The NYPD’s Policing Habitus & Fight for Control of the Counter-Terrorism Field: A Bourdieusian Illustration

• In Event: Theoretical and Epistemological debates in Criminology II: Policy, Politics & Theory

Abstract

This paper applies and extends Bourdieu’s theories to examine the case study of the New York City Police Department (NYPD)’s fight for dominance in the counter-terrorism field in the decades following the 9/11 terror attacks. The paper explores the resilience of the NYPD’s policing habitus, illustrating its embeddedness and the significant challenges of habitus change. It examines the ways Bourdieu contemplated how the habitus drives subordinate factions to seek to displace dominant factions in a field’s established social hierarchy through boundary-pushing practices, and applies these concepts to a criminological case study for the first time. The paper considers how the NYPD sought to displace the existing social structure of the counterterrorism field by using its aggressive policing habitus, an infusion of ‘War on Terror’ capital, and novel counterterrorism practices to challenge the dominant position of the FBI. The paper draws on original documentary analysis of publicly available documents and confidential interviews.

Author

• Tara Lai Quinlan, University of Birmingham