RT Article
T1 The epistemic power of the police
JF Theoretical criminology
VO 28
IS 4
SP 495
OP 515
A1 Boutros, Magda
LA English
YR 2024
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/1909417912
AB This article uses movements against police brutality as a starting point to rethink our theorizations of police power, asking how the police maintain their dominance over oppressed groups, and what it takes to challenge it. I argue that an important, but undertheorized dimension of police power is epistemic power, the ability to control what is known and what remains unknown about policing practices. Epistemic power derives from (1) the police's control over the production and non-production of data about crime and policing; (2) the assumption that police officers are more credible than their targets; and (3) their privileged access to the media. Using France as a case study, I show how the police draw on epistemic power to produce ‘truth’ and manufacture ignorance about their practices, and I examine activist strategies to challenge and disrupt this power.
K1 politics of knowing
K1 race and class
K1 activist knowledge
K1 Knowledge Production
K1 police power
DO 10.1177/13624806241263916