ATS1423 Chap.7 Multi-Choice Policing Beyond the State
Multi-Choice Policing Beyond the State
Multi-Choice Policing Beyond the State begins the unit's look at alternatives. Starting from calls to defund the police, the week asks what replaces state policing where the state cannot or will not provide security.
The lecture on Africa introduces security as predictability, the myth of a state monopoly on policing, the roles of authorisers and providers, and institutional shopping, with Sierra Leone as a case of official, state-approved and unauthorised policing.
Northern Ireland shows communities policing themselves through paramilitaries and then restorative projects, and the required reading on Aboriginal night patrols shows a consent-based alternative in Australia. The week's guest lecture recap adds an Australian frame: settler colonialism is an ongoing structure rather than a past event, and over-policing helps drive the very high imprisonment of First Nations people.
What this chapter covers
- 01
Policing defined as establishing security
- 02
The myth of the state monopoly on policing
- 03
Authorisers and providers of security
- 04
Institutional shopping and multi-choice policing
- 05
Official, state-approved and unauthorised policing in Sierra Leone
- 06
Informal policing and restorative projects in Northern Ireland
- 07
Aboriginal night patrols and collective efficacy
- 08
Settler colonialism and over-policing
Worked example · free
Map a community's security providers
- 1State police are official policing: authorised and funded by the state, with court sentencing as the ultimate sanction.
- 1The security firm is state-approved: the business is the authoriser, trained guards are the providers, and exclusion is the usual sanction.
- 1The night patrol is state-approved and community-based: it works through persuasion and consent and has no formal powers.
- 1The residents who confront suspects are unauthorised: closer to vigilantism, with no accountability for the force they use.
- 1Conclude that residents engage in institutional shopping, choosing the provider that seems available, affordable and effective.
Key terms
- Security
- In the Week 7 lecture, a state of predictability on which social life depends, meaning freedom from danger and from doubt or fear.
- Authorisers
- The bodies that request or sanction security provision, such as governments, elders, religious groups, businesses or heads of families.
- Institutional shopping
- Choosing whichever policing or justice institution seems best suited, available and affordable for a particular problem.
- Night patrols
- Community-based Aboriginal services, begun by Indigenous women in the 1990s, that move people at risk to safety through persuasion rather than force.
- Self-policing
- Policing that a community authorises and provides for itself, according to its own values, when the state offers no help.
- Mob violence
- Spontaneous punishment of a suspected wrongdoer led by the aggrieved person, which the lecture says is not strictly policing because it creates no predictable order.
Multi-Choice Policing Beyond the State FAQ
Why does the lecture call state control of policing a myth?
The lecture argues that no state has ever been the only provider of security. Families, businesses, religious groups, militias and volunteers all police, and where the state is weak people choose among them.
What is the difference between an authoriser and a provider?
An authoriser requests or sanctions security, such as a business or a council of elders. A provider delivers it, such as paid guards or volunteers. One business can authorise a provider it does not employ directly.
How are Aboriginal night patrols different from police?
Scott and colleagues describe patrols that have no formal powers, are run by Aboriginal organisations and staffed by local people, and work through persuasion and mediation, operating by consent rather than coercion.
Why does Northern Ireland appear in a unit on Australian criminal justice?
It shows a community policing itself when state police were distrusted, first through paramilitary punishment violence and later through restorative projects started by former prisoners, raising the question of who owns justice.
Why do people in some African states choose non-state policing?
The lecture explains that some governments cannot or will not keep people safe, and that state police are often seen as indifferent, inefficient or corrupt; it cites a 2024 figure that nearly 75 per cent of dealings with police in Kenya ended in a bribe.
Assessment move
Build your own three-column chart of official, state-approved and unauthorised policing in Melbourne, recording for each group its funding, its authoriser, its providers and the most severe sanction it can impose.
Learn the night patrols reading well if you plan to answer essay prompt 1, because it gives concrete evidence that crime prevention can be shared with communities, along with the risks of co-option the authors identify.
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