Comparative Perspectives

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CHAPTER 13

• Comparative Perspectives

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Comparative Perspectives

• Iraq
• Policing the worlds most perilous place
• Has the distinction of being the most dangerous
  place to be a police officer

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Comparative Perspectives

• Since Saddams fall
• United States military has tried to build the
  Iraqi officers into an effective force
• Iraqi police has varied duties
• Deal with demonstrators
• Guard the countrys borders
• Control the widespread vice
• All done with little in the way of equipment or
  pay

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Comparative Perspectives

• Saudi Arabia
• Social behavior in a patriarchal land
• Largest country in the Middle East
• Government is patriarchal with attributes of
  democracy
• The king makes himself accessible to the subjects
• Monogamy is becoming the norm as a family
  structure
• Social life is very male oriented
• Women are not allowed to drive or work

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Comparative Perspectives

• Religious underpinnings
• Saudi Arabia is the center of the Islamic faith
• Islam means complete submission to the will of
  God
• Holy Koran
• Five Pillars of Faith
• The profession of faith
• Prayer
• Almsgiving
• Fasting
• Pilgrimage

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Comparative Perspectives

• Laws and prohibitions
• The interpretation of Islamic law is stricter in
  Saudi Arabia than in any other Islamic country
• If an American breaks the law in Saudi Arabia,
  there is little that anyone can do to help

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Comparative Perspectives

• Alcohol is forbidden in Saudi Arabia
• Three types of narcotics offenses
• Possession
• Includes small amounts of hashish or marijuana
• Trafficking
• Smuggling
• Many drug offenders are deported

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Comparative Perspectives

• Law of Islam is recognized as the fundamental
  code in Saudi Arabia
• Islamic criminal legislation is divided into
  three categories
• Hudud crimes
• Quesas and Diyya crimes
• Taazir crimes

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Comparative Perspectives

• Hudud crimes
• Harm the property or security interests of
  society
• Those against the divine or Gods rights
• Seven types of Hudud crimes are
• Theft
• Slander
• Adultery
• Highway robbery
• Consuming alcohol
• Transgression (revolting against a legitimate
  religious leader)
• Apostasy (renouncing Islam)

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Comparative Perspectives

• Public executions are commonplace
• Quesas and Diyya crimes involve compensation from
  the offender to the victim and normally involve
  acts of intentional or unintentional bodily
  injury or maiming
• Crimes against the individual

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Comparative Perspectives

• Taazir crimes
• Those left undetermined by religious law
• A broad category meant to include those crimes
  that are harmful to the public order

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Comparative Perspectives

• Guardians of religious purity
• Harsh penalties deter crime
• Mutawin
• Religious police
• Patrol in jeeps and walk the streets and malls
  looking for people who are improperly dressed
• Officially known as the Committee for the
  Promotion of Virtue and the Prevention of Vice

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Comparative Perspectives

• Police assist with chop-chops
• Public amputations
• Spectators are encouraged to watch
• Many people living in Saudi Arabia say they feel
  safer than living in the United States
• Many Americans report their biggest fear while
  living in Saudi Arabia is being caught by the
  police for improper dress

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Comparative Perspectives

• China
• Policing a vast land
• Unofficial estimates have the ratio of police to
  citizens at 1745 to 11,400
• The ratio is much lower than almost all western
  nations
• Chinese police have maintained one of the lowest
  crime rates in the world

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Comparative Perspectives

• Reform under Police Law 1995
• Organization
• Consist of five components
• Public security police
• State security police
• Prison police
• Judicial police in peoples courts
• Judicial police in peoples procuratorates

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Comparative Perspectives

• Public security police
• The largest and oldest police force
• Perform a wide range of ordinary police duties
• State security police
• Responsible solely for protecting state security
• Preventing foreign espionage, sabotage,
  conspiracies

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Comparative Perspectives

• Prison police
• Supervise convicted offenders
• Make general regulations with regard to prison
  management
• Make policies concerning supervision and
  rehabilitation of inmates
• Judicial police
• Provide physical security, serve subpoenas,
  conduct searches, execute court orders

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Comparative Perspectives

• Recruitment and training
• Police Law 1995 set out basic qualifications
• Must be over 18
• Support the Constitution
• Have good character
• Be in excellent physical condition
• Have at least a high school education

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Comparative Perspectives

• Powers and functions
• In addition to routine police duties, also engage
  in fire prevention controlling firearms
  maintaining borders supervising offenders on
  parole
• Accountability
• Police have a positive image in the eyes of the
  public
• Public Law 1995 established an internal police
  supervisory system

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Comparative Perspectives

• Northern Ireland
• Recent developments and violence in a long civil
  war
• Irish Republican Army (IRA)
• Royal Ulster Constabulary (RUC)

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Comparative Perspectives

• Political factions
• Inhabitants of Northern Ireland, mostly
  Protestants, of British ancestry oppose a united
  Ireland
• Most Catholics regard themselves as Irish and
  want a united Ireland

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Comparative Perspectives

• Policing the terrorist war
• Since 1922, Northern Ireland police must combat
  terrorism
• Current recruitment practice is for 50 percent of
  the police to be Catholic and 50 percent
  non-Catholic
• Supportive of the community policing philosophy

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Comparative Perspectives

• A new source of terror Paramilitary groups
• Paramilitary groups are very active in
  working-class communities
• Employ a range of punishment against individuals
  who violate some community norm
• Portrayed as community protectors

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Comparative Perspectives

• Mexico
• Police organization
• General Directorate of Police and Traffic
• Primary federal police
• Divided into four divisions
• Preventive
• Riot
• Auxiliary
• Traffic and investigation
• Organized along military lines

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Comparative Perspectives

• Criminal codes and the legal system
• Capital punishment was prohibited
• Writ of amparo
• Most distinctive feature of the Mexican legal
  system
• Similar to the writ of habeas corpus and to
  Section 1983

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Comparative Perspectives

• Public Ministry
• Charged with suppressing crime
• Initiating proceedings in criminal cases
• Accused has the right to counsel
• Detention cannot exceed three days without a
  formal order of commitment

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Comparative Perspectives

• Toward democratizing the police abroad
• Four norms
• Police must give top operational priority to
  servicing the needs of individual citizens and
  private groups
• Police must be accountable to the law rather than
  the government
• Police must protect human rights, especially
  those that are required for the sort of
  unfettered political activity that is the
  hallmark of democracy
• Police should be transparent in their activities

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Comparative Perspectives

• Interpol
• Tracking international criminals
• International Criminal Police Organization
• Interpol is the oldest, best-known, and probably
  only truly international crime-fighting
  organization
• Basically intelligence gatherers
• Headquartered in Lyon, France

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Comparative Perspectives

• Deals only with common criminals
• Does not become involved with political, racial,
  or religious matters
• Diffusion
• An electronic dissemination of information about
  a wanted person to agencies in a particular
  country or area
• Top of the list of crimes for Interpol
• Terrorism, drug and arms trafficking, and money
  laundering

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Comparative Perspectives

• A formula for success
• Basic three-step formula for improving
  multinational police cooperation
• Interpol requires member countries to pass laws
  specifying the offense is a crime
• To prosecute offenders and cooperate in other
  countries prosecutions
• To exchange information with Interpol about crime
  and its perpetrators