Janet Chan

Negotiating Control: A Study of News Sources

Книга основана на обширном исследовании репортерской деятельности группой канадских социологов, исходивших из конструктивистского представления о медиа-производстве как о процессе, в котором новость появляется в результате взаимодействия журналистов с их источниками. Авторы ставят задачу изучить это взаимодействие, определить степень взаимозависимости сторон, их стратегии и влияние их отношений на конечный продукт и на знание общества о самом себе. Опираясь на ряд положений Ирвинга Гоффмана, авторы предлагают классификацию журналистских стратегий по отношению к источникам и далее рассматривают весь комплекс их взаимоотношений с такими источниками как суды, полиция, парламент и частный сектор.

Doing and undoing gender in policing

This article assesses the utility of ‘doing gender’ as a framework for examining gender issues in policing. Drawing on a longitudinal study in an Australian police force, the article seeks to explain the persistence of barriers to the integration of female officers after decades of equal employment laws and policies. The interviews make transparent the agency of male and female actors in sustaining or resisting the status quo. While there are real benefits in opening up the ‘doing gender’ framework to draw attention to contestations and challenges to gender hierarchy as suggested by the notion of ‘undoing gender’, the article demonstrates the complexity of gender practices in policing and rejects the posing of equality and difference as mutually exclusive alternatives.

Negotiating the Field: New Observations on the Making of Police Officers

This paper draws on the findings of a longitudinal study of police socialisation to refine and expand on the Bourdieuian framework of police culture developed in Chan (1997). The research supports the conclusion that the socialisation of police is a more complex and contingent process, and recruits far more active and reflective, than previously assumed. In addition, the paper shows that the socialisation process has become more unpredictable as a result of the changing social and political context of policing. It is argued that a deeper understanding of the socialisation process must take into account the interaction between the occupational “habitus” and the changing “field” of policing.

Is Big Data challenging criminology

The advent of ‘Big Data’ and machine learning algorithms is predicted to transform how we work and think. Specifically, it is said that the capacity of Big Data analytics to move from sampling to census, its ability to deal with messy data and the demonstrated utility of moving from causality to correlation have fundamentally changed the practice of social sciences. Some have even predicted the end of theory—where the question why is replaced by what—and an enduring challenge to disciplinary expertise. This article critically reviews the available literature against such claims and draws on the example of predictive policing to discuss the likely impact of Big Data analytics on criminological research and policy.

POLICE STRESS AND OCCUPATIONAL CULTURE

Danger and trauma in police work have long been linked to the development of a suspicious and cynical ‘street cop’ culture. Nevertheless, there is evidence that stress among police officers in Western democracies is more likely to be produced by organisational pressure and management practices than by actual traumatic experience. This chapter uses data from a follow-up study of police recruits to examine the relationship between police stress and occupational culture. In particular, it analyses the impact of organisational changes on officers’ perception of their work and culture. The chapter demonstrates the way changes in the field of policing can modify some aspects of the occupational habitus while reinforcing others. INTRODUCTION: STRESS AND CULTURE The notion of ‘police stress’ has been the subject of many research studies (e.g. Stinchcomb, 2004; Deschamps, Paganon-Badinier, Marchand, & Merle, 2003; Brooks & Piquero, 1998; Brown, Cooper, & Kirkcaldy, 1996), most of which are concerned with identifying sources of stress and ways of reducing Police Occupational Culture: New Debates and Directions Sociology of Crime, Law and Deviance, Volume 8, 129–151 Copyright r 2007 by Elsevier Ltd. All rights of reproduction in any form reserved ISSN: 1521-6136/doi:10.1016/S1521-6136(07)08005-0

Globalisation, Reflexivity and the Practice of Criminology:

This paper examines recent theorising of broader social and political trends in modern societies and discusses their implications for the practice of criminology. Globalisation has facilitated the “free trade” of criminological knowledge and ideologies and accelerated the deterritorialisation of culture and politics. Under “reflexive modernisation”, the scientific authority of criminology is being challenged, not only from within the discipline in the form of academic critique, but also from without, in the arena of law and order politics. At the same time, criminologists and criminal justice policies are increasingly being “governed” by “technologies of performance” and the “technologies of agency” as part of “reflexive government” in advanced liberal societies.

