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Periodical article Periodical article Leiden University catalogue Leiden University catalogue WorldCat catalogue WorldCat
Title:Living with Non-State Policing in South Africa: The Issues and Dilemmas
Author:Baker, BruceISNI
Year:2002
Periodical:Journal of Modern African Studies
Volume:40
Issue:1
Period:March
Pages:29-53
Language:English
Geographic term:South Africa
Subjects:organized crime
Politics and Government
Law, Human Rights and Violence
External link:https://www.jstor.org/stable/3876080
Abstract:The ubiquity of contemporary non-State policing raises important normative and policy issues about what attitude democracies should take to it. This paper addresses these issues with respect to democratic South Africa. In particular, it outlines the extent and nature of non-State policing and the political attitudes to it, before considering their implications for State policing and communal life in South Africa. Three categories of non-State policing are distinguished: autonomous citizen responses or vigilantes; 'responsible' citizen responses, which are done with the approval or cooperation of the public police; and the private security industry. The case study of Grahamstown illustrates these categories, as well as the normative and policy issues involved. The paper argues that the prevalence of non-State policing in South Africa permits the continuance of authoritarian values and practices; divides communities on the basis of their ability to secure alternative policing for a failing State provision; and nurtures the view that the rule of law is more of an obstacle to maintaining social order than an effective guarantee of it. Bibliogr., notes, ref., sum.
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