practices in Brazil. To do so, we look not at the police, their administrative organisation, and practices, but rather we examine the modes of sociality reflected in and produced by police violence. Drawing from a statistics-based analysis of the social and political outcomes produced by the state in its preparation of mega-sports events – evictions, incarceration, and police violence, for example – we identify a nexus between, on the one hand, racialised violence against black bodies and, on the other hand, white loyalty to the state, despite, or precisely because of, a specific type of violence perpetrated by the state on white bodies. Our primary contention is that we cannot understand white victimisation by the police – and the outrage it produces – without taking into consideration two foundational, dialectical aspects of the regime of rights: complicity and disavowal. White vulnerability to this specific form of state violence – a form of violence that is contingent and produces collective horror – reflects not only the disavowal of black suffering, but also the strengthening of the white public sphere.     

The social construction of the meaning of acute stressors: a qualitative study of the personal accounts of police officers using a stress counselling service

The police profession is one in which acute stressors are encountered more frequently than in other occupations. Using the personal accounts of 35 police officers attending an in-house stress counselling clinic, the aim of the present study was to provide a qualitative examination of how the institutional context of policing influenced the ways in which acute stressors signified to individual police officers experiencing felt distress. Using the framework of Rational Emotive Behaviour Therapy as an analytical tool, it is argued that beliefs contributing to the experience of felt distress are related to the way in which policing as both an identity and an activity is constructed through the police organizational culture. Not only do these constructions influence the ways in which officers perceive themselves and their environments, but they also operate at the collective level to 'normalize' some emotional responses and to 'pathologize' others which, it is argued, could impact upon the outcomes of interventions such as stress counselling.     

When police patrols matter. The effect of police proximity on citizens’ crime risk perception

Crime risk perception is known to be an important determinant of individual well-being. It is therefore crucial that we understand the factors affecting this perception so that governments can identify the (public) policies that might reduce it. Among such policies, public resources devoted to policing emerge as a key instrument not only for tackling criminal activity but also for impacting on citizens’ crime risk perception. In this framework, the aim of this study is to analyze both the individual and neighbourhood determinants of citizens’ crime risk perception in the City of Barcelona (Spain) focusing on the effect of police proximity and taking into account the spatial aspects of neighbourhood characteristics. After controlling for the possible problems of the endogeneity of police forces and crime risk perception and the potential sorting of individuals across neighbourhoods, the results indicate that crime risk perception is reduced when non-victims exogenously interact with police forces. Moreover, neighbourhood variables, such as proxies of social capital and the level of incivilities, together with individual characteristics have an impact on citizens’ crime risk perception.     

Police interviews with vulnerable people alleging sexual assault: Probing inconsistency and questioning conduct

Reporting sexual assault to the authorities is fraught with difficulties, and these are compounded when the complainant is hindered by an intellectual disability (ID). In a study of 19 U.K. police interviews with complainants with ID alleging sexual assault and rape, we found that most interviewing officers on occasion pursued lines of questioning which not only probed inconsistencies (which is mandated by their guidelines), but implicitly questioned complainants’ conduct (which is not). We detail two main conversational practices which imply disbelief and disapproval of the complainants’ accounts and behaviour, and whose pragmatic entailments may pose problems for complainants with ID. Such practices probably emerge from interviewers’ foreshadowing of the challenges likely to be made in court by defence counsel. As a policy recommendation, we suggest providing early explanation for the motivation for such questioning, and avoiding certain question formats (especially how come you did X? and why didn't you do Y?).     

试论中国近代警察制度的特点

近代意义上的即资产阶级的警察伴随近代西方国家制度和法制理论而诞生,依据宪法和法律而存在,是国家行政部门中执行维护社会秩序和公共治安职能的拥有一定武装力量的专业性文职机构和人员队伍。中国近代警察制度开创于清末,形成于北洋政府时期。在南京国民政府时期,中国近代警察制度得到进一步发展。中国近代警察制度在其创立以及形成发展的过程中,呈现出一系列鲜明的时代特征,即开创的被动性、发展的阶段性、前后的继承性、内容的引进性、职能的镇压性。     

Des corps étrange(r)s dans la police ? Les policiers minoritaires à Paris et à Berlin

Fieldwork in police stations in the Parisian region and Berlin is used to comparatively analyze how the assignment of identities shapes the occupational experiences of police officers recruited from among visible minorities. The processes for constructing and deconstructing the positions of minorities take place through negotiations during interactions among colleagues. They also depend on the institutional context. The stance of “denial” adopted by the French staff opens the way to tensions between officers from visible minorities and the others, whereas interventions by superiors in Berlin reduce the room for conflict while assigning a cultural identity to police officers recruited “from immigration”.     

侦诉一体化：我国检警关系之重塑

检警关系是刑事诉讼关系的基本内容之一,定位准确、线条流畅的检警关系对于诉讼机制的协调运作具有重要意义。然而,长期以来,我国在配合制约原则指导下构建的检警配合制约模式,却导致了我国检警关系的错位。我国应当在借鉴国外处理检警关系的经验基础上,以侦诉一体化为目标模式,对我国检警关系予以重构。     

Comment apprécier une politique policière ? : Le premier ministère Sarkozy (7 mai 2002-30 mars 2004)

How to assess the effects of the policy of Nicolas Sarkozy, Home Secretary in France from May 2002 to March 2004? An analysis of the statistics and, in particular, of the way they were construed reveals that the results were ambiguous, because law enforcement was centered on the state's duty to enforce the law while police services were being asked to show a decrease in delinquency so as to prove that the new policy was effective. On the other hand, an analysis of polls about how public opinion felt about law and order indicates that the minister's tough talk was effective to a degree, especially when feelings of insecurity were strongly politicized prior to presidential elections in April 2002. This analysis sheds light on the distance between the practical and purely political effectiveness of a policy of law and order.     

La victime et le policier : point de vue profane et point de vue professionnel sur la délinquance

Comparing surveys of victims with police statistics illustrates the differences between lay and professional views of crime. Victims’expectations and the police handling of cases do not always match. The determinants of victims’ decisions to report incidents to the police are briefly summarised; and the ways the police classify victims’account and handle their complaints, examined. This analysis is based on two sets of data: a victimisation survey of a sample of 10?504 persons aged 15 and older, drawn from the Île-de-France Region; the police statistics corresponding to the same area.