This is a different kind of police history. It tells the story from below - from the perspective of the rank and file copper trapped between the dictates of their superiors and a distrustful public. In this study, the author argues that the police were less concerned with crime than with keeping the streets clear of youths, traders, conmen, malingerers, or anyone else whose presence and demeanour challenged the moral mandate of policing. He also contends that recent calls for a return to community policing are based on a historical myth, as law enforcement in Britain has always been a case of "policing strangers by strangers". The book also examines the tedium of the beat, the pettiness of CID work, and the effects of policework on family life, while individuals recall their encounters with bookies, prostitutes, ethnic minorities, and industrial workers. The work should interest students and scholars of criminology, sociology, history and police studies, as well as general readers interested in crime and policing, social history and urban life.
- ISBN10 019825430X
- ISBN13 9780198254300
- Publish Date July 1991
- Publish Status Out of Print
- Out of Print 10 April 1997
- Publish Country GB
- Imprint Oxford University Press
- Format Hardcover
- Pages 191
- Language English