Police deadly force as social control: Jamaica,Argentina, and Brazil

Conclusion When we consider a variety of indicators concerning the disproportionate use of deadly force by police-the ratio of civilians killed to those wounded, the ratio of civilians killed to police killed, and the ratio of police killings to the total homicide rate-the statistics, both official and unofficial, for Jamaica, Buenos Aires, São Paulo, and Rio de Janeiro all point toward the conclusion that the police are summarily executing suspects in routine, non-partisan cases. Directed almost exclusively against anonymous, poor people, this abuse of deadly force appears as an extreme form of coercive social control. When the threat of social unrest seems high--because of increased social mobilization together with increased economic misery--the police may summarily execute a large number of suspects, providing that both elite and lower-class opinion tolerates the executions as legitimate. In all these locations, while opinion is split, the police violence is minimally acceptable; indeed, the prevalence of private vigilantism signals its acceptability with the mass of people.Nonetheless, because Jamaica, Argentina, and Brazil are liberal states, it is difficult to view police homicides as legitimate except under the rubric of crime control and under the rule of law. Accordingiy, virtually all police killings are justified to the public as acts of self-defense, typically in the context of shoot-outs. This justification appears to be essential for organizing public opinion even though, for at least some people at all socioeconomic levels, summary executions, like vigilantism, are considered the proper punishment for alleged crimes. Experience in other countries suggests that it is possible for the authorities to limit and even prevent police violence. This effort will not be made in Jamaica, Argentina, or Brazil, however, so long as police use of deadly force constitutes a means of social control acceptable to both elite and mass opinion.B.A. Yale University 1957; LL.B., Harvard University 1960. My thanks are due to Bell Chevigny, Russell Karp, and Lois Whitman; to Americas Watch for sponsoring human rights investigations in Brazil and Jamaica; to the Centro de Estudios Legales y Sociales in Buenos Aires, Argentina; to Paulo Sergio Pinheiro and to the Nucleo de Estudos da Violência in Sâo Paulo, Brazil; and to Frances Piven and Anne Buckborough for essential research assistance. Thanks to my colleagues from the Law and Society Colloquium at New York University and from the 1988 annual meeting of the Law and Society Association for helpful comments. I am grateful for the generous support of the Filomen D'Agostino and Max E. Greenberg Research Fund of New York University School of Law.     

Jails in the United States: the phenomenon of mental illness in local correctional facilities

During the last decade, the number of mentally ill inmates in local jails has increased while courts have imposed standards of inmate care upon jail administrators which require appropriate treatment of that inmate group. While jail administrators are seeking assistance from mental health agencies as well as additional resources to deal with these problems, little specific information is presently available about the numbers and correlates of jail inmates nationally that are mentally ill; their prior contacts with mental health agencies, criminal histories, employment backgrounds, etc; and the services jails presently offer to that population. In addition, little is known by geographic region or by jail capacity. Such information is essential in developing future strategies to manage that population. This paper is a preliminary contribution to the development of that information. In addition, the data analysis can serve as a base line against which to evaluate in the structure of the mentally ill jail inmate population as well as changes in services provided by jails by comparing this analysis to future jail surveys conducted by the Bureau of Jail Statistics (BJS) or the National Institute of Justice. The research will be a secondary analysis of the Survey of Inmates of Local Jails, 1983, conducted by BJS, (made available through the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research: University of Michigan, First Edition, Fall, 1985, #8274). In general an exploratory approach was used; however, a loglinear model has been asked to further refine and explore the phenomena of the mentally ill in jails.     

Reflexive Watchdogs? How Supreme Audit Institutions Account for Themselves

Supreme Audit Institutions (SAIs) such as the UK National Audit Office and the French Cour des Comptes play important roles within the institutional mechanisms of the democratic state. They are given high independence in order to secure public accountability for, first, the probity and legality of public spending and, second, economy, efficiency and effectiveness. During the last twenty years several SAIs’ mandates have been adjusted to reflect the latter, more managerialist, concerns. This article asks two questions: first, what evidence do these SAIs offer as to the quality and effectiveness of their activities in carrying out their mandates and, second, to what extent does their self–reporting appear to have been influenced by the precepts of the ‘New Public Management’ (NPM)? To address these questions an analysis is carried out of the annual reports and other relevant documents of the Finnish, Swedish, French and UK SAIs, and of the European Court of Auditors. The analysis shows considerable differences of approach. These may well be related to the differing constitutional positions and administrative cultures of the SAIs concerned. In conclusion we identify different concerns which are associated with either a fervent embracing of NPM criteria by SAIs or, alternatively, with an apparent rejection of those approaches.