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ORGANIZATIONAL DEVIANCE AND POLITICAL POLICING |
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| Authors: | AUSTIN T TURK |
| Institution: | Austin T. Turk, Professor of Sociology and Criminology at the University of Toronto, has written extensively on the relation between legalpower and social conflict. His current projects include a book on polilical criminality;another on conflict theory in sociology: and a comparative study of the development, impact, and transformation of legal control structures-focusing upon South Africa and the United States. |
| Abstract: | Deviance in the policing of political activities may be either legal or behavioral. Both are generated to satisfy external demands without risking undeniable failure. Tactics of secrecy and scapegoating to avoid the perils of external scrutiny are supplemented by applying the principles of need to know and plausible deniability. The demand for results regardless of methods makes legal deviance inevitable and behavioral deviance very probable. Deviance in political policing is very unlikely to be inhibited significantly by legal reforms or public politics. Organizational changes are more likely to have some impact. |
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