Police as therapists? Resituating the role of law enforcement

• In Event: The Many Faces of Policing

Abstract

The emerging philosophy of therapeutic jurisprudence has changed criminal justice practice since its first incarnation as drug treatment courts (DTC) in 1989. One way to make sense of these shifts is through Foucault’s insights regarding medicalization and the panoptic gaze as forms of control. Through the work of Foucault and Thomas Mathiesen, we can see surveillance by others and by the self as one form of control underpinning inter-agency collaborations like drug treatment courts (DTCs). The introduction of law enforcement to the DTC workgroup complicates the notion of DTCs as therapy. What role can a crime control oriented institution like law enforcement serve in the therapeutic and restorative environment of drug treatment courts? Using DTCs as a case study, this paper argues that that the contemporary discourse of therapy includes a muscular conception of surveillance, rendering law enforcement as a type of therapy and officers as one form of therapist. We will use the drug court, surveillance, and therapeutic jurisprudence literatures to locate this newfound role for law enforcement officers and to discuss its implications for the coherence of law, justice, and medicine.

Authors

• Douglas Routh, Washington State University

• Aaron Roussell, Washington State University