Police Discretion

Topic: The role that police have in the criminal justice system.

Summary: This week we covered the role police in the criminal justice system specifically focusing on police discretion and the impact on marginalized groups. I found throughout this topic it built on my understanding of roles that police have in society, and how police deal with offenders, in particular minor cases before the court process. The works of Chapel and Wilson also broadened my knowledge as they where the studies that concluded that policing is a “vital component of governing a contemporary society” (Palmer, 2012). Our guest lecture Michelle Mullen also gave me a deeper incite not only into her career as a police officer but an insight further into the weeks topics:

• Pellian Principles

• Discretion

• Police Gatekeeping

• Police

An example of this was discussed in our tutorial for this week, which was police discretion. The major issue with this element of policing was if the same discretion applied for all groups of society such as ingenious people, young people and other marginalized groups such as the LGBT community. However there have been efforts on the police’s behalf to work with marginalized communities to show social inclusion with its overall aim to prevent crime. An example of this is attempt of inclusion was Christine Nixon, the former commissioner of Victoria police, marching in the in the Gay and Lesbian Pride Parade in St Kilda. However in the weeks reading by Angular Dwyer, it was found that despite the current efforts to build a relationship with the LGBT communities, such as Nixon’s march, there are still forms of regulation that are more historical based policing; Such as defining the LGBT community as “deviant and subject to intense surveillance”, due to that this group attract the attention of police because their ‘visibly antisocial behavior’ (Dwyer,