Overview

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 nationalindependence; evolution from political cooperationtowards 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.

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9780199259625

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Reviews

... 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

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

`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, University of Virginia `One feature which contributes to the originality of the book is the special attention paid to developments in Germany and the United States, comparisons between them and the growing interconnections between the two systems... Everyone interested in the field of international police cooperation should read this book.' Malcolm Anderson, Theoretical Criminology `Mathieu Deflem's book on the Historical Foundations of International Police Cooperation is a provocative contribution to the fundamental debate among the leading schools in sociology... The writing is very rich in important details and can also be read as a parallel history of German and US police institutions.' Andras Sajo, Law & Politics Book Review `This book is written for social scientists but it contains matters of interest to lawyers... The author demonstrates that police cooperation across borderswas not based on formal intergovernmental accords nor in implementation of international regulation of crime... [T]he author's thesis is a corrective to excessive idealism.' Hazel Fox, International and Comparative Law Quarterly `Deflem's critique is most useful in that it suggests a serious degree of detachment from legality in reality. His book highlights the concern that cooperative international law enforcement is an enterprise that has been historically, and remains, more concerned with efficiency than normativity.' Neil Boister, Journal of International Criminal Justice `This is certainly a valuable contribution to the subject of world policing... This book should find a place in any police library.' Rob R. Jerrard, The Police Journal

Author Information

Mathieu Deflem is Assistant Professor of Sociology at the University of South Carolina, and previously helds positions at Purdue University and Kenyon College. A former native of Belgium, he studied sociology and anthropology at universities in Belgium and England, before he migrated to the United States and obtained a Ph.D. in sociology from the University of Colorado. His research specialties include international criminal justice, crime and social control, abortion policy, sociolegal studies, and theoretical sociology. Deflem is elected Chair of the Law and Society division of the Society for the Study of Social Problems. He is also newsletter editor of the Sociology of Law section of the American Sociological Association, and website developer for the same organization's Comparative and Historical Sociology section.

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