Policing and Social Structure - Detailseite

The police have become an object of international mobilizations following the murder of George Floyd by a white police officer in Minneapolis in May 2020. This event echoes older concerns in France and Germany about police brutality and racism, as well as the relationship between the police and the urban lower classes. On this topic, the body of literature in the field of the sociology of the police is vast and contributes to question the Weberian definition of the State as "holder of the monopoly of legitimate violence" as well the belief on the legitimacy of the authority of criminal institutions.

This seminar aims to highlight a dimension neglected by the current sociology of social control's institutions: How to theoretically investigate the articulation between policing and the social structure? To what extent does the position of individuals in the social structure (class, gender, race etc.) determine their concrete relations with the police as well as their perceptions of the latter? To which extend can empirical quantitative and qualitative research help to analyze the specific relationships with the police according to social groups? By answering these questions, the seminar investigates the proximity and distance, compliance and resistance of individuals toward the police as well as toward the authority of the state.

While exploring research from France, Germany, the United-Kingdom and the United States, the seminar’s goal is to produce a state of art of the existing literature on this matter, to highlight the strengths and weaknesses of the existing theoretical frameworks and to suggest directions for further research.

• Abdul-Rahman L., Espin Grau H., Singelstein, T., 2020. Polizeiliche Gewaltanwendungen aus Sicht der Betroffenen. Zwischenbericht zum Forschungsprojekt„ Körperverletzung im Amt durch Polizeibeamt*innen“(KviAPol), 2. Auflage, Ruhr-Universität Bochum.
• Abdul-Rahman L., Espin Grau H., Klaus L., Singelstein, T., 2020. Rassismus und Diskriminierungserfahrungen im Kontext polizeilicher Gewaltausübung. Zweiter Zwischenbericht zum Forschungsprojekt „ Körperverletzung im Amt durch Polizeibeamt*innen“(KviAPol), Ruhr-Universität Bochum.
• Epp Charles R, Steven Maynard-Moody, Donald P. Haider-Markel, 2014. Pulled Over. How Police Stops Define Race and Citizenship, The Chicago University Press.
• Feest, Johannes, Blankenburg, E., 1972. Die Definitionsmacht der Polizei: Strategien der Strafverfolgung und soziale Selektion, Bertelsmann, Düsseldorf.
• Goffman Alice, 2014. On the Run. Fugitive Life in an American City, Chicago, University of Chicago Press, 2014.
• Harring, Sidney L., 2017. Policing A Class Society, Haymarket Books.
• Lee, J., 1981. Some structural aspects of police deviance in relations with minority groups, in Shearing, C. et Stenning, P. (dir.), Organizational Police Deviance: Its Structure and Control. Toronto: Butterworths, 49-82.
• Le Franc V., Spire A., 2021. How Does Voluntary Contact with the Police Produce Distrust? Evidence from the French Case. Social Sciences, 10(10):399.
• de Maillard, J., Hunold, D., Roché, S., & Oberwittler, D., 2018. Different styles of policing: discretionary power in street controls by the public police in France and Germany. Policing and Society - an International Journal of Research and Policy, 28(2), 175–188.
• Oberwittler Dietrich, Janssen, H. J., Gerstner, D., 2017. Unordnung und Unsicherheit in großstädtischen Wohn­gebie­ten: die überschätzte Rolle von "Broken Windows" und die Herausforderungen ethnischer Diversität. Soziale Probleme, 28(2), 181–205
• Oberwittler Dietrich, Roché, S., 2013. Experiences, perceptions and attitudes: Variations of police-adolescents relationships in French and German Cities. Criminology in Europe. Newsletter of the European Society of Criminology, 12(3), 4–10.
• Reiner, R., 1978. The Police in the Class Structure. British Journal of Law and Society, 5(2), 166-184
• Roché Sebastian, D. Oberwittler, 2021. How institutional contexts shape police-adolescent encounters with police. A study of France and Germany. Comparative Policing Review, Routledge.
• Roché Sebastian, D. Oberwittler, 2018. Towards a broader view of police-citizen relations: How societal cleavages and political contexts shape trust and distrust, legitimacy and illegitimacy, In Sebastian Roché, Dietrich Oberwittler, 2018, Police citizen relations around the world. Comparing sources and contexts of trust and legitimacy, Routledge.
• Tyler, Tom, 1990. Why people obey the law, Yale University Press.
• Waddington P. A. J., Martin Wright, Tim Newburn, 2017. How people judge policing?, Oxford University Press.
• Williams Patrick, W. Shankley, 2020. Minority Ethnic Groups, Policing and the Criminal Justice System in Britain. In W. Shankley, B. Byrne, C. Alexander, J. Nazroo, O. Khan, Ethnicity, Race and Inequality in the UK: State of the Nation, Bristol University Press.