Policing Space is a fascinating firsthand account of how the Los Angeles Police Department attempts to control its vast, heterogeneous territory. As such, the book offers a rare, ground-level look at the relationship between the control of space and the exercise of power. Author Steve Herbert spent eight months observing one patrol division of the LAPD on the job. A compelling story in itself, his fieldwork with the officers in the Wilshire Division affords readers a close view of the complex factors at play in how the police define and control territory, how they make and mark space. A remarkable ethnography of a powerful police department, underscored throughout with telling on-the-scene vignettes, this book is also an unusually intensive analysis of the exercise of territorial power-and of territoriality as a key component of police power. Unique in its application of fieldwork and theory to this complex subject, it should prove valuable to readers in urban and political geography, urban and political sociology, and criminology, as well as those who wonder about the workings of the LAPD.
The ghetto, the block, neighborhood, community, and hot spot are all terms that capture a particular space or a familiar location for citizens and law enforcement officers. These spaces may appear welcoming to some, or send waves of fear into others who have to enter. What is it about an area of the city that makes it a hot spot for crime at night? Why do the police act, speak, and patrol so differently across segments of the city? At their core these questions all show an awareness of the power of space. Spatial Policing is a fascinating look at how the contexts of space, location, and time influence law enforcement, which can result in differential treatment and controversial patrol practices. Each chapter in Spatial Policing, written by leading experts in law enforcement, spatial, and cultural issues in criminal justice provides a highly readable text, and offers an in depth discussion of theory, research findings, as well as real world examples of the most important spatial contexts for police actions. Spatial Policing explores in rich detail the numerous contexts of space, from urban settings, to rural, to the space of minorities, and international borders to examine how each represents a unique challenge for individual officers, departments, and their patrol efforts in our society. Recognizing how space is used and defined as well as how it conditions the interactions between citizens and the police is at the heart of Spatial Policing. Ultimately, for law enforcement, space matters. "Police officers are all too aware of the 'spaces' in which they work, but police researchers have been slow to catch on. Environmental criminology has made its mark on policing, but the literature has been lacking a thorough treatment of this progression. Spatial Policing addresses both shortcomings--authoritatively and comprehensively." -- John L. Worrall, The University of Texas at Dallas, and Editor, Police Quarterly "This is a wonderful book. It goes far beyond what most books on the geography of crime consider in that it provides both a substantial theoretical underpinning to the field as well as interesting and cutting-edge articles that apply the most current thinking on the spatial dimensions of crime. Charles Crawford has put together a text that is destined to become a leading authority in an important and emerging segment of criminology." -- John Fuller, University of West Georgia "Spatial Policing aids readers in developing critical thinking skills in spatial terms, which in turn will be an invaluable tool for policing in the real world and researching crimes ... [and an] asset to students and practitioners in critically assessing the root causes of crime in spatial terms." -- Criminal Justice Review
Interest in the spatial distribution of crime and criminals has experienced a virtual explosion over the past several years. In Space, Time, and Crime, the authors provide an overview of the various theoretical explanations, crime control policies, and practical investigative tools used to identify high crime places, spaces, and times. Throughout the text, Lersch and Hart strive to provide a highly readable, informative discussion of the important issues surrounding the geography of crime, providing real world examples as well as illustrations from previously published research. Space, Time, and Crime provides a basic overview of the more popular theories that have been used to explain the concentration of crime in certain places and times. Each theory is carefully and clearly developed from its historical roots to contemporary applications, with solid research cited throughout the discussions. The reader is then moved from theory into practice, where a summary and critique of a number of various theoretically-driven practical policy applications are presented. The basic elements of crime analysis and crime mapping, both very popular crime fighting tools for police agencies and place managers, are presented. Finally, the book closes with a strong Marxist-based critique of the various theories, policies, and tools, leaving the reader with some troubling questions to ponder. This fourth edition updates and expands the third edition by including dozens of figures and images that help visualize criminological research, essentially bringing the real-world of research to the reader and into the classroom. This new edition also incorporates new sections on some of the most recent advancements in the study of space, time, and crime, including a review of Risk Terrain Modeling (RTM) and Situational Action Theory (SAT). Finally, this new edition has incorporated empirical scholarship from over 50 new/updated sources, providing the reader with the most up-to-date topics discussed by the authors. PowerPoint slides are available upon adoption. Sample slides from the full, 203-slide presentation are available to view here. Email [email protected] for more information. Praise for earlier editions: "One of the best features of this text is its readability, coupled with the logical development of theoretical interpretation. Space, Time, and Crime is crafted to encourage students to examine familiar concepts from a distinctive perspective -- one that frames theory logically to enhance students' understanding of the unique and powerful relationship between crime and place." -- Mary Ann Eastep, University of Central Florida "The authors provide broad coverage of topics addressing the understanding, analysis and response to the geographic patterns of crime. They include helpful historical coverage of many criminological theories pertinent to the understanding of crimes at places and variation of crime across space. Lersch and Hart also discuss crime data sources and introduce applied crime mapping and crime analysis techniques and topics, as well as applications and criminal justice responses to crime in hot spots. Of note is an unusual presentation of the complexities and conflicting evidence provided by geographic restrictions and mapping of sex offenders." -- Tammy Kochel, Southern Illinois University
A radical guide to the language of policing This field guide arms activists—and indeed anyone concerned about police abuse—with critical insights that ultimately redefine the very idea of policing. When we talk about police and police reform, we speak the language of police legitimation through euphemism. So state sexual assault becomes “body-cavity search,” and ruthless beatings “non-compliance deterrence.” In entries such as “police dog,” “stop and frisk,” and “rough ride,” the authors expose the way “copspeak” suppresses the true meaning and history of law enforcement. In field guide fashion, they reveal a world hidden in plain view. The book argues that a redefined language of policing might help us chart a future that’s free. Including explanations of newsmaking terms such as “deadname,” “kettling,” and “qualified immunity,” and a foreword by leading justice advocate Craig Gilmore.
