The Ethics of Policing: New Perspectives on Law Enforcement

by Ben Jones (Editor), Eduardo Mendieta (Editor)

Overview

Top scholars provide a critical analysis of the current ethical challenges facing police officers, police departments, and the criminal justice system

From George Floyd to Breonna Taylor, the brutal deaths of Black citizens at the hands of law enforcement have brought race and policing to the forefront of national debate in the United States. In The Ethics of Policing, Ben Jones and Eduardo Mendieta bring together an interdisciplinary group of scholars across the social sciences and humanities to reevaluate the role of the police and the ethical principles that guide their work.

With contributors such as Tracey Meares, Michael Walzer, and Franklin Zimring, this volume covers timely topics including race and policing, the use of aggressive tactics and deadly force, police abolitionism, and the use of new technologies like drones, body cameras, and predictive analytics, providing different perspectives on the past, present, and future of policing, with particular attention to discriminatory practices that have historically targeted Black and Brown communities.

This volume offers cutting-edge insight into the ethical challenges facing the police and the institutions that oversee them. As high-profile cases of police brutality spark protests around the country, The Ethics of Policing raises questions about the proper role of law enforcement in a democratic society.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781479803743
Publisher:	New York University Press
Publication date:	07/20/2021
Sold by:	Barnes & Noble
Format:	eBook
File size:	2 MB

About the Author

Ben Jones is Assistant Director of the Rock Ethics Institute at the Pennsylvania State University

Eduardo Mendieta is Professor of Philosophy at the Pennsylvania State University.

Ben Jones is the Assistant Director of the Rock Ethics Institute at the Pennsylvania State University and has a PhD in political science from Yale University, where he was a Beinecke Scholar. He does research in moral, political, and legal philosophy. His work has appeared in Ethical Theory and Moral Practice, the Journal of Applied Philosophy, the Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology, and other journals, as well as popular venues like the Washington Post. Previously, he was the Executive Director of the Connecticut Network to Abolish the Death Penalty and a Campaign Strategist at Equal Justice USA.

Eduardo Mendieta is a Professor of Philosophy at the Pennsylvania State University. He has a PhD in philosophy from the New School for Social Research and MA in systematic theology from Union Theological Seminary. His research interests include Frankfurt School Critical Theory, Latin American philosophy, Liberation Philosophy, and Latino/a Philosophy. He also has done work on and with Angela Y. Davis. He is author of Adventures of Transcendental Philosophy: Karl-Otto Apel’s Semiotics and Discourse Ethics and Global Fragments: Globalizations, Latinamericanisms, and Critical Theory, as well as the editor of numerous books, including The Cambridge Habermas Lexicon (with Amy Allen).

Table of Contents

Introduction: Police Ethics after Ferguson Ben Jones Eduardo Mendieta 1

Part I The Role of Police

1 Clashing Narratives of Policing? The Quest for Lawful versus Effective Policing and the Possibility of Abolition as a Solution Tracey L. Meares 25

2 Legitimate Policing and Professional Norms Jake Monaghan 39

3 Reward and "Real" Police Work Michael Sierra-Arévalo 66

Part II Use of Force

4 Soldiers and Police Michael Walzer 93

5 When Police Do Not Need to Kill Franklin Zimring 107

6 Prioritization of Life as a Guiding Principle for Police Use of Deadly Force David Klinger 120

Part III Race, Bias, and Resistance

7 Policing Narratives in the Black Counterpublic Vesla Weaver 149

8 Police Ethics through Presidential Politics and Abolitionist Struggle: Angela Y. Davis and Erica Garner Joy James 179

Part IV Policing's Past and Future

9 Police and Slave Patrols: A History of State-Sponsored White-on-Black Violence Sally Hadden 205

10 From Protection to Predation: Policing as the Pursuit of War by Other Means in the Third Reich Nicolas de Warren 222

11 Police, Drones, and the Politics of Perception Lisa Guenther 248

12 Predictive Policing and the Ethics of Preemption Daniel Susser 268

Acknowledgments 293

About the Editors 295

About the Contributors 297

Index 301

Editorial Reviews

"Rarely has a profession as powerful as the police seen widespread calls for its complete abolition. Community frustrations run high, accusations of racial bias abound, and yet most people recognize a legitimate and constructive role for police. The Ethics of Policing brings together a diverse and distinguished set of authors from several academic disciplines to pose pertinent ethical questions and offer possible answers to our current crisis in policing. Authors address such questions as when is the use of force ethically justified, when can that force legitimately be deadly, what professional norms need to change to achieve better outcomes, how can policing better relate to politics and racial biases, how to reform an institution that has its very roots in slave patrols, and how seriously to take calls for police 'abolition.' The result is a book that will have a wide audience and that deserves a serious read."

Frank R. Baumgartner

"Black Lives Matter has forcefully pointed out the systemic and widespread nature of racist police violence. Contributing to this struggle for structural reform, this volume consults philosophical, sociological, anthropological, historical, and legal perspectives to inquire about the specifically ethical implications of policing in liberal societies. Why do police officers act the way they do? How do norms and values structure police action on an everyday basis? And what can be done to change them? An indispensable tool for all engaging in the societal debate about the role and future of the police."

Daniel Loick

"Jones and Mendieta bring together an interdisciplinary group of scholars to reevaluate the role of the police and the ethical principles that guide their work in light of the increasing focus on police misconduct in the United States. Topics include the use of aggressive tactics and deadly force, police abolitionism, and the use of new technologies like drones, body cameras, and predictive analytics, providing different perspectives on the past, present, and future of policing, with particular attention to discriminatory practices that have historically targeted Black and Brown communities."

Law and Social Inquiry