Social capital in Scottish and Danish neighbourhoods: paradoxes of a police–community nexus at the front line

Community-oriented social capital strategies and punitive-oriented policing approaches conflict. Establishing local networking initiatives with community-oriented policing at the centre lends itself to an assets-based policing approach, based on honouring, mobilizing and extending the assets of community members. Scholars argue about the need for comparative research on convergences and divergencies across subcultures on the streets and communities. Based on qualitative data gathered from working class communities in Scotland and Denmark in 2014, the article draws inspiration from community-generated theory of social capital to explore the micro-sociology of experiences and understandings about community–police integration policy initiatives. We use this perspective to argue that the building of positive inter-generational and police–community relationships is the result of social exchanges and officers’ use of what we call ‘constructive investment strategies’. Ironically, our insights from Scotland to Denmark also suggest what appear as positive achievements of community policing may instead intensify residents’ negative perceptions of police officers and organizations. In this way, the article illuminates the tangled and conflicted nature of these embedded symbolic interactions, social capital formations and the latter’s form as a potential positional and ‘tribal’ commodity.     

Beyond Confinement: The Regulation of Girl Offenders’ Bodies,Sexual Choices,and Behavior

Throughout transformations in juvenile justice, control over girls’ bodies, sexual behavior, and reproductive choices has remained a constant focal point among decision makers, with girls infrequently charged with serious law violations and commonly judged in terms of their moral welfare and chasteness. Using interview data with 62 court and correctional decision makers, this article examines how the contemporary juvenile justice system responds to girls’ sexual behavior and explores the policies and procedures used to restrain sexual agency and reproductive choices, both physically and cognitively. This article also investigates the penalties enforced when girls resist such controls as well as intentions toward change and reform in the system.     

IT'S 10 p.m., DO YOU KNOW WHERE YOUR CHILDREN ARE?

Over the past several decades, parent-child abduction has turned from a national into an international problem. To try and minimize this problem, The Hague Convention on the Civil Aspects of International Child Abduction was adopted on October 1980. The goal of the Convention is to ensure that abducted children are promptly returned to their homes. While the goal has been met, the overwhelming use of the Convention's exceptions must be limited so that the purpose of the Convention is not damaged.