Policing World Society

Historical Foundations of International Police Cooperation

Mathieu Deflem author

Format:Hardback

Publisher:Oxford University Press

Published:14th Nov '02

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Policing World Society cover

This book offers a sociological analysis of the history of international police cooperation in the period from the middle of the 19th century until the end of World War II. It is a detailed exploration of international cooperation strategies involving police institutions from the United States and Germany as well as other European countries. The study provides a rich empirical account of many dimensions in the history of international policing, including the role of police in the 19th-century movement towards national independence; evolution from political cooperation towards international criminal enforcement; international policing aspects of the outbreak of World War I and the Bolshevik Revolution; the early history of international police organizations, including Interpol; the international implications of the Nazification of the German police; and the rise on the international scene of the Federal Bureau of Investigation. To account for these historical transformations, this book develops an innovative theoretical model of bureaucratization based on the sociology of Max Weber and theories of globalization. It is argued that international police cooperation is enabled through a historical process of police agencies gradually claiming and gaining a position of relative independence from the governments of their respective states. Furthermore it shows that international police cooperation relies on expert systems of knowledge on international crime, which police institutions across nations develop and share. Paradoxically, in spite of this spirit of cooperation, national concerns of participating forces remain paramount.

... a notable contribution to the ongoing debate regarding the nature and origins of globalization ... very rich in important details and can also be read as a parallel history of German and US police institutions. * Law and Politics Book Review *
Mathieu Deflem's Policing World Society is a highly scholarly and groundbreaking book on a subject largely neglected by social science - the globalization of police work. The book is impressive along various dimensions, including its resourceful historical research and analysis, scientific rigor, theoretical sophistication, and rich and illuminating empirical detail. Without a doubt it will be the premier work on the subject for many years to come. * Donald Black, University Professor of the Social Sciences at the University of Virginia *

ISBN: 9780199259625

Dimensions: 224mm x 144mm x 23mm

Weight: 486g

318 pages