SOC 664 - Aspects of Police Work

(4 credits)

A seminar covering modern policing that emphasizes four themes.First, beyond the traditional coverage of local or municipal policing in the United States and Britain, explicit attention will be given to international policing, including both its history, organization, and operations.Second, policing will be examined with regard to economic issues, particularly with regard to the recent turn toward privatization within policing specifically and across the criminal justice system generally.Third, explicit attention will be given to the historical eras of policing, broadly considered to be political spoils (1830s to 1920s), reform and early professionalism (1920s through 1960s), community policing (1970s to the present), and post 9/11 policing (since 2001).Fourth, we will examine the future of policing, returning once again to a fundamental question whose assert is more elusive than it would appear, namely “What do we want the police to DO?”

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