I Book Review: Policing Post-Communist Societies. Police-Public Violence, Democratic Policing and Human Rights
| Published date | 01 March 2004 |
| Date | 01 March 2004 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/016934410402200110 |
| Subject Matter | Part C: DocumentationI Book Review |
I BOOK REVIEWS
Niels Uildriks and Piet van Reenen,
Policing Post-Communist Societies.
Police-Public Violence, Democratic Policing and Human Rights,
Inter-
sentia, Antwerp, 2003, xiv + 249 p., ISBN 90-5095-299-2*
‘Policing post-communist societies’ analyses the present state of policing in
different post-communist societies. The data presented in this book are
collected by the authors in two studies, one in the city of Perm, in Russia,
and the other in the Baltic State Lithuania. Some 450 police officers, both
traffic police and officers in patrol service, participated in the studies. They
first participated in group interviews (39 altogether) after which they were
asked to fill in questionnaires. Where appropriate the data are comple-
mented by data from Bulgaria, Poland and Romania, collected in studies by
the Organization Mondiale Contre la Torture (OMCT).
The book starts with a short but very interesting and adequate historical
overview where the role of the police in the Soviet era is described, and from
there how ‘transition’ affects policing and in what directions police
development can take place. The authors define four: crisis policing,
authoritarian policing, democratic policing and human-rights oriented
policing. These four options for how to conduct policing form one of the
backbones of the book.
After this general introduction the book addresses the issue of reform
and policing in post-communist societies in general, with a focus on Perm
and Lithuania. Criminal justice reforms in both countries are elaborated
upon, as are the present obstacles. The main obstacles are twofold: lack of
public trust and police legitimacy on the one hand and organisational issues
on the other.
After these introductory chapters the book then presents the data
collected in two studies the authors have conducted themselves, and
compare these with data from Bulgaria, Romania and Poland. The first
chapter deals with police-public violence. Police use of force and firearms
and justifications for this by police officers are discussed, including the
legality of these justifications, followed by a paragraph about violence and
aggression against the police by the public. The next chapter deals with
controlling the police and the state of affairs with regard to accountability
mechanisms in the respective countries.
The final chapter of the book, with the optimistic title ‘policing towards
stability’, addresses all the mentioned topics in an integral way and gives
PART C: DOCUMENTATION
Netherlands Quarterly of Human Rights, Vol. 22/1, 145-160, 2004.
#Netherlands Institute of Human Rights (SIM), Printed in the Netherlands. 145
* Anneke Osse is Senior Advisor at the Netherlands Police Academy, Apeldoorn, the
Netherlands.
To continue reading
Request your trial