Mapping Police Services in the Democratic Republic of Congo: Institutional Interactions at Central, Provincial and Local Levels

Nlandu, T. M. 2012  Mapping Police Services in the Democratic Republic of Congo: Institutional Interactions at Central, Provincial and Local Levels. Institute of Development Studies Research Report 71.

This paper examines the roles, responsibilities and interactions between the various formal and informal institutions and stakeholders involved in the management of police services in the DRC. It identifies informal networks that influence decision-making processes and policy implementation, and provides an analysis of interactions between the Congolese population and national and international actors. It also aims to highlight both horizontal and vertical accountability mechanisms within the existing legal framework, setting out to identify any legal gaps and contradictions, which could explain overlapping mandates. The study provides interesting geographical and administrative data on national security systems, and uses a multidimensional governance approach to understand the complexity of the security sector and the interconnectedness between the relevant actors. The study concludes that stakeholders of the security and police sectors of the DRC are linked together in a web of complex and dynamic systems, characterised by discrepancies between theory and practice. It is inaccurate to think of these systems and mechanisms as working either in opposition to one another or in parallel. In fact, these systems intertwine more than they conflict, and there are significant overlaps and confusion with regard to the mandates of the existing institutions, structures and actors involved. All security services in the DRC possess a legal framework within which they must operate. The legal contradictions and loopholes identified in this paper are often the result of dubious interpretations, or even deliberate misinterpretations of existing operational provisions underlying the functioning of security services. The research concludes that there is very poor coordination between the various actors and institutions involved in the management of security services in the DRC. This creates a dysfunctional structure characterised by a culture of impunity, with only a semblance of autonomy and independence among actors, but never with regard to senior civil servants in charge of coordination.

 

http://www.ids.ac.uk/files/dmfile/rr71.pdf

Globalising Security Culture and Knowledge in Practice: Nigeria’s Hybrid Model

Hills, A. 2012. Globalising Security Culture and Knowledge in Practice: Nigeria’s Hybrid Model. Globalizations  (9)1: 91–106.

Public police around the world share certain occupational commonalities, but this does not represent a globalising security culture. Certain norms may appear to facilitate a less ambitious internationalist or transnational culture by modifying police behaviour through processes of socialisation and internalisation, but they do so for instrumental, rather than intrinsic reasons and are limited in their effects. The experience of the Nigeria Police (which is both the target of, and a contributor to, the transnational rescue industry) makes this explicit. This article emphasises the extent to which Nigeria’s commitment to the UN policing operations commonly thought to encapsulate a globalising culture is outweighed by domestic concerns. More significantly, the Nigeria Police’s distinction between domestic and international practice exemplifies the ways in which intermediary states in the South construct, exercise, and validate hybrid forms of security knowledge. Distinguishing between utilitarian and theoretical forms of knowledge provides an analytical tool for understanding the pragmatic and flexible practices that result.

 http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/14747731.2012.627718

Inside View, Police Officials; Perceptions of Corruption and Integrity Management at Three Gauteng SAPS Stations in 2009 by Andrew Faull

Faull, A. 2011. Inside View, Police Officials Perceptions of Corruption and Integrity Management at Three Gauteng SAPS Stations in 2009.  ISS Paper 228

This paper describes and compares three case studies conducted at Gauteng police stations in 2009. It asks whether and how the Corruption and Fraud Prevention Plan of the South African Police Service (SAPS) was being implemented at these stations. It does so by comparing members’ perceptions and experiences of the manner in which corruption, fraud and integrity management manifested within SAPS stations in 2009. It also examines perceptions of police corruption, and the causal factors that may influence the prevalence or control of corruption and integrity violations. The paper then considers these findings within a framework of organisational culture and considers how such a culture contributes towards the prevention of corruption.

 

http://www.issafrica.org/uploads/228.pdf 

Criminology, Culture, Critique: A Review of Jock Young, The Criminological Imagination

Garland, D. 2012. Criminology, Culture, Critique: A Review of Jock Young: The Criminological Imagination. British Journal of Criminology 52

In The Criminological Imagination, Young sets out anew his vision of what criminology can be, together with his criticisms of what it has largely become. Using C. Wright Mills’s The Sociological Imagination as his model, he berates mainstream criminology for being in thrall to classification, quantification and false precision in a ‘liquid’ social world that is, he insists, blurred, fast-changing and resistant to enumeration and categorization. Reapplying Mills’s critiques to criminology, Young bemoans the subject’s ‘abstract empiricism’—which he describes as unreflexive, myopic and mundane—and its occasional forays into a ‘Grand Theory’ that is insufficiently connected to the real world. As an alternative to the ‘bogus of positivism’, he proposes a different vision of criminology, centred on ethnographies, sub-cultural studies and interpretive analysis—a criminology that is attentive to meaning, to the pleasures and creativity of transgression, and to the intrinsic humanity of the deviant individual. He sometimes describes this as ‘Cultural Criminology’ sometimes as ‘Critical Criminology’ but many readers will recognize it as the distinctive approach that Jock Young’s work has always embodied.

http://bjc.oxfordjournals.org/content/early/2012/01/05/bjc.azr095.full

Integrated Crime Prevention Strategy for 2011.

Department of Social Development. 2011 Integrated Crime Prevention Strategy. Department of Social Development, Republic of South Africa.

