Beyond 'police discretion': The need for a new conceptual vocabulary

Turner, Elizabeth Ruth ORCID: 0000-0003-2247-3696 and Rowe, Mike ORCID: 0000-0002-2978-5222 (2026) Beyond 'police discretion': The need for a new conceptual vocabulary THEORETICAL CRIMINOLOGY, 30 (1). pp. 68-87. ISSN 1362-4806, 1461-7439

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Abstract

What are we talking about when we talk about police discretion? The concept is ubiquitous yet ambiguous and amorphous. In analytical terms it is redundant, but its continued use remains (for some) convenient and politically expedient. References to police discretion, connote as much as they denote, and in so doing they reproduce politico-legal structures that legitimise, enable, and may even embolden, discriminatory policing practices. We conclude, therefore, that policing scholars ought to move beyond discretion, developing a new conceptual vocabulary for making sense of police power.

Item Type:	Article
Uncontrolled Keywords:	Police discretion, authority, legitimacy, police decision making, judgement
Divisions:	Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences Faculty of Humanities & Social Sciences > School of Management
Depositing User:	Symplectic Admin
Date Deposited:	14 Oct 2024 08:28
Last Modified:	22 May 2026 19:35
DOI:	10.1177/13624806241297311
Related Websites:	Author Publisher
URI:	https://livrepository.liverpool.ac.uk/id/eprint/3185063
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