Knowledge on Tap: Police Science and Common Knowledge in the Legal Regulation of Drunkenness |
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| Authors: | Ron Levi Mariana Valverde |
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| Affiliation: | Ron Levi;is visiting research associate at the American Bar Foundation and Northwestern University School of Law, and a graduate student at the University of Toronto (law) and Northwestern University (sociology). Mariana Valverde is professor of criminology at the University of Toronto. An earlier version of this paper was presented at the 1999 Law and Society Association Annual Meeting. We are grateful to Bill Novak for his insightful comments, and to Mark Clamen for his timely suggestions. |
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| Abstract: | Although scholars have devoted considerable attention to the formation, modification, and dissemination of knowledges in and around the legal complex, few systematic inquiries have been made into the sociology of legal knowledges. In this paper, we focus on two areas of law–liquor licensing and drunk driving–and contextualize their development from the perspective of police science. We document the ways in which contemporary police science authorizes a "common knowledge," which is not to be confused with lay knowledge, or even trade knowledge. Rather, the "common knowledge" that is authorized is what legal authorities believe everyone should know, despite any lay or trade knowledge individuals may have. This analysis demonstrates the need for further work on the ways in which knowledges are formed and authorized within law, with particular emphasis on documenting how a "responsibility to know" comes to be deployed beyond the state. |
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