Street-Level Sovereignty: The Intersection of Space and Law is a collection of scholarship that considers the experience of law that is subject to social interpretation for its meaning and importance within the constitutive legal framework of race, deviance, property, and the communal investiture in health and happiness. This book examines the intersection of spatiality and law, through the construction of place, and how law is materially framed.
Policing Space is a fascinating firsthand account of how the Los Angeles Police Department attempts to control its vast, heterogeneous territory. As such, the book offers a rare, ground-level look at the relationship between the control of space and the exercise of power. Author Steve Herbert spent eight months observing one patrol division of the LAPD on the job. A compelling story in itself, his fieldwork with the officers in the Wilshire Division affords readers a close view of the complex factors at play in how the police define and control territory, how they make and mark space. A remarkable ethnography of a powerful police department, underscored throughout with telling on-the-scene vignettes, this book is also an unusually intensive analysis of the exercise of territorial power-and of territoriality as a key component of police power. Unique in its application of fieldwork and theory to this complex subject, it should prove valuable to readers in urban and political geography, urban and political sociology, and criminology, as well as those who wonder about the workings of the LAPD.
This book delves into legal and ethical concerns over the increased weaponization of outer space and the potential for space-based conflict in the very near future. Unique to this collection is the emphasis on questions of ethical conduct and legal standards applicable to military uses of outer space. No other existing publication takes this perspective, nor includes such a range of interdisciplinary expertise. The essays included in this volume explore the moral and legal issues of space security in four sections. Part I provides a general legal framework for the law of war and peace in space. Part II tackles ethical issues. Part III looks at specific threats to space security. Part IV proposes possible legal and diplomatic solutions. With an expert author team from North American and Europe, the volume brings together academics, military lawyers, military space operators, aerospace industry representatives, diplomats, and national security and policy experts. The experience of this team provides a collection unmatched in any academic publication broaching even some of these issues and will be required reading for anyone interested in war and peace in outer space.
Security has become one of the most important aspects of sport mega-event organisation. This book explores how Rio de Janeiro was imagined and transformed into a security fortress when the 2014 Men's World Cup and the 2016 Olympics came to the city and how the fortress was nonetheless permeable and porous. Dennis Pauschinger experienced exceptional backstage access at high level in the Brazilian mega-event security architecture as well as at street level with the local public security sphere. His ethnographic account takes us from the hidden world of surveillance and control centres, to the security perimeters around stadiums, and to the mundane routine of police officers during day and night shifts at local police stations or at the Special Forces' headquarters. This book shows how police officers' emotions and Special Forces' war narratives impact the static and technology-based security models at mega-events and how traditional patterns of police work, along lines of class and racial inequalities, still prevail and shape the city's public security. The book argues against the common narrative of the positive impacts of mega-event security legacies upon host cities by advancing towards a general understanding of how security governance is carried out in places where the use of digital security technologies co-exists with overly lethal and repressive forms of policing.
In an innovative departure from the much-studied field of 'crime in the media', this lively book focuses its attention on the forces of law and order; how they visualize and represent danger and criminality and how they represent themselves as authorities. After two chapters covering basic terms and tools in the study of culture and representation, the book covers such topics as the history of justice - system methods for visualizing criminality, from fingerprinting to DNA; the emergence of a 'forensic gaze' that begins with Edgar Allan Poe and Sherlock Holmes and culminates in the American television show Crime Scene Investigation and the rise of ways of seeing urban space that constantly divide the city into 'good' and 'bad' areas. The final chapter uses some recent conflicts regarding the legal admissibility of 'gruesome pictures' to reflect on the importance of the visual in our everyday experiences, both of safety and of danger. Shortlisted for the Hart SLSA Book Prize 2007
This book offers a critical survey of film and media representations of black masculinity in the early twenty-first-century United States, between President George W. Bush’s 2001 announcement of the War on Terror and President Barack Obama’s 2009 acceptance of the Nobel Peace Prize. It argues that images of black masculine authority have become increasingly important to the legitimization of contemporary policing and its leading role in the maintenance of an antiblack social order forged by racial slavery and segregation. It examines a constellation of film and television productions—from Antoine Fuqua’s Training Day to John Lee Hancock’s The Blind Side to Barry Jenkin's Moonlight—to illuminate the contradictory dynamics at work in attempts to reconcile the promotion of black male patriarchal empowerment and the preservation of gendered antiblackness within political and popular culture.
