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Young People, Police Officers and the Barriers to Enacting Procedural Justice

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Abstract

This chapter examines the way in which young, working class men may experience disadvantage at the hands of the police. Insights from participant observation of police patrols and interviews with young men in Scotland illustrate the policing strategies that often lead to the alienation of young people, including the use of stop and search that can sometimes be based on stereotypical social information. The insights are drawn upon and related to Foucault’s (Discipline and punish – the birth of the prison, Vintage Books, New York, 1977) analysis of surveillance, panopticism and disciplinary control. In so doing, the chapter considers the impact that contemporary policing culture and practice can have on contributing towards alienating forms of social control and the way in which this can undermine young people’s experiences of justice, equity and inclusion. It also explores the way in which some young men may react towards this structural oppression by drawing on particular techniques to confront, evade and spite police officers and the way in which the confrontations that emerge on the streets ultimately hinder crime prevention.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. School of Education, University of the West of Scotland, KA8 0SX, United Kingdom

    Ross Deuchar

  2. School of Education, University of Birmingham, Birmingham, United Kingdom

    Kalwant Bhopal

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  1. Ross Deuchar
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  2. Kalwant Bhopal
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Deuchar, R., Bhopal, K. (2017). Young People, Police Officers and the Barriers to Enacting Procedural Justice. In: Young People and Social Control. Palgrave Macmillan, Cham. https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52908-0_5

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  • DOI: https://doi.org/10.1007/978-3-319-52908-0_5

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  • Publisher Name: Palgrave Macmillan, Cham

  • Print ISBN: 978-3-319-52907-3

  • Online ISBN: 978-3-319-52908-0

  • eBook Packages: Law and CriminologyLaw and Criminology (R0)

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