117 research outputs found
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Police culture in a changing world /
No full textThis text offers an ethnographical investigation of contemporary police culture based on field work across a range of ranks and units in the UK's police force. Through direct observation of operational policing, the author assesses the impact of three decades of social, economic and political change on police culture
Dominant culture interrupted: Recognition, resentment and the politics of change in an English police force
No full textThis article draws upon research conducted in an English police force to explore how greater political recognition of cultural and gendered identities has impacted upon the interior culture. Two broad, and opposing, perspectives on the contemporary working environment are presented. The first is characterized by resistance and resentment towards the new diversity terrain, and is articulated principally by white, heterosexual, male officers. A contrasting standpoint, held by female, minority ethnic and gay and lesbian officers, reveals the persistence of an imperious white, heterosexist, male culture. It is argued that the narratives of demise and discontent put forward by the adherents of the former operate to subordinate the spaces of representation for emerging identities and sustain an increasingly endangered culture. © The Author 2008. Published by Oxford University Press on behalf of the Centre for Crime and Justice Studies (ISTD). All rights reserved
Normalizing covert surveillance: the subterranean world of policing
No full textIn this article, I draw on data derived from an ethnographic field study of covert policing in the United Kingdom to demonstrate that the deployment of covert surveillance has become normalised, both in policing thought and operational practice. In a break with earlier patterns, the methods of covert surveillance are used extensively and are no longer regarded as a tactic of last resort. Covert policing is well anchored within organisational arrangements, empowered by a series of internal rationales mobilised to justify the expansion of covert tactics over and above more traditional, overt forms. The building of intrusive and exceptional policing practices within mundane contexts, I argue, is one of the ways the police have adapted to a broader policing environment characterised by public scepticism and distrust. Policing relies on the invisibility and low profile that comes with covert work, in order to govern contemporary concerns of crime and insecurity without the conflicts which can accompany - and trouble - overt policing practices. As mainstream policing becomes an increasingly extroverted enterprise, introverted forms of policing have come to the fore
Identity in Britain : a cradle-to-grave atlas /
No full textSixty million people live in Britain. Imagine sixty million. Imagine a map of sixty million. What would that map look like and what story would it tell us about identity in Britain today? Bethan Thomas and Danny Dorling have brought together this outstanding atlas to provide us with a unique visual picture of identity and geography combined. Identity in Britain explores our changing identities as we progress from infancy to old age and tells the story of the myriad geographies of life in Britain. Features and benefits include: over 280 full colour, detailed maps analysis of the contemporary neighbourhood geographies of people in Britain at various life stages clear introduction and how-to-use guide making the atlas highly accessible for a wide range of users locational reference maps to aid interpretation of the maps on each page Accompanying web resources, including locational cartograms Unlike conventional atlases of human geography, it allows us to see a range of data on a single map; further it allows us to easily see what social mixing does not occur as well as what does. Never before have we had such a vivid geographical picture of identity in Britain today. The atlas is essential reading for those interested in contemporary human identity and the social geography of early twenty first century Britain. It is also an invaluable resource for researchers working in a wide range of statutory and voluntary organisations, policy makers, journalists, politicians, students and academics.Title from publisher's bibliographic system (viewed on 06 Apr 2023).Sixty million people live in Britain. Imagine sixty million. Imagine a map of sixty million. What would that map look like and what story would it tell us about identity in Britain today? Bethan Thomas and Danny Dorling have brought together this outstanding atlas to provide us with a unique visual picture of identity and geography combined. Identity in Britain explores our changing identities as we progress from infancy to old age and tells the story of the myriad geographies of life in Britain. Features and benefits include: over 280 full colour, detailed maps analysis of the contemporary neighbourhood geographies of people in Britain at various life stages clear introduction and how-to-use guide making the atlas highly accessible for a wide range of users locational reference maps to aid interpretation of the maps on each page Accompanying web resources, including locational cartograms Unlike conventional atlases of human geography, it allows us to see a range of data on a single map; further it allows us to easily see what social mixing does not occur as well as what does. Never before have we had such a vivid geographical picture of identity in Britain today. The atlas is essential reading for those interested in contemporary human identity and the social geography of early twenty first century Britain. It is also an invaluable resource for researchers working in a wide range of statutory and voluntary organisations, policy makers, journalists, politicians, students and academics
Border regimes and the sociology of policing
