We have now been a part of efforts to launch the Policing, Policy, and Philosophy Initiative (3PI), a brand new venture supported by the American Philosophical Association Small Grants Program and the Rock Ethics Institute at Penn State. 3PI connects students with philosophical pursuits in policing, builds neighborhood amongst them, and fosters analysis on this space. We want to share certainly one of its assets—3PI’s database of philosophical analysis on policing—and what we discovered whereas placing it collectively.
This database tracks by yr tutorial books and articles on policing printed by students in philosophy and intently associated fields. So far as we’re conscious, it’s the most complete useful resource accessible of philosophical work on policing and can permit customers to discover this physique of thought and the way it has advanced.
Our Methodology
Philosophy and policing are each contested phrases that evoke disagreement on what precisely they embody. So, we needed to make varied choices about what to incorporate within the database and exclude from it.
Our general method was to deal with work in philosophy on policing as its personal physique of thought distinct to a sure extent from—whereas after all overlapping with—work on different options of the felony justice system (for instance, prisons and jury trials). On the similar time, we wished to err on the facet of being inclusive quite than unique. Together with within the database a borderline case was, in our view, higher than leaving it out. In any case, it might be simpler for somebody to skip over an irrelevant entry than discover a related entry that had been overlooked of the database on their very own.
When it comes to its particular parameters, the database goes again to 1996. That’s the yr John Kleinig printed The Ethics of Policing, a seminal work within the discipline. The database covers journal articles and books printed in English however not encyclopedia articles or guide chapters (though edited books on policing are included).
We started compiling the database by going by the titles and abstracts of articles printed within the prime normal journals in philosophy and prime journals within the subfield of ethical and political philosophy. We did the identical for the main journals in philosophy of regulation and political concept (together with normal political science journals that publish political concept). We additionally searched publications with the “Policing” tag in PhilPapers. Lastly, we went by the CVs, Google Scholar pages, or each of students who’ve written extensively on policing (like John Kleinig, for instance). If we got here throughout a policing paper in a philosophy journal or intently associated discipline that we had not but searched by, we added it to the checklist of journals and reviewed all its articles going again to 1996. This course of finally yielded 73 totally different journals that span each continental and analytic philosophy in addition to fields with shut hyperlinks to philosophy.
Generally we got here throughout students with philosophical pursuits in policing who printed in journals outdoors of philosophy. If the article’s content material was philosophical in nature—as an example, if it engaged in normative or conceptual evaluation—then we included it within the database even when the journal didn’t find yourself within the 73 that we searched. This article within the Du Bois Assessment by Jennifer Web page and Desmond King is an instance of a publication becoming that description and thus, was included within the database.
For books, we searched PhilPapers, Google Scholar, and our house establishment’s library catalog. We additionally included books among the many publications of students recognized as having written extensively on policing and philosophy. We restricted the checklist of books to these printed with tutorial presses, which signifies that we excluded non-academic books on police ethics geared towards practitioners.
Some subjects salient in debates over policing, similar to racial profiling, are additionally points that come up in different areas of felony justice and society. For publications discussing such subjects, we included within the database those who comprise vital dialogue of the police however not those who fail to say the police or solely point out them in passing.
Regardless of our greatest efforts, there are probably works that we missed however must be within the database given the parameters outlined right here. We encourage database customers to ship any errors or omissions they arrive throughout to contact3PI@psu.edu.
Key Findings
We recognized over 200 articles from 1996 to the current for inclusion within the database. Throughout the previous decade, there was a rise in articles on policing printed in philosophy journals, with notable spikes after the protests sparked by the 2014 police killing of Michael Brown in Ferguson and the 2020 homicide of George Floyd in Minneapolis. The very best variety of articles printed in a yr was 24 in 2022, adopted by 20 in 2014. The graph under illustrates these tendencies.
We additionally took a better have a look at which philosophy and ethics journals publish probably the most articles on policing. By far, with 45 articles, Legal Justice Ethics has printed probably the most—over 2.5 occasions greater than the closest journal—and been probably the most constant in that includes work on policing all through the time interval studied. The following 4 journals by way of publication quantity are Principle and Occasion (17), the Journal of Enterprise Ethics (12), Legal Regulation and Philosophy (10), and the Journal of Ethics (8). Three of those journals did a particular difficulty or symposium on policing. The Journal of Ethics had a special issue on racial profiling in 2011. Principle and Occasion had a special issue on the police killing of Michael Brown and Ferguson protests in 2014. An upcoming difficulty of Legal Regulation and Philosophy features a symposium on policing and political philosophy.
There was inconsistent protection of policing amongst elite journals in philosophy. If we have a look at the highest journals in ethical and political philosophy, some like Ethics and the Journal of Ethical Philosophy haven’t printed any articles on policing throughout the time vary lined by the database. The Journal of Political Philosophy has printed extra articles (6) of which half come from its 2017 symposium on Black Lives Matter. Philosophy and Public Affairs has printed near the identical variety of articles (5).
It’s even rarer for the highest normal journals in philosophy to characteristic work on policing. We discovered no articles in Philosophical Assessment or Thoughts going again to 1996 and just one every in Nous and Philosophy and Phenomenological Analysis. The truth that articles on policing seem much less regularly generally journals than in subfield journals isn’t a surprise. Nonetheless, the dearth of analysis on policing in philosophy’s prime journals is notable.
Turning to books, there have been over 30 printed since 1996, which places the typical at simply over one per yr. As many as seven books had been printed in a single yr, which occurred not too long ago in 2021.
Going Ahead
The database is an ongoing venture. 3PI will proceed to replace it as new articles and books are printed within the coming years. Compiling a database entails specializing in the previous, however the final objective of this device is to tell and help future analysis.
Past its database, 3PI promotes analysis by connecting students with philosophical pursuits in policing and offering venues to share their work. We encourage philosophers with such pursuits to consider joining 3PI—membership is free. 3PI is also accepting submissions for its inaugural symposium, which can be digital and happen on March 1, 2024. The deadline to use as a discussant or submit a paper is November 30, 2023. Papers accepted for the symposium can be thought-about for the 3PI Paper Prize, which comes with a $1,000 award.
By way of these and different actions, 3PI appears to be like to foster, develop, and deepen the physique of thought in philosophy on policing with a concentrate on its insights for coverage. Under no circumstances does philosophy have all of the solutions to debates at the moment over policing, but it surely has a job to play in them.
Daniel Calzadillas-Rodriguez
Daniel Calzadillas-Rodriguez is a PhD pupil in Philosophy at Penn State. His areas of curiosity are in political philosophy, social epistemology, and the historical past of Latin American philosophy. Particularly, his analysis considerations the bounds of liberalism in relation to noncitizens.
