Will Coyles

…it also highlights how the police use increased autonomy when it is afforded to them.

Thanks for sharing this. The use of section 60 powers are clearly highly sensitive to political context. Given the current zeitgeist, the extent to which these powers are disproportionately used on racially minoritised populations continues to be highly concerning. It also highlights how…

, the official discourse on institutional racism, or numerous ethnographic studies into policing culture support, support this.

I agree with much this. However, if a range of services and institutions are letting racially minoritised populations down, I’m unsure why the police are to some degree exculpated from contributing to this disadvantage in your analysis. I don’t think the history of policing…

The use of this provision is also linked to ‘hot spot’ policing, which uncritically reinforces geographically entrenched racial divisions.

I’m very sceptical of police generated figures, especially concerning stop and search. Also, although use of the provision fluctuates a lot, black people are around 18 times more likely to be stopped and searched under section 60 of the CJ&PO Act, that doesn’t require normal grounds for suspicion.

How do you think we should address disproportionality then? The implications of your position are quite radical in terms of what they suggest about the need for socio-economic reforms. In the context of such reforms, the function and practices of the police would surely change as well.

Some (left realists, for instance) suggest that even if crime has structural origins, the biggest victims of working class crime are vulnerable members of the working class. They argue that a democratically responsive police have a key role to play in protecting this population.

What is your view on this?

I take a structural racism perspective on this and see both (policy trajectories and institutional cultures) as deeply related.

…are consistently less likely to be diverted from the formal YJS. The extent of racial disproportionality in the use of youth custody in England and Wales is a national disgrace (and diversion at the shallow end plays a key role here).

However, institutional racism also clearly plays a role. The official discourse on this (Macpherson, Casey) even accepts this. In areas where police have greatest decisional autonomy, diversion of children and young people (CYP) for instance, black CYP with similar profiles to white CYP….

Over the last 40 years the neo-liberal state has sought to respond to a retraction of the welfare state through carceral expansionism (hence the growth of the CJS, esp at the deep end).This has a significant role to play in intersectional differences in contact with the criminal justice system….

My view is that we should deal with phenomena that have socio-economic causes through social and economic policy, not criminal justice responses (that would have a significant impact on reducing harm). The criminalisation of social policy over the last few decades has had disastrous consequences.

Sure, I think that the structural function of the police in late capitalist societies isn’t to address or ameliorate structural inequalities (quite often it plays a role in reinforcing these). It certainly isn’t best placed to do so. We shouldn’t be responding to these through punitive means.

A central problem, of course, is the centrality of the police in responding to and reinforcing structural inequalities.