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Routledge Library Editions: Police and Policing

About the Book Series

This 25-volume set has titles originally published between 1951 and 1995. It explores several different aspects of the police and their approaches to policing over the years. Many of the titles are from the 1980s, where the police were beginning to come under increasing scrutiny and their relationship with the public was under pressure. Topics include: accountability, community policing, police work, policy, training, along with international comparisons. Ongoing debates of police accountability and police race relations today mean this collection is a timely resource for those interested in criminology, particularly the recent history of the police and their role in society.

26 Series Titles


Police Work

Police Work

1st Edition

By Peter B. Ainsworth, Ken Pease
March 15, 2025

Why don’t people rush to help at an accident? Why do eyewitnesses give different accounts of the same event? Is there such a thing as a ‘born criminal’? How can you get people to cooperate with police investigations? Can you tell if someone is lying? How can police officers reduce their own levels ...

Police and Government The Status and Accountability of the English Constable

Police and Government: The Status and Accountability of the English Constable

1st Edition

By Geoffrey Marshall
March 15, 2025

Despite the recent outcrop of controversy about the police and their accountability in the 1960s, there was no work dealing in detail with the problems discussed in this book. Originally published in 1965, it examines an unresolved issue, namely the position of the police in the constitutional ...

Police and Public Order in Europe

Police and Public Order in Europe

1st Edition

Edited By John Roach, Jürgen Thomaneck
March 15, 2025

Originally published in 1985, Police and Public Order in Europe examines the development of the police in Western Europe and considers how police functions have changed over time. Each contributor looks at the experience of one country while having regard to the practices of the other countries. ...

Policing a Perplexed Society

Policing a Perplexed Society

1st Edition

By Sir Robert Mark
March 15, 2025

Should policemen be armed? Do they want to be? How fair is police interrogation? Are the police too tough on demonstrators? How often are the guilty acquitted? Do we get the police force we deserve? Originally published in 1977, Sir Robert Mark considers these and many other issues. His period as ...

Policing by the Public

Policing by the Public

1st Edition

By Joanna Shapland, Jon Vagg
March 15, 2025

Originally published in 1988, Policing by the Public opened up an entirely new field within criminology and the sociology of deviance. The authors focus on the nature of informal social control in both villages and urban centres to show the kinds of policing people do for themselves, within their ...

Race, Riots and Policing Lore and Disorder in a Multi-racist Society

Race, Riots and Policing: Lore and Disorder in a Multi-racist Society

1st Edition

By Michael Keith
March 15, 2025

Originally published in 1993, this was the first systematic attempt to understand the criminalization of Black people without resorting to either crude state conspiracy theories or pathological portrayals of Black communities. Instead, the author places police/Black conflict in a geographical and ...

Social Changes, Crime and Police International Conference June 1– 4, 1992 Budapest, Hungary

Social Changes, Crime and Police: International Conference June 1– 4, 1992 Budapest, Hungary

1st Edition

Edited By Louise Shelley, József Vigh
March 15, 2025

Originally published in 1995, Social Changes, Crime and the Police studies the relationship of social change and crime, the role of the police amidst changing social conditions, and the reaction of society and the state to the criminal problem. It examines the essential differences and challenges ...

The British Police

The British Police

1st Edition

By Jenifer M. Hart
March 15, 2025

Originally published in 1951, The British Police describes the different types of police force, the powers and functions of local police authorities, the ways in which control from the centre is exercised, and the effect of the Local Government Boundary Commission’s proposals on police areas at the...

The Case Against Paramilitary Policing

The Case Against Paramilitary Policing

1st Edition

By Tony Jefferson
March 15, 2025

In the late 1980s, the conventional wisdom informing the policing of public order events was that of paramilitarism: militarily trained and equipped units with a special responsibility to deal quickly and effectively with outbreaks of disorder. The philosophy behind the paramilitary response ...

The Framework of Criminal Justice

The Framework of Criminal Justice

1st Edition

By Michael King
March 15, 2025

In The Framework of Criminal Justice, originally published in 1981, the criminal justice process is analysed by using six models, each of which expresses a different justification for criminal justice and punishment: the due process model – exacting justice between equal parties; the crime control ...

The Police Revolution

The Police Revolution

1st Edition

By Peter Evans
March 15, 2025

Where are the police going? Originally published in 1974, Peter Evans argues that their traditional relationship with the public was being dangerously threatened, a situation neither the police themselves nor the public wanted to see worsen. In his analysis of the pressures and influences that were...

The Police in Society

The Police in Society

1st Edition

By Ben Whitaker
March 15, 2025

In 1964 Ben Whitaker, who later defeated a former Home Secretary to become Hampstead’s first ever Labour MP and a Junior Minister, wrote The Police to try and reconcile (in his own words) ‘the very different impression police officers make when, as a barrister, one is defending from when one is ...

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