No full textThroughout the world, resources are being shifted towards border enforcement. Along with the concerted political and financial investment afforded by states into defending territories, the apparatus of border policing comprises of numerous state agencies and an ever-expanding range of private actors and commercial bodies. Yet an examination of the culture and practices of those responsible for the routine preservation of border priorities has garnered surprisingly little attention within the sociology of policing. In this research note, I foreground an agenda intended to extend current research and reflection on the everyday policing and surveillance of borders. My starting point is that the policing of borders is undergoing significant changes but without the accompanying scrutiny by policing scholars. Drawing on examples from the USA and Europe, my overarching claim is that as policing and security governance on the border becomes more innovative and pluralistic, policing scholars need to engage in sustained ethnographic fieldwork to track how security frameworks are realised at the local level and acted out against national environments. In so doing, policing scholarship can lead the way in developing a more holistic understanding of border practices with a view to redressing the social injustice experienced by those at the receiving end of contemporary border regimes. © 2013 Copyright Taylor and Francis Group, LLC
Covert surveillance and the invisibilities of policing
No full textThis article draws upon research from the first ethnographic field study of covert policing conducted in the United Kingdom, and seeks to shed light on how covert officers carry out their surveillance work. In particular, it demonstrates how officers attempt to blend into their surroundings and render their work invisible in order to intrude into the daily lives of those people considered suspect. In so doing, we highlight some hitherto unnoticed aspects - or 'invisibilities' - of policing, and show that the surveillance strategies used by law enforcement are increasingly embedded in the most mundane aspects of social life. In contrast to the processes of mass surveillance that are typically the focus of surveillance scholars, the article serves as a reminder that the surveillance powers of the State are vastly intensified when individual members of the public are regarded as suspects by the police. © The Author(s) 2011
Policing and the surveillance of the marginal:Everyday contexts of social control
No full textWhile the surveillance practices of the private security industry have become a central preoccupation of scholarship, the surveillance power of the state has been greatly enhanced through multiple procedures of information gathering to support practices of control and management. In this article, we draw upon two different research projects to examine the surveillance work of the police and other public sector groups working in partnership, as well as the activities of police officers operating covertly. In so doing, we expose the often unintended, but nevertheless invasive and comprehensive power of state agencies to gather details of individuals in the residual working class, within mundane and innocuous policing practices. Our central argument is that these developments have occurred alongside a displacement of social policy through crime control, and represent both an acceleration and intensification of existing state approaches to the surveillance of the problematic individual. This extensive project of targeted surveillance, we contend, also calls into question current claims that the state is moving towards a system of managing deviant populations.</p
The effectiveness of Nurture Groups at supporting social and emotional outcomes: a systematic review
No full textBackground: Nurture Groups are a school-based attachment-focused intervention for young people with social and emotional, or mental health needs who may have experienced adversity. The aim of the current review was to systematically evaluate the evidence for Nurture group provision to improve social and emotional outcomes in children and young people across primary and secondary school settings.Methods: studies were included if they had been published in a peer-reviewed journal, participants were children and young people of school age, the study design was quantitative, evaluating the effectiveness of a Nurture group intervention and had at least one outcome measure related to social and emotional outcomes. Screening was conducted by the first author and a voluntary research assistant. Conflicts were resolved via discussion. A systematic search across six databases identified 14 studies for inclusion. Results: findings suggest that Nurture Group provision is, overall, effective at improving pupils’ social and emotional outcomes. However, improvements were not found consistently across both sections of the Boxall Profile, the primary tool used to measure progress within Nurture Groups. Differential effects were also found in relation to some pupil-level characteristics, namely age, baseline score, and gender. Discussion: the findings highlighted the need to conduct further research to examine such factors, as well as to explore the possible mechanisms for change underlying Nurture Group provision.<br/
Police culture in a diverse society: provincial police force in transition?
No full textThis thesis is an ethnographic investigation into the occupational value systems and practices of contemporary police officers in a provincial English police force. Situated in the local context of Staffordshire Police, the thesis revisits the notion of ‘police culture’ in the light of recent changes to the social, economic, political and organisational context of policing in Britain. Drawing on direct observation of operational police work across two contrasting policing areas, the thesis tracks the narrative of Staffordshire Police as it has attempted to effect cultural change, in respect to improving both the working conditions of personnel inside the organisation and the delivery of an effective and equitable service to the various ‘publics’ outside the organisation. The thesis identifies a number of new features of police culture which have, hitherto, gone unnoticed. In particular, the thesis provides a principal insight into how contemporary police officers have responded to a new policing environment in which respect for diversity and recognition of cultural and gendered identities has become salient. It is demonstrated that the altered policing realities have transformed police culture in some important ways. However, the way in which officers have responded to the new policing landscape is neither universal nor uniform. While aspects of police culture are sensitive to the reorganisations which have taken place in the national and local context of British policing, it is illustrated that the persistence of entrenched ways of thinking and behaving serve to challenge efforts to reform the police. With these contrasting responses in mind, the thesis concludes that the story of contemporary police culture is one of both change and continuity
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