Research Catalog

Cops, crime and capitalism : the law and order agenda in Canada / Todd Gordon.

Title
Cops, crime and capitalism : the law and order agenda in Canada / Todd Gordon.
Author
Gordon, Todd, 1973-
Publication
Halifax, N.S. : Fernwood Pub., c2006.

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TextRequest in advance HV7936.P8 G57 2006Off-site

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Details

Description
171 p.; 23 cm.
Summary
"Framed within a Marxist class analysis that highlights the way in which state power and capitalist social relations are racialized and gendered, Gordon's study locates law-and-order policing as a central moment of capitalist state power. He argues that, as with policing historically, crime-fighting is not the principal aim of contemporary law-and-order policing. Its aim is the production of a new social order based on the severely diminished expectations of working people. Crime fighting matters only insofar as it helps in this process. Law-and-order policing is not really a fight against rampant and escalating crime; rather it is aimed at forcefully limiting any possibilities the able-bodied poor may try to pursue to avoid the worst forms of wage labour." "Gordon says that to properly understand the law-and-order agenda, we must situate it within the broader context of the political and economic changes associated with neoliberalism. Law-and-order policing is not an isolated state policy endeavour or policing practice. It is a central feature of a state power that, far from retreating with the demise of the Keynsian welfare state, is actively facilitating the establishment of a new - neoliberal - capitalist order premised on the restructuring of social relations. Law-and-order policing is very much about the role of an aggressive state and its relationship to the class struggle lying at the heart of contemporary Canadian society. Book jacket."--Jacket.
Subject
  • Police-community relations > Canada
  • Poor > Canada
  • Discrimination in law enforcement > Canada
  • Social control > Canada
  • Capitalism > Canada
  • Neoliberalism > Canada
  • Police > Canada
  • Pauvres > Canada
  • Discrimination dans l'application des lois > Canada
  • Contrôle social > Canada
  • Capitalisme > Canada
  • Néo-libéralisme > Canada
Bibliography (note)
  • Includes bibliographical references (p. 153-164) and index.
Processing Action (note)
  • committed to retain
Contents
A critical look at panoptic theories of policing -- Producing capitalist order : police, class, race and gender -- Contemporary law-and-order policies : policing, class struggle and neoliberal restructuring -- Panhandling bylaws and the safe streets act : the return of vagrancy law -- Criminalization, race and neoliberal order : policing immigrant communities.
ISBN
1552661857 (pbk.)
LCCN
^^2006389673
OCLC
65423773
Owning Institutions
Harvard Library