'Good’ Police Citizens? Ethnic Identities and the Impacts of Policing

• In Event: 'Good' Policing

Abstract

How experiences of racism or perceived injustices within the criminal justice impact upon the formation of ethnic identity has hitherto received little empirical attention in criminological literatures. This paper considers the ways in which interactions with the police influenced and questioned the ethnic identities and shaping of ethnic group boundaries for British Asian youth in the UK. Theoretically, the paper considers the ways in which the scope for discretion by the police, particularly in the use of tactics such as stop and search, can frame expectations of fairness and justice in policing and to what extent policing can be perceived as ‘good’.

Author

• Alpa Parmar, University of Oxford