Young People and the Policing of Community Space
| Published date | 01 December 1993 |
| DOI | 10.1177/000486589302600303 |
| Author | Rob White |
| Date | 01 December 1993 |
AUST
&NZ
JOURNAL
OF
CRIMINOLOGY
(December
1993) 26 (207-218) 207
YOUNG
PEOPLE
AND THE POLICING OF COMMUNITY SPACE
Rob
White·
This paperexplores the issue
of
the policing
of
youngpeople in urban public spaces. Building upon
previous work which examines how general community space in the urban environment is socially
constructed, thepaper discusses how aspects
of
police culture are linked to specific types
of
policing.
It is argued that police practices are directed to protecting private property, maintaining personal
security
and
at regulating the moral character
of
street life. In the context
of
asignificant shift in the
position
of
young people as consumers, it is suggested that the economic
and
socialmarginalisation
of
different groups
of
young people has fuelled an increasingly negative relationship between the
police
and
youngpeople. The contest over community space, and official state concerns revolving
around "crime"
and
"propriety", guarantee that social conflict will be heightened rather than
reduced by current forms
of
police intervention in the lives
of
youngpeople.
The
aim of this
paper
is to explore
the
issue
of
the
policing of
young
people
in
urban
public spaces. In particular,
the
paper
considers
the
policy
and
cultural
grounding
for
certain
types of police practices -specifically as
these
relate
to
particular
target
groups, sites of
intervention
and
frequency
of
contact. It will be
argued
that,
within
the
context of
contemporary
state
policies
on
law
and
order,
elements
of
"police
culture"
have a particularly negative
bearing
on
the
lived experiences
of
marginalised
youth
in
Australian
society.
The
paper
builds
upon
previous
work
which examines
the
ways in which
general
community
space
in
the
urban
environment
is socially
constructed
(see
Cunneen,
1988; White, 1990; Carrington, 1989). In a
companion
piece
to this
paper,
the
material basis
for
the
conflict
between
young
people
and
the
police was examined
from
the
point
of
view
of
the
definition
and
regulation
of
public
space
as
"commercial
space"
(White, 1992). It was
argued
in
that
paper
that
"unconventional"
uses
of
urban
streets, malls
and
shopping
centres
-
that
is, uses
not
oriented
toward
producing
goods
or
services, consumption,
or
transportation
-
lead to a
particular
kind
of
surveillance
and
state
intervention
in
these
public spaces.
The
nett
result
of
this process is a
concentrated
effort to
monitor,
restrict or exclude
non-consuming young
people
from
the
"commercial
spaces"
of
central
business
districts.
The
focus of this
paper
is on
the
precise
nature
of
the
clashes which
can
arise in
the
pursuit of so
called
"community
safety" in
the
commercial
areas
of
a city.
Attention
in this instance will be
directed
at such things as
the
physical,
attitudinal
and
behavioural characteristics of young people,
and
the
disapproval
and
negative
responses of
members
of
the
police force to various
youth
activities. In
order
to
set
the perspectives of
the
police
into
proper
context, however, it is first necessary to
explore selected aspects of city life
and
the political
environment
within which
policing occurs.
Defining
the
Urban
Environment
Given
current
economic
conditions it is not
too
surprising to find
that
"law
and
order"
is
one
of
the
major
political issues of
the
day. Institutionally, this has
been
reflected in specific
measures
designed to
make
communities safe in
the
areas
of
private property, business premises
and
personal
well-being.
These
measures
have
*Lecturer,
Department
of Criminology, University of Melbourne.
To continue reading
Request your trial