Governmentality, net widening and the potential unintended consequences of pre-arrest diversion efforts
In response to ongoing calls for policing reform, harm reduction policing (HRP) has emerged as a promising paradigm centered on the pre-arrest diversion of individuals charged with low-level offenses into supportive services rather than incarceration. Programs such as law enforcement-assisted divers...
| Authors: | ; |
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| Format: | Electronic Article |
| Language: | English |
| Published: |
2026
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| In: |
Punishment & society
Year: 2026, Volume: 28, Issue: 1, Pages: 26-50 |
| Online Access: |
Volltext (lizenzpflichtig) |
| Check availability: | HBZ Gateway |
| Keywords: |
| Summary: | In response to ongoing calls for policing reform, harm reduction policing (HRP) has emerged as a promising paradigm centered on the pre-arrest diversion of individuals charged with low-level offenses into supportive services rather than incarceration. Programs such as law enforcement-assisted diversion (LEAD) aim to reduce the harms associated with substance use, mental illness, and housing instability through diversion or deflection into case management and non-punitive intervention. While these programs hold considerable potential, they also raise important questions about how broader dynamics of governmentality—including risk management, surveillance, and responsibilization—can undermine core harm reduction principles. Drawing on over 5 years of ethnographic observation and qualitative interviews conducted across five LEAD sites in the Western region of the United States, this paper critically examines the implementation of pre-arrest diversion through the lens of governmentality. We demonstrate how the pressures of institutional accountability and bureaucratic oversight can contribute to net widening and the reproduction of punitive and governmental rationalities within ostensibly reformist programs. We conclude by offering concrete recommendations for how HRP initiatives can be more closely aligned with seminal harm reduction principles and avoid replicating the harms they seek to remedy. |
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| ISSN: | 1741-3095 |
| DOI: | 10.1177/14624745251367709 |
