Cross-national research. A new frontier for police studies
Cross-national research. A new frontier for police studies
Across different countries, there is extreme heterogeneity among police systems concerning the number and types of forces, their links to political authorities and territorial organisation of control centres, their oversight mechanisms, agents’ status, and their behaviours. This heterogeneity is observed despite the apparent similarity between the various functions assigned to police forces, such as law enforcement, crowd control, peacekeeping, and border protection, among others. Comparative policing is a new frontier for policing studies. Without a comparative approach, this diversity cannot be identified and integrated into testable ‘middle-range theories.’ At present, the main obstacle for comparative policing research is conceptual. The very concept of police is ambiguous. At the same time, a deeper understanding of the political establishment and regulation of police systems is required. Scholars require portable concepts such as accountability or decentralisation for example, as well as reliable data to address cross-country comparison. This first volume of Comparative Policing Review suggests there is some interests and indeed, a burgeoning comparative literature emerging to take up the challenge. This paper suggests the key concepts and understandings that are required if we are to effectively develop a viable comparative approach to policing studies.
National context, accountability, comparative method, comparative policing, legitimacy, oversight, portable concept
256-270
Roché, Sebastian
379c312a-8a46-48ee-94cf-3b32de316490
Fleming, Jenny
61449384-ccab-40b3-b494-0852c956ca19
2022
Roché, Sebastian
379c312a-8a46-48ee-94cf-3b32de316490
Fleming, Jenny
61449384-ccab-40b3-b494-0852c956ca19
Roché, Sebastian and Fleming, Jenny
(2022)
Cross-national research. A new frontier for police studies.
Policing and Society, 32 (3), .
(doi:10.1080/10439463.2022.2037560).
Abstract
Across different countries, there is extreme heterogeneity among police systems concerning the number and types of forces, their links to political authorities and territorial organisation of control centres, their oversight mechanisms, agents’ status, and their behaviours. This heterogeneity is observed despite the apparent similarity between the various functions assigned to police forces, such as law enforcement, crowd control, peacekeeping, and border protection, among others. Comparative policing is a new frontier for policing studies. Without a comparative approach, this diversity cannot be identified and integrated into testable ‘middle-range theories.’ At present, the main obstacle for comparative policing research is conceptual. The very concept of police is ambiguous. At the same time, a deeper understanding of the political establishment and regulation of police systems is required. Scholars require portable concepts such as accountability or decentralisation for example, as well as reliable data to address cross-country comparison. This first volume of Comparative Policing Review suggests there is some interests and indeed, a burgeoning comparative literature emerging to take up the challenge. This paper suggests the key concepts and understandings that are required if we are to effectively develop a viable comparative approach to policing studies.
Text
Roche Fleming Introduction
- Accepted Manuscript
More information
Accepted/In Press date: 13 February 2022
e-pub ahead of print date: 13 February 2022
Published date: 2022
Additional Information:
Funding Information:
The author would like to express his gratitude to Jacques de Maillard, Sonja Zmerli and Tim Newburn for their review of earlier versions of the text.
Publisher Copyright:
© 2022 Informa UK Limited, trading as Taylor & Francis Group.
Keywords:
National context, accountability, comparative method, comparative policing, legitimacy, oversight, portable concept
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Local EPrints ID: 456782
URI: http://eprints.soton.ac.uk/id/eprint/456782
ISSN: 1043-9463
PURE UUID: f8f40237-d2b9-45da-ba14-18e663c33d82
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Date deposited: 11 May 2022 16:42
Last modified: 17 Mar 2024 07:10
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Author:
Sebastian Roché
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