The Social Crime Prevention Strategy is based on the assertion that the causes of crime are complex and therefore successful prevention will require a range of appropriate approaches that are tailor-made to address specific conditions. The strategy is also premised on the principle that crime prevention is everybody’s responsibility. To be successful, initiatives directed at social crime prevention must be coordinated and linked with measures to address broader social challenges at community level.The main objective of this strategy is to identify and promote innovative partnership-driven ways of reducing the current levels of crime and preventing crime from taking place. This strategy will be implemented in line with other existing measures aimed both at tackling crime and addressing the underlying causes of crime and violence, such as the victim empowerment programme, substance abuse programme, child protection and community development programmes.

http://www.info.gov.za/view/DownloadFileAction?id=156928

Examining Police Integrity: Categorizing Corruption Vignettes.

Jenks, D. L.  Johnson, M. and Matthews, T. 2012. Examining Police Integrity: Categorizing Corruption Vignettes.International Police Executive Symposium: Working Paper No 40

A growing body of literature on police officer integrity focuses on their perceptions of corruption vignettes. The current analysis examines those vignettes using a factor analysis of Klockars’ et. al. survey data of police officers in the United States. Results indicate that the historically used vignettes cluster into two factors, one that reflects more serious, and one that reflects less serious, corrupt behavior. The vignettes regarding an off-duty business and accepting free meals and other gratuities may not be perceived as corruption. Implications for research and practice are discussed.

http://www.ipes.info/WPS/WPS_No_40.pdf

You Strike a Gathering, You Strike a Rock: Current debates in the policing of public order in South Africa

Tait, S. and Marks, M. 2011. You Strike a  Gathering, You Strike a Rock: Current debates in the policing of public order in South Africa. South African Crime Quarterly 38. Pp 15-22.

This article aims to reopen the debate about public order policing in South Africa. Rising levels of violent localised protest and increased brutality in policing such events, as well as recent draft policy guidelines on restructuring public order policing by the Ministry of Police, necessitates informed debate. Protest events, in particular violent and localised protests, are likely to increase in the years to come; it is thus an appropriate time to engage in a serious reconsideration of the best approaches to policing these events. This article offers recommendations for a model of public order policing in South Africa that is more effective and respectful of human rights.

http://www.issafrica.org/uploads/CQ38Tait_Marks.pdf

Summoning the Superheroes

Travis, J. (2011) Summoning the Superheroes: Harnessing Science and Passion to Create A More Effective and Humane Response to Crime. Key Note Address. Washington D.C.:The National Press Club.

Judge Hughes, Marc Mauer, dear friends: I am honored to have been invited to deliver this keynote address as we celebrate the 25th Anniversary of the Sentencing Project. For the last quarter century, the Sentencing Project has been a beacon of light beaming through the dark clouds of our nation’s debates over crime policy. Under the inspired leadership of Marc Mauer, and Malcolm Young before him, the Sentencing Project has been able to achieve what few other organizations in the criminal justice policy world have achieved – to strike the right balance between hard-nosed, objective and trustworthy research, on the one hand, and principled, logical and strategic advocacy on the other.

We can only marvel at the outsized impact of this feisty, small-budget organization. Consider just three examples from a larger portfolio: in large part because of the Sentencing Project, our country has reduced the racial disparities in sentencing for offenses involving crack cocaine, begun to roll back our felon disenfranchisement statues, and reversed many of the mandatory minimum sentencing schemes that needlessly put thousands of people in prison. What an impressive track record. We should be grateful for the work of the Sentencing Project, and wish them many more years of success. In very real ways, the Sentencing Project is helping us reclaim our position as a nation devoted to justice.

http://www.nnscommunities.org/JT_SentencingProjectSpeech.pdf

The Fantastical World of South Africa’s Roadblocks

Marks, M. (2011) ‘The Fantastical World of South Africa’s Roadblocks: Dilemmas of a Ubiquitous Police Strategy’, Policing and Society 21(4): 408-419.

Roadblock operations are a very prominent feature of the policing landscape in South Africa. They are increasingly being employed as a tactic for crime reduction and as a mechanism for reassuring the public that police are ‘out there’, providing a visible service. The paper draws on limited observation of police roadblocks in Durban and on interviews with police operational leaders and lower ranking police officers who have been involved in roadblock operations. In this paper I try to answer the following questions: How do police conduct roadblock operations within a framework of community-oriented service delivery? Who do the police target/profile in conducting such stop and search operations? What do the police understand as the real deliverables of such operations? How do the public view and respond to roadblock operations?

http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/10439463.2011.617128

From Market for Force to Market for Peace

Gumedze, S. (ed.)(2011) ‘From Market for Force to Market for Peace: Private Military and Security Companies in Peacekeeping Operations’, ISS Monograph 183.

This monograph contributes to the debate on the use of private military and security companies (PMSCs). Its specific focus is on the proliferation of these private actors in peacekeeping operations on the African continent. PMSCs, as distinct from their mercenary predecessors, are a relatively new phenomenon, and the monograph seeks to open up discussion by offering the perspectives of five authors from varying disciplines.

While the trend towards the increased use of private operators is gaining momentum, it cannot be accepted without circumspection. As the title of this monograph suggests, one of the key questions is how these companies have within a short space of time made the transition from operators in the ‘market for force’ to operators in the ‘market for peace’. In light of their unprecedented expansion and of the negative publicity they have received in the past two decades, the question of the regulation of these companies looms large.

http://www.iss.co.za/pgcontent.php?UID=31221