Routledge Accountability of Policing (Routledge Frontiers of Criminal Justice)

Accountability of Policing provides a contemporary and wide-ranging examination of the accountability and governance of ‘police’ and ‘policing’. Debates about ‘who guards the guards’ are among the oldest and most protracted in the history of democracy, but over the last decade we have witnessed important changes in how policing and security agencies are governed, regulated and held to account. Against a backdrop of increasing complexity in the local, national and transnational landscapes of ‘policing’, political, legal, administrative and technological developments have served to alter regimes of accountability. The extent and pace of these changes raises a pressing need for ongoing academic research, analysis and debate. Bringing together contributions from a range of leading scholars, this book offers an authoritative and comprehensive analysis of the shifting themes of accountability within policing. The contributions explore questions of accountability across a range of dimensions, including those ‘individuals’ and ‘institutions’ responsible for its delivery, within and between the ‘public’ and ‘private’ sectors, and at ‘local’, ‘national’ and ‘transnational’ scales of jurisdiction. They also engage with the concept of ‘accountability’ in a broad sense, bringing to the surface the various meanings that have become associated with it and demonstrating how it is invoked and interpreted in different contexts. Accountability of Policing is essential reading for academics and students involved in the study of policing, criminal justice and criminology and will also be of great interest to practitioners and policymakers. Review ‘This book makes a significant contribution to the literature on accountability for policing in three particular ways. First, it adopts much broader conceptions of both accountability and "policing" than have been evident in almost all the previous literature on this topic. Second, it is historically grounded, which enhances understanding of where things stand today. Thirdly, it is thoroughly up to date, exploring new conceptual frames, the most recent developments, and the most recent critiques. For all these reasons, it is a book that should be read by anyone who is interested, for whatever reasons, in its central subject.’ - Philip C. Stenning, Professor of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Griffith University, Queensland, Australia ‘Accountability of Policing is a sorely-needed text in the policing research cannon. Lister and Rowe, along with a long list of well-respected scholars in this field, have compiled an informative and insightful text on a topic of great interest in policing. It will be a valuable resource for students, researchers and practitioners.’ - Megan O’Neill, Lecturer in Human Geography, University of Dundee and the Scottish Institute of Policing Research, UK ‘Focusing on such diverse subjects as corruption, complaints, and stop and search, and bringing together the leading authors in their respective fields, this impressive volume offers the most up-to-date analysis of the contemporary state of accountability in policing and private security. This will be essential reading for teachers and students of policing.’ - Tim Newburn, Professor of Criminology and Social Policy, London School of Economics, UK "Composed of eleven chapters from an impressive line-up of established and well-respected scholars in the field, Lister and Rowe’s (2015) edited collection on the Accountability of Policing is a much welcome addition to the literature. Set against a backdrop of considerable and ongoing police reform, police organisations, scholars and students alike are faced with the mammoth task of making sense of increasingly complex local, national and transnational policing landscapes. It is precisely this complexity and pace of reform that has shaped the contributions in this collection… one of the key strengths of this edited collection is its ability to explore th