Public Experiences of Police Violence and Corruption in Contemporary Russia: A Case of Predatory Policing?

“Predatory policing” occurs where police officers mainly use their authority to advance their own material interests rather than to fight crime or protect the interests of elites. These practices have the potential to seriously compromise the public's trust in the police and other legal institutions, such as courts. Using data from six surveys and nine focus groups conducted in Russia, we address four empirical questions: (1) How widespread are public encounters with police violence and police corruption in Russia? (2) To what extent does exposure to these two forms of police misconduct vary by social and economic characteristics? (3) How do Russians perceive the police, the courts, and the use of violent methods by the police? (4) How, if at all, do experiences of police misconduct affect these perceptions? Our results suggest that Russia conforms to a model of predatory policing. Despite substantial differences in its law enforcement institutions and cultural norms regarding the law, Russia resembles the United States in that direct experiences of police abuse reduce confidence in the police and in the legal system more generally. The prevalence of predatory policing in Russia has undermined Russia's democratic transition, which should call attention to the indispensable role of the police and other public institutions in the success of democratic reforms.     

Police Accountability and the Media

This article explores First Amendment theory and the role of the media in generating police accountability through public understanding of police organizations. We argue that free speech theory can and should look beyond "abridgment" issues and raise questions about the civic responsibility of the press to inform the public about key governmental institutions. The media's concern with crime news, we found, vastly overshadows its coverage of the police us a complex, in-teresting, and expensive governmental agency. Reporting about police institutional patterns and policies contributes more toward fulfilling First Amendment values-not only that of "checking" police excesses, but of facilitating the goal of enlightened citizen participation in local government.
Those who won our independence believed…that public discussion is a political duty; and that this should be a fundamental principle of American government. They recognized the risks to which all human institutions are subject.     

Police Corruption and its Prevention

This article has two themes. Firstly, that police corruption is not an individual aberration of an incidental nature that can be readily combated with temporary, repressive measures. The 'new realism' on this maintains that corruption and police misconduct are persistent and constantly recurring hazards generated by the organisation itself. Secondly, there is consensus on effective measures to tackle it and to promote integrity. Ingredients are strong leadership, a multi-faceted organisational strategy, a well-resourced internal affairs unit, proactive techniques of investigation, and persistent efforts to promote professional standards. The essence is a judicious and sophisticated balance between negative and positive social control. Policing is about the rule of law and due process: corruption and other forms of police deviance undermine the legitimacy of the police organisation and by implication the state. A 'clean' police is a crucial barometer of a healthy society. One can have few illusions about the difficulty of achieving this but a comparative review of the experience in four societies - USA, Great Britain, Belgium and the Netherlands - provides clear indicators about reform, control and leadership in fostering integrity and in tackling corruption.     

Powers and Accountability of Private Police

Substantial growth in private policing has been documented in countries throughout the world, and the division of responsibilities for policing between public and private authorities has become increasingly blurred and contested during the last three decades. Because private policing is so frequently assessed on the basis of criteria established with respect to the public police, substantial myths have developed about the powers and accountability of private police; specifically, it is commonly asserted that private police have no significant power(s), and are essentially not accountable, in comparison with the public police. The author argues that such assertions misrepresent the very substantial coercive power of private police as well as the variety of mechanisms through which they may be held accountable, and also commonly exaggerate the effective accountability of the public police. The author concludes that a greater appreciation of the actual power and accountability of private police will provide an improved basis for the development of sound public policy with respect to both private and public policing, and with respect to appropriate relationships between private and public policing organisations.     

State Crimes of Previous Regimes: Knowledge, Accountability, and the Policing of the Past

The policy of lustration is set in the context of responses to abuses of power by previous regimes. Using examples from three recent forms of social reconstruction (in Latin America, the former communist states, and South Africa), the author reviews the “justice in transition” debate. How do societies going through democratization confront the human rights violations committed by the previous regime? Five aspects of this debate are reviewed: (1) truth: establishing and confronting the knowledge of what happened in the past; (2) justice: making offenders accountable for their past violations through three possible methods: punishment through the criminal law, compensation and restitution, and mass disqualification such as lustration; (3) impunity: giving amnesty to previous offenders; (4) expiation; and (5) reconciliation and reconstruction. A concluding discussion raises the implications of the subject for the study of time and social control.     

论人民警察权力与警务规范化

人民警察权力的运作,是警务规范化建设的核心内容。警务规范化的实质就是人民警察权力的规范化。人民警察权力与警务规范化是一个问题的两个方面,二者不可偏废。加强人民警察的执法权威与完善警务规范化建设是历史发展的必然趋势。     

Corruption and the South African Police

The literature on corruption in countries in the course of transition is likely to escalate in the light of changes in Eastern Europe (Holmes 1997, Varese 1997). The ‘end of empire’ is associated with the breakdown in the rule of law. Through a variety of subterfuges, both individuals and corporate bodies seek to ensure their own survival, within the matrix of the collapse of legal order. In South Africa, similar transformations, as epitomised by the hearings of the Truth and Reconciliation Commission, have provided a window of opportunity to unveil the mechanisms which maintained that apartheid regime for nearly half a century. Understanding that complex practice of state deviance entails recognising the different levels of state power and malpractice in that country. This article flows directly from the Foucauldian notion of the decentralisation of power in modern society. Power in the authoritarian state is not just a function of a clearly-defined state apparatus. Rather that locus co-exists with various sub-foci at lower levels of state and civil society, in which local interactions and power relations, contribute to the totality of control. Apartheid survived for many years not because it signified an authoritarian centralised state but because it could rely on individuals and agencies at lower strata of power to contribute their own efforts to sustaining that abnormal structure. Deviance by state personnel at different levels – to which the Nelson's eye was turned – was critical to the maintenance of white hegemony. The article focuses directly on one such nexus – the extent to which different interests – financial, organisational, and a commitment to racial hegemony – cooperated in a seamless web to ensure that the white rule was paramount in micro-level decision-making structures. Micro-level influences on police training and of police promotions – deviant by any conventional yardstick-served both state and individual interests. This revised version was published online in July 2006 with corrections to the Cover Date.     

