Download PPAS 2420 3.0 M, Winter 2012

YORK UNIVERSITY—WINTER 2012
PPAS 2420 3.0 M
COMMUNITY POLICING
Dr. Paul Brienza
McLaughlin College 237A
Office Hours:
Meeting Time: Thursdays, 7-10pm
Location: HNE B15
Course Description:
This course seeks to explore the often problematic and controversial
relationship between communities and the police. The nature of this
relationship is something that we will explore in some depth both through
the ‘classics’ of sociological theory as well as the corpus of criminological
thought. Our first concern will be to explore the nature and context of
community. How has sociology understood community? Further, how has
sociology understood the nature of social control both within and without the
community?
Next, we will explore the history and organization of policing within an
‘Anglo-American’ context. What were the social conditions that gave rise to
the police as a social institution? Who was targeted for possible control and
upon which individuals was this control to be enacted? In this regard, we will
spend some time exploring the ideas of Sir Robert Peel and his role in the
creation of the Metropolitan London Police Force. The next phase of this
course will examine the development of ‘Policing Studies’ and the
development of the concern over ‘Community Policing’. These issues will be
examined in relation to the concerns of race, ethnicity, gender, sexual
orientation, and class. In this sense, we will argue that the definition and
understanding of ‘community’ plays a crucial role. Is there a ‘community’ or
are there variegated ‘communities’ with very little in common? Lastly, what
are the practical implications of community policing? Does such a program
call for a radical re-working of police structures? Is it compatible with
contemporary policing institutions? Further, what are the ‘resistances’ to
community policing and were do these counter-arguments reside?
Required Texts:
McLaughlin, Eugene, The New Policing, Sage Publications, London, 2007
Lecture Schedule:
January 5: Introduction: The Crisis of Community
January 12: Tonnies and Durkheim on Community
January 19: Marx, Weber, and Community in a Capitalist Age
January 26: The Technocratic Model and its Critique
February 2: Test 1: 20%
February 9: Traditional Perspectives: McLaughlin, Chp. 3
February 16: Peel and The Arrival of Community Policing: McLaughlin, Chp.
4
February 23: Reading Week
March 1:The Police Subculture: McLaughlin, Chp. 6
March 8: Police Corruption
March 15: Criminal Justice and the Community
March 22: Restorative Justice
March 29: Final Test: 20%
Grade Breakdown:
First Test: 20%
Second Test: 20%
Participation and Attendance: 20%
Essay: 40%
Essay Questions:
The following are a list of suggested essay questions. However, you do
have the option of choosing your own topic. Your essays must have a clear
and concise style if you want to do well.
1. Drawing upon the lectures and readings, discuss the relationship
between the police and the community. What are problematic aspects
of this relationship? How would you combine crime control with the
rights of communities? Is this, in fact, possible?
2. Discuss the significance and relevance of Robert Peel’s ideas to
contemporary policing. What could be learned from these ideas?
Further, do you see his ideas reflected in present-day concerns to
create a community-policing model?
3. Is community policing a response to a ‘crisis of community’ in our
modern age? If so, what are the main social factors that have created
this crisis? How could the police be used as a vehicle to respond to this
situation? Or, do we expect too much from the police as an agent of
social control?
4. Discuss the relationship between informal social control and the
actions of the criminal justice system. What do you feel lies behind a
effective form of social harmony?
5. Compare and contrast two models of community policing. Which of
these models do you think are relevant to the concerns of
contemporary society? How could they be implemented as policy?
6. Discuss the impact that terrorism and the state attempt to control it
has influenced policing in the 21st century. Does it pose a problem for
community policing? Does it change the definition of the community?