NCJ Number
230952
Date Published
2010
Length
22 pages
Annotation
This chapter applies the concept of a "constabulary ethic" to transnational policing by proposing the application of the four paradoxes of coercion identified by William Ker Muir, Jr. (1972) to globalized law enforcement.
Abstract
"Constabulatory ethics," a term coined by the author of this chapter, refers to a focus on the behaviors and values of the frontline law enforcement officer who has the discretion and the authorization to use coercion in enforcing the law. Muir observed that "pacifying a dispute between husbands and wives involves much the same techniques statesmen use to contain outbreaks between embittered nations" (1972). Muir identified four paradoxes of the use of coercive power in managing behavior. The paradoxes stem from the reality that police have the authority to use coercion/force against those who for various reasons tend to use force and coercion in achieving their behavioral goals, thus victimizing others. After several decades of sociological scrutiny, it has been shown that the craft of good policing consists of the ability to use the background possibility of legitimate coercion so skillfully that it never needs to be used, at least to the maximum level. The danger of the globilization of cooperative policing is that the "constabulary ethic" which fosters a police craft of the skillful avoidance of active coercion in managing behaviors will be lost under a wave of irrational authoritarian coercion that undermines liberal democratic policing. The author concludes with this statement about trends in globalized policing: "It is like a great ship steaming ahead into an uncertain future without the benefit of maps, compass bearing, or astral navigation and only the strength of character, skill and safety record of her crew left to ensure that the vessel does not become like Theodore Gericault's Raft of the Medusa." 3 notes