This book provides an ethnography of street-level policing in the United States and offers an analysis with valuable lessons for today’s law enforcement officers. Author George C. Klein sociologist and former police officer explores the characteristics of policing in a suburb outside of large Midwestern city in the United States. As a participant-observation fieldworker he functioned as an ethnographic researcher recording with a sociological eye the real world tasks of policing including the ordinary as well as the more remarkable aspects of day-to-day law enforcement. He approaches the data with three levels of analysis looking at embedded issues in policing such as discretion danger corruption cynicism race and class; a mid-range analysis that examines police work as an example of street-level bureaucracy; and a global analysis assessing the entrenched roles of race class and demography in police work as well as society in the U.S. This book focuses on the need for police officers to solve social problems that other institutions in society are unwilling or unable to solve. It examines a myriad of issues such as police socialization the use of force by police officers stress levels and suicide risk factors disparate styles of policing police militarization de-escalation and more. With compelling detail the author helps the reader understand the turmoil regarding policing in the United States today. It is ideal for police professionals as well as students and scholars of criminal justice criminology sociology psychology history political science and journalism. |Street Cop Policing in Context | Criminology & Criminal Justice
