This book challenges the traditional idea that policing is the first stage in a criminal justice process, in which the police use their powers of criminal investigation to feed cases into the legal process for authoritative legal resolution. The author argues that the political space allowed to the police on the streets and in the police station allows them to pursue a different agenda of social discipline, targeted at certain sections of the community. This alternative perspective provides new sociological insights into the use of police powers in modern society. The book examines the fairness of police processes by using empirical data to analyse the impact that such powers have on the lives of those who regularly become the objects of police attention.

This book challenges the traditional idea that policing is the first stage in a criminal justice process, in which the police use their powers of criminal investigation to feed cases into the legal process for authoritative legal resolution. The author argues that the political space allowed to the police on the streets and in the police station allows them to pursue a different agenda of social discipline, targeted at certain sections of the community. This alternative perspective provides new sociological insights into the use of police powers in modern society. The book examines the fairness of police processes by using empirical data to analyse the impact that such powers have on the lives of those who regularly become the objects of police attention.