The aim of this paper is to identify what methods of policing and security provision best promote equity, safety and access to justice for all aspects of the population. The medium for this is a review of research regarding difficulties between police and certain communities – mainly ethnic minorities, but also, inter alia, women and homosexuals.
The article argues that policing involves the regulation and control of social conflict through several interlinked bodies, including the formal police, private security firms and public officials with regulatory and law enforcement functions. It is, by nature, confrontational and, therefore, difficult to reconcile with the notion of consensus and universal approval. Marginalised communities are groups that share an identity that is dependent on something other than territory. In addition, they feel that they do not have fair access to policing and justice.
Police within a locality increasingly have to deal with not one, but several communities, which often hold sharply opposing views. There is strong evidence of mutual suspicion and even hostility between the police on the one hand and minority groups (e.g. Afro-Caribbeans, homosexuals) on the other. Additionally, Jones and Maguire find that:
- Victimisation is substantially higher for people who are already socially or economically disadvantaged, and high rates of victimisation among ethnic minorities may reflect their socio-economic position rather than their race
- Lack of police protection for minorities has been a constant criticism in recent years, with police accused of subsuming attacks on members of marginalised communities under general categories of crime
- Whilst members of marginalised communities feel under-protected, they also often complain of being ‘over-policed’: Receiving a disproportionate amount of police attention
- Despite police perception that some racial groups are more likely to become involved in certain types of crime, a UK Home Office survey suggest that this is not the case, and that among certain racial groups, the opposite in fact obtains.
An essential precondition for improved relations between the police and marginalised groups is the reduction of sources of inequality and disadvantage in society as a whole. However, efforts to address these problems within the police may produce considerable improvements.
- The recourse by some groups to hiring private security firms to police their locales raises the spectre of a stratification of society, with some able to afford private security, while police are increasingly drawn into conflict with the poor
- It is wrong to expect too much from the introduction of training to challenge and change prejudicial attitudes, as these tend to focus on individual attitudes, whereas the problem is often institutionalised and endemic within ‘cop-culture’
- One possible way of improving police approaches towards minorities is to provide adequate systems of redress against misconduct, through complaints procedures or even civil litigation
- If the police are to proportionally reflect the ethnic make-up of society (a valuable end in itself), it is essential that potential recruits from among minorities do not expect prejudice from their colleagues
- A central task for police forces is to determine what common ground already exists and then to build upon it, while at the same time enforcing the law fairly.
