Review: Policing, Surveillance and Social Control: Cctv and Police Monitoring of Suspects
| Published date | 01 November 2002 |
| Author | Ralph Withers |
| DOI | 10.1177/0032258X0207500408 |
| Date | 01 November 2002 |
| Subject Matter | Review |
(2) The apparent acceptance and discounting of ambient
sexism by some women officers;
(3) The finding, reported in 1990 arising from a research
study into stress, that a significant source of stress in
women police arose from an antagonistic attitude
towards women in the police.
McKenzie, on the other hand, takes a slightly different approach
and surveys the influences on him, his point of departure being
behaviourist psychology (chiefly in the form of B. F. Skinner)
through social psychology (Elliot Aaronson), to the enormously
influential work of Robert Reiner in The Politics
of
the Police. As
McKenzie puts it: 'Reiner's book
...
is considered by me and
many of my colleagues, to be the defining source of the content
of a police studies course' (p. 65). My examples do no justice to
the richness of these and other contributions but they do give a
glimpse of what lies in store for the reader.
This is a book for everyone engaged in criminal justice
research, and in saying this I include people studying at all
levels. For the first degree student the primary value it seems to
me will lie in being introduced to the key thinkers, by major
players in their own right.
It
should serve to whet appetites and
provide its own 'inspiration, influence and ideation'. For those
actually conducting research the book will provide insights into
how and why ideas influence people and that will naturally lead
to a consideration of the influences that have made us see the
world as we do.
I found the book an enriching and mind-broadening experi-
ence and was left with a feeling of some admiration for the way
the contributors were prepared to share a little of themselves in
being open about the influences on them. Surely something that
all researchers should aspire to?
POLICING, SURVEILLANCE AND SOCIAL CONTROL:
CCTV AND POLICE MONITORING OF SUSPECTS
Tim Newburn and Stephanie Hayman
Cullompton, Devon: Willan Publishing, 2002
ISBN 1-903240-50-6 (cased); 208pp
Reviewed by Ralph Withers
The title is somewhat misleading in so far as this book is very
specifically a report of an 18-month study centred on the CCTV
experiment in the custody suite of Kilburn Police Station,
northwest London. While it never purports to do anything else,
364 The Police Journal, Volume 75 (2002)
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