Police Powers and Accountability in a Democratic Society: Introductory Report

This article by general rapporteur Joachim Kersten introduces the reports which were presented at the Twelfth Criminological Colloquium, organised by the Council of Europe in Strasbourg, from 24-26 November 1999. Europe is undergoing a phase of rapid change. This affects the conditions of policing in each country and on the European continent as a whole. It is actually the legal, political and cultural context of policing that is undergoing rapid change. This colloquium and earlier ones carried out by the Council of Europe served a crucial purpose: they are an assessment in the European context of what is happening in relation to the police, police ethics and human rights in democratic societies.     

警务制度改革与犯罪预防控制——以上海为例

面对犯罪的浪潮公安机关必须向科学的管理要警力,向身边的群众要警力,向高科技手段要警力。警务制度改革是应对犯罪挑战的必由之路,社区警务的最终目的是减少犯罪,实现这一目的的前提是警察与民众的紧密合作。我为人民管治安是警务制度改革的中国化实践,好秩序只能来源于公权力与私权利的合作。预防和控制犯罪的力量之源在民众之中,集中民智才能用“无穷民力”提升“有限警力”。我国公安机关已经在治安信息发布、预防犯罪提示、“110信箱”开通、警察博客的初创等方面作出了探索,未来还要进一步运用先进理念和科技手段实现犯罪预防的精细化。     

Judging Police Misconduct: "Street-Level" versus Professional Policing

In their interactions with citizens, police officers are prohibited from (1) using unnecessary Force, (2) Abusing their authority, (3) speaking Discourteously, or (4) using Offensive language, all captured by the acronym FADO. However, acts of police misconduct are complex social phenomena that involve both following legal guidelines and responding to extralegal or mitigating circumstances. Using a factorial survey of police‐civilian interactions that introduce various dimensions of FADO and surrounding circumstances, respondents are asked to rate from zero to ten the seriousness of police misconduct in an encounter. Findings show that respondents' judgments of the seriousness of misconduct consider both legal and extralegal dimensions. On the legal side of the ledger, officers' unnecessary use of force and use of offensive language significantly increase judgments of serious misconduct; on the extralegal side of the ledger, civilians' confrontational demeanor significantly reduces judgments of serious misconduct. The findings suggest that citizens expect officers to behave professionally, or by the book, but with a recognition that “street‐level” discretion has a place in an officer's toolkit. Citizens' expectations that street‐level discretion has its place is also demonstrated by findings for the dimension abuse of authority: Abuse or threatening behavior by officers is not a significant predictor of serious police misconduct. In addition, characteristics of the respondents explain propensities to observe different degrees of police misconduct. Controlling for the social status, political orientation, and prior experience of respondents with the police, we find that (1) blacks rate police misconduct significantly higher than their white counterparts, and (2) liberals rate police misconduct significantly higher than their conservative counterparts. Differences in judgments by blacks and whites and by liberals and conservatives concerning judgments of police misconduct have important implications for the legitimacy of police authority.     

Police Support for Community Problem-Solving and Broken Windows Policing

This paper explores overall police officer acceptance of tactics and tenets of broken windows and community problem-solving policing. It assesses differential support for each by police officer characteristics (i.e., race/ethnicity, gender, rank, education level, years of service, and assignment). This study presents the findings of a survey of 227 sworn police personnel from two urban police departments. Univariate analyses reveal the levels of support that police have for certain police tactics and tenets of broken windows and community problem-solving policing. Regression analyses examine the relationship between key officer characteristics and support for these tactics and tenets as measured by respondents’ agreement with various items and indices. Findings include support for community problem-solving (and also a reliance on traditional policing methods); a lag in investigators’ acceptance of community problem-solving; and differences by officer race/ethnicity, education, rank, and assignment in indices related to broken windows and rapid response policing. The differential acceptance of broken windows and rapid response tactics by race/ethnicity suggests interesting implications for future studies of race/ethnicity and broken windows policing. The greater acceptance of certain tactics by patrol officers supports current moves toward innovating in police investigations’ bureaus.     

论警察腐败的预防和治理

预防和治理警察腐败，是一项社会系统工程，必须经过一个长期的艰苦的过程，惩治警察腐败和警察职务犯罪，将是一项长期的重要的政治任务，也将是社会各界和广大公众长久关注的热点。预防和治理警察腐败，必须采取全民动手、多管齐下、标本兼治的方针，全面推行打防结合、内外兼治、综合治理的指导原则。     

Crime Prevention,Crime Repression,and Policing: Attitudes of Police Recruits Towards Their Role in Crime Control

This article presents the initial results of a 5‐year longitudinal study of police officers’ attitudes about themselves, their profession, crime, and their role in society. The study sample was comprised of graduating classes at l'École Nationale de Police du Québec in 2003. Graduates completed an anonymous multiple choice questionnaire designed for a similar study conducted in the 1990s in France (Monjardet & Gorgeon, 1992, 1993, 1996, 1999). The complete study will track attitude change in these recruits over the first 5 years of their police careers. Results from the first year point to a change in officers’ attitudes resulting from the shock of actually working as police officers and the recruits’ preconceived notions of what police work would be like. Training and education could be adapted to better prepare police recruits for this transitional shock, including changes in mechanisms used to integrate recruits, improvements in police organizations, and increased organizational support for new members. We also suggest ways of identifying areas where continued education would improve the overall quality of police work.