Algorithmic prediction in policing: assumptions, evaluation, and accountability

ABSTRACT The goal of predictive policing is to forecast where and when crimes will take place in the future. The idea has captured the imagination of law enforcement agencies around the world. Many agencies are purchasing software tools with the goal of reducing crime by mapping the likely locations of future crime to guide the deployment of police resources. Yet the claims and promises of predictive policing have not been subject to critical examination. This paper provides a review of the theories, techniques, and assumptions embedded in various predictive tools and highlights three key issues about the use of algorithmic prediction. Assumptions: The algorithms used to gain predictive insights build on assumptions about accuracy, continuity, the irrelevance of omitted variables, and the primary importance of particular information (such as location) over others. In making decisions based on these algorithms, police are also directed towards particular kinds of decisions and responses to the exclusion of others. Evaluation: Media coverage of these technologies implies that they are successful in reducing crime. However, these claims are not necessarily based on independent, peer reviewed evaluations. While some evaluations have been conducted, additional rigorous and independent evaluations are needed to understand more fully the effect of predictive policing programmes. Accountability: The use of predictive software can undermine the ability for individual officers or law enforcement agencies to give an account of their decisions in important ways. The paper explores how this accountability gap might be reduced.

Negotiating the Paradox of Creative Autonomy in the Making of Artists

This article reports the findings of a longitudinal study of the making of artists within an Australian university art school. It investigates the ways in which creativity is conceptualized and expressed by art students. The study makes use of Pierre Bourdieu’s concepts of habitus, field, and capital to theorize the development and maintenance of students’ creativity and emerging identities as artists within the institutional constraints of the art school and the competitive stakes of the field of artistic production. Through a detailed analysis of structured interviews, the article reveals the double paradox of students’ practice: despite their belief in the ideal of creative autonomy, they repeatedly make compromises to improve their competitive advantage in the struggle to be creative and to be recognized for their artistic achievements. At the same time, the art school does what it can to regulate and perpetuate this belief.

The new lateral surveillance and a culture of suspicion

This chapter examines the ‘new lateral surveillance’, spearheaded by government anti-terrorism campaigns urging citizens to report any suspicious people and objects they encounter. Drawing a comparison between this and the community crime prevention (CCP) programmes of past decades, the chapter discusses the likely effectiveness of such campaigns in controlling crime and increasing security, suggests an alternative interpretation and discusses the consequences of the culture of suspicion generated by this form of surveillance. It concludes that the new lateral surveillance is a form of ‘high policing’ that is both political and dangerous in its vulnerability to errors.

Systematically Distorted Communication? Criminological Knowledge, Media Representation and Public Policy*

I am very honoured to have been asked to discuss Kathy Daly’s excellent paper to this Symposium. Let me first assure Professor Daly that the journalistic practices and political rhetoric in Australia are not all that different from her description of North America. Only a few weeks ago we made international headlines with our own ‘celebrated crime case’, which was relentlessly exploited by the ‘infotainment’ industry. Some sections of the media managed to turn this individual tragedy into a divisive force in Australian society.’ As a result, Australian citizens and immigrants of Indo-Chinese descent bore the brunt of bigotted attacks and racist stereotyping. As a person sharing the same phenotypical features as those under attack, I was shocked and saddened by the reaction of some Australians who were stirred up by the media. The political rhetoric of law and order described by Professor Daly is also familiar in Australia. Even though our crime rate is no more than a fraction of that in the United States, the competition between political parties to ‘own’ the crime issue is turning out to be one of the key features of the next New South Wales election. We’ve even got a political slogan, ‘tough on crime, tough on the causes of crime’ borrowed from Britain, where, again, the crime problems are much different from ours. No amount of hard evidence from criminologists is going to shake the confidence of these crusaders that crime is out of control in our community.’ While agreeing with Professor Daly that the criminologist’s task of injecting some rationality and cool-headedness into the law and order debate is a difficult and thankless one, I’d like to temper her argument that ‘[plublic policy toward crime and justice is largely driven by media-generated stories . . . instead of social science research’ with some local success stories and my own analysis of the issues. My argument consists of three parts. First, with the exception of a few high-profile examples, the direct impact of media reports on public policy is much less than is commonly believed. Secondly, the influence of criminological knowledge on public policy is more pervasive than we realise. Finally, media coverage of criminological research does not necessarily lead to better policy; newsmaking criminology is as powerful as it is hazardous. I will go through these points by following the arrows clockwise