Book Review of Community Policing: International Patterns and Comparative Perspectives

S. Samuel Asir Raj

Manonmaniam Sundaranar University, Tirunelveli, India

Abstract:

At a time when citizens and societies are increasingly coming under state surveillance and formal control, this book on community policing provides an opportunity for societies to understand and espouse informal and formal forms of social control. Through a series of case studies by anthropologists and criminologists this volume provides a comprehensive survey of Community Oriented Policing (COP) as practiced in many states across continents. It aims to elucidate this concept in relation to the work of the police and their relations with civic society. Many of writings of the Editors of this book, Dominique Wisler and Ihekwoaba D. Onwudiwe, have been focused on locating the 'Community' with regard to policing in an attempt to make this concept more people oriented. The editors have worked hard to compile an extraordinary book with distinguished authors on community policing. The scope of the book and the manner that the subject is presented makes it relevant in today's context of establishing social control.

Keyword:

Community Oriented Policing (COP) ,context of ethnicity, religion, and local communities ,South Africa