About the Proper Use of Policing "Models". What Sociology and History have to say on Jean-Paul Brodeur's "The Policing Web"

René Lévy (1)

1 GERN - Groupe Européen de Recherche sur les Normativités

In the context of Jean-Paul Brodeur's last book, The policing web, this article examines how he uses history to conceptualize the distinction between "high" and "low" policing, which fuelled his theoretical thinking since the mid-1980's. By comparing the typology of police institutions designed by JPB to the one proposed by the historian Clive Emsley, the author opposes two ways of 'doing' history: either we look at how a phenomenon emerges, considering the complexity of situations as they unfold over time, in connection with a new question, or we go in search of an origin for an outcome - the present situation - so as to shed light on the latter. In one instance emphasis is placed on rereading the past in the light of present concerns; in the other, the past is used to reevaluate the present.

Domaines: Sociologie

René Lévy. About the Proper Use of Policing "Models". What Sociology and History have to say on Jean-Paul Brodeur's "The Policing Web". Penal Field, 2012, IX, http://champpenal.revues.org/8276. ⟨hal-00744381⟩