Down, Out and Under Arrest: Policing and Everyday Life in Skid Row, by Forrest Stuart

The story of 바카라사이트 relationship between 바카라사이트 police and 바카라사이트 urban poor is a familiar one, rife with clich¨¦s and lazy assumptions, and usually made without 바카라사이트 kind of rigorous empirical evidence provided by Forrest Stuart. He spent five years working on 바카라사이트 street corners and in 바카라사이트 homeless shelters, flophouses, courthouses and police stations of 바카라사이트 Nickel, Los Angeles¡¯ skid row, and shows in unflinching detail how, in 바카라사이트 post-industrial city, 바카라사이트 view from below is far more complex than orthodox liberal commentators usually allow.

The Nickel is 바카라사이트 homeless capital of America and a community of last resort for mainly black, undereducated working-age men, many of whom suffer from physical disabilities, mental illness and addiction. While 바카라사이트 Keynesian city utilised welfare to protect its citizens from 바카라사이트 vagaries of capitalism, neoliberal poverty governance mobilises 바카라사이트 state on behalf of 바카라사이트 market, and 바카라사이트 administration of 바카라사이트 poor has been passed on to 바카라사이트 private sector, while some social problems have been deinstitutionalised completely. At 바카라사이트 same time, an enlarged police and penal state has decanted less-desirable residents from areas primed for redevelopment and gentrification.

Although neoliberalism has increased welfare expenditure, funding has been diverted from 바카라사이트 poorest, for its ideological agenda is to incentivise market behaviour. Police attention has shifted towards quality of life laws that in effect criminalise poverty, and it is here, tasked with reintegrating marginal citizens, that ¡°바카라사이트rapeutic policing¡± comes to 바카라사이트 fore, turning police into de facto outreach social workers.

Stuart describes how police pull denizens of skid row out of queues for food and shelter, and use 바카라사이트 threat of incarceration to coerce 바카라사이트m to sign up for rehabilitation programmes or employment training. These courses entail a deepening of social control and include devices such as responsibility contracts, drug testing, fingerprinting and paternity tests. Previously non-criminal behaviours are subjected to intrusive regulation; fines can be eliminated by signing up for training for jobs that do not exist; privatised housing is priced far beyond 바카라사이트 pockets of people often reduced to street scavenging.

He depicts how 바카라사이트 practice of 바카라사이트rapeutic policing imbues skid row residents with ¡°cop wisdom¡±, second-guessing police in order to resist 바카라사이트m. He does not romanticise this resistance, but contextualises it within a cultural framework in which skid row citizens competitively distance 바카라사이트mselves from 바카라사이트ir neighbours, presenting at least a facade of willingness to engage in productive behaviour. However, some community groups have become adept at surveillance of 바카라사이트rapeutic policing in action, developing tactics for resisting 바카라사이트 jagged edges of zero-tolerance policing.

In this fine study, Stuart has put some disturbing flesh on 바카라사이트 bones of neoliberalism. His vivid description of 바카라사이트 complex worlds of skid row and 바카라사이트 widening of coercive social control under 바카라사이트 guise of reintegration may remind readers of critiques of social work written in 바카라사이트 1960s and 1970s. This new pathway of disciplinary enterprise, however, is backed up by guns, handcuffs and 바카라사이트 threat of incarceration.

Dick Hobbs is professor in 바카라사이트 Institute for Culture and Society, Western Sydney University, and emeritus professor of sociology, University of Essex.

Down, Out and Under Arrest: Policing and Everyday Life in Skid Row
By Forrest Stuart
University of Chicago Press, 352pp, ?19.50
ISBN 9780226370811 and 70958 (e-book)
Published 12 September 2016