Critical Police Studies: An Invitation

Session Submission Type: Complete Thematic Panel

Abstract

At this year’s ASC conference, I hope to bring together a “new wave” of researchers involved in the emerging field I call “Critical Police Studies”. CPS scholars seek to challenge the conventional wisdom of scholars studying policing, police action, and the experience of being policed. Traditional themes in policing scholarship often taken police as a given, and their evolution as an inevitability. These examinations of American police history are most often written from the white ethnic perspective. Work focusing on the contemporary period highlight issues within police organizations, hierarchies, and administration, hoping to find ways of improving police service delivery.
CPS scholars, on the other hand, question the role of police in society. They critically examine the dynamics of race, class, and culture in police and policing. These scholars engage in a variety of methods, in underexamined contexts, using various data sources, and draw upon interdisciplinary/non-traditional literature. I hope this panel exposes criminologists to a more diverse body of scholarship asking a wider range of critical questions. I also hope to build a network of scholars interested in similar issues that may result in future collaborations and will help create a coherent dialogue among the extant but disconnected conversations.

Sub Unit

• Area IV. Criminal Justice Policy and Practice / 39. Policing and Law Enforcement

Individual Presentations

• Your Friendly Neighborhood Bureaucracy: Documents, Discourse, and Community Policing - Luis Daniel Gascon, University of San Francisco

• The Fall From Eden: Breaking the First Window and the Construction of a Criminogenic Origin Myth - Aaron Roussell, Washington State University; Jason Chester Dunbar, Washington State University - Pullman

• Democratic Racism and Police Discrimination: Strategies for Conducting Research on Race in a Hostile Environment - Akwasi Owusu-Bempah, Indiana University

• Sorted on the Outs: Recognizing the Carceral Social Order in Gang Validation Experiences - Patrick Lopez-Aguado, Santa Clara University

Chair

• Malcolm D. Holmes, University of Wyoming