Vulnerable people policing: inclusion or exclusion of target groups?

• Isabelle Bartkowiak-Théron
• Australian Institute of Criminology

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03 December 2009While community policing initiatives are widely documented throughout the world, many schemes targeting disadvantaged groups or vulnerable communities are studied in a fragmented manner or are focused solely on individual groupings (eg. youth, sexual minorities, refugees, etc). Some academics, however, are starting to establish a new visible pattern that brings this colourful patchwork into a cohesive whole: that of Vulnerable People Policing. Considering this is a rather new trend in academic literature, little has been done so far to examine the nature of this new type of policing and the actual processes at stake in the policing of vulnerable communities. This presentation is a first step in the determination of the actual involvement of vulnerable people in these new initiatives. It is argued that Vulnerable People Policing is a new emerging pattern in community policing. But are we entering into dialogue and actively engaging with these people regarding how best to police them, or are we imposing a new form of policing on these communities with little or no consultation?

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