Sociology of the police force

The sociology of the police force is the subject of studies since the middle of the 20th century.

History

The scientific study of the sociological reality of the police institutions is of relatively recent appearance: in the middle of the XXe century, with the the United States and the Canada, then in Great Britain and in the Anglo-Saxon countries; in continental Europe, as from the years 1970, in Germany and with the Netherlands in particular. The France started to be concerned by this movement at the same time, with the initiatives of lawyers like J.J Gleizal with Grenoble or B. ESA with Nice, criminologists like J. Susini, political economists as Jean-Louis Loubet del Bayle (which creates at the Institute of Political Studies of Toulouse, the Center of studies and research on the police force or CERP). In the years 1980, research programs are set up, in particular causing work of the sociologist of work Dominique Monjardet, as well as the development of historical research (G.Carrot, J.M Berlière, Mr. Bergès). Starting from 1988, the work of the researchers will be supported by the creation of the Institute of the High Studies of the Internal security, become since the National institute of the high safety studies (INHES).

Acquired knowledge

It thus created for itself a national and international corpus of multi-field knowledge concerning the history of the police institutions, their modes of organization and operation, their relationship with social environment and policy, recruitment, the formation, the careers, the behaviors of their agents. Also a body of concepts - " appeared; communautaire" organizes; , " police capacity of appréciation" , " culture policière" , " autonomy policière" , " professionalisation policiere" " control police" - which is as many sociological instruments making it possible to look further into organisational and functional reality police institutions. The development of this scientific approach is all the more important, intellectually and socially, that the role of the police institutions tends to develop in the modern societies, while causing a certain number of interrogations and incomprehension.

In France, this scientific production is developing, even if it remains limited if one compares it with the volume of the Anglo-Saxon productions. One finds of them the results in reviews like Déviance and Société, the Books of the Internal security, the International Review of Criminology and Police force, like in the works published in the collection " Studies and Recherches" INHES with the French Documentation or in the collection " Safety and Société" CERP with the Editions Harmattan.

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