Progressing towards conservatism : a gramscian challenge to the conceptualisation of class, agency, corruption and reform in 'progressive' analyses of policing

  • Michael H. Kennedy

Western Sydney University thesis: Doctoral thesis

Abstract

This thesis about rank and file police takes place from within a class framework with its foundations in the works of Marx, Engels and Gramsci who theorised that revolution is the result of the contradictions in class society reaching breaking point. This thesis contends that 'progressive' intellectuals, journalists and politicians act, as Gramsci theorised, as the 'subalterns' of the state by creating a 'moral panic' about police corruption. They ignore the wider spread of corruption within a criminal justice system that is shaped and reinforced by a highly politicised criminal justice establishment. The supporting data of the argument is provided in open ended, semi structured interviews with operational police. This is integrated with material from media sources, parliamentary inquiries, commissions of inquiry, legal transcripts and various published data from journals, newspaper articles, personal diaries, conference papers, Internet publications and policy documents.
Date of Award2004
Original languageEnglish

Keywords

  • criminal justice
  • police ethics
  • police
  • attitudes
  • police-community relations
  • police corruption

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