Beyond ‘police discretion
The need for a new conceptual vocabulary
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 7515609 |
|---|---|
| Authors | Edward Raymond Turner (0000-0003-2247-3696), Mike Rowe |
| Year | 2026 |
| Volume | 30 |
| Issue | 1 |
| Pages | 68-87 |
| Publication date | 2026-02-01 |
| Peer Reviewed | Yes |
| Open Access | Yes |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Theoretical Criminology (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 1362-4806 • E-ISSN: 1461-7439 |
| Publisher | SAGE Publications (PUBLISHER • US) |
| DOI | 10.1177/13624806241297311 |
| OpenAlex | W4404696558 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 3 |
| References cited | 52 |
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
Conceptual framework · Discretion · Linguistics · Political science · Power (physics · Social science · Sociology · Vocabulary · Crime Patterns and Interventions · Criminal Justice and Corrections Analysis · Policing Practices and Perceptions · Law
Varieties of Police Behavior
Policing the Risk Society
Taming the System
Provisional Authority
Reproducing Order
Police Discretion Not to Invoke the Criminal Process
The usual suspects?
Discretionary Justice
Recontextualizing street‐level bureaucracy in the developing world
Just Policing
Police interactions in post-colonial India
Police use of discretion in response to domestic violence
Rules in policing
Ontology, epistemology, and irony
Police discretion and the role of the ‘spotter’ within football crowd policing
Towards a socio-technical understanding of discretion
A Southern policing perspective and appreciative inquiry
The hole in the doughnut
Policing Covid-19 through procedural informality in Pakistan
Rendering Visible the Invisible
Towards a Sociological Theory of Discretion
A note on the status of discretion in police research
Enhancing Police Legitimacy
Disproportionate and Discriminatory
Well-kent Faces’
Police Discretion
On the Frontline of Global Inequalities
Culture as Figurative Action
The Police on Skid-Row
Policing, Race, and Racism
A Reasonable Balance of Law and Sentiment
Police Discretion and Boredom
Provisional agency in India
Beyond 'identity
| Unique citing works | 3 |
|---|---|
| Citations per year | 3 |
| Citation span | 2025 - 2026 (2) |
| Citation velocity | current |
| Highly cited | No |
| Citation types | Neutral: 3 |