The information age has left few of us untouched; individuals
and institutions alike have undergone radical transformations in
the race to get the most out of new technologies. The police are no
exception. Policing the Risk Society introduces us to a shocking
new vision of police work in which information gathered by the
police with surveillance and data collection technologies is
brokered to other institutions.
Richard Ericson and Kevin Haggerty contend that the police have
become information brokers to institutions, such as insurance
companies and health and welfare organizations whose operations are
based on a knowledge of risk. These institutions influence the ways
in which police officers think and act. A critical review of
existing research reveals the need to study police interaction with
institutions as well as with individuals. These institutions are
part of an emerging 'risk society' where knowledge of risk is used
to control danger. The authors examine different aspects of police
involvement: the use of surveillance technologies and the
collection of data on securities, careers, and different social,
ethnic, age, and gender groups. They conclude by looking at how
police organizations have been forced to bureaucratize and to
continually adapt rules, formats, and technologies of communication
to meet external demands for knowledge of risk.
With this book, Ericson and Haggerty revolutionize the study of
policing and, for the first time, provide concrete evidence of the
central tenets of risk society theory. Their work will have a major
impact not only on scholars in criminology, social theory, and
communications, but on policing as well.
Awarded the 1998 Herbert Jacob Book Prize by its Committee of
the Law and Society Association, University of Massachusetts.
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