Restoring Justice Through Community Policing

• Date: 01 September 2006
• Published date: 01 September 2006
• DOI: 10.1177/0887403405284736
• Author: Margaret E. Martin
• Subject Matter: Articles

Criminal Justice
Policy Review
10.1177/0887403405284736
Criminal Justice Policy Review
Martin / Restoring Justice Through Community Policing
Volume 17 Number 3
September 2006 314-329
Restoring Justice Through
© 2006 Sage Publications
10.1177/0887403405284736
Community Policing
http://cjp.sagepub.com
hosted at
http://online.sagepub.com
The Northern Ireland Case
Margaret E. Martin
Eastern Connecticut State University, Willimantic, CT
Principles of restorative justice guide new approaches to criminal justice policy and prac-
tice worldwide; however, scant attention is paid to policing within this paradigm. This
article describes the theoretical, practice, and value dimensions of restorative justice and
examines these in relation to community policing ideology and practice. It presents a pol-
icy analysis of the bold Northern Ireland police reform experience and explores the cen-
tral dilemmas and opportunities inherent in transforming police within communities in
conflict. In spite of substantial implementation challenges, community policing may
restore justice because of the demand for a sustained peace, dynamism generated when
police reform is part of larger social reform, and determination elicited from the poignant
recognition of prior injustice. Through police reform, there is potential for greater local
democratic control and accountability of the state social control mechanism.
Keywords: community policing; restorative justice; Northern Ireland
Principlesofrestorativejusticeguidenewapproachestocriminaljusticepolicyand
practice worldwide. Central to the ideals of restorative justice are prevention of
harm, human rights and dignity, empowerment of those disempowered, and peace-
making. Both the philosophy and practice of restorative justice within communities at
peace and communities in conflict have been advanced significantly during the past
decade. Much of the practice, however, has focused on postcrime events such as
offender-victim mediation, alternative sentencing, restitution, conferencing, and
offender reintegration. Little attention has been placed on the beginning stages of the
process, especially policing. This article examines, from theoretical and practical per-
spectives, the development of new policing policy as part of the peace process in
Northern Ireland. It frames the study within the context of restorative justice. It exam-
ines new structures (organizational, interorganizational, political, and community),
processes, and cultures that are being created to redress historical wrongs and propel
peace building. It examines policing in societies in transition within the context of
emerging criminal justice ideologies and practices as well as international structures,
opportunities, and threats.
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Martin / Restoring Justice Through Community Policing
315
Northern Ireland is engaged in a tumultuous and historic change. With the Good
Friday Agreement of 1998 (United Kingdom and the Republic of Ireland, 1998) the
foundation for peace building was established, but the processes of changing social
institutions and individual beliefs have been difficult. Although almost all elements of
social structures and processes must change in the process of peace, no one aspect of
this change has been more contentious and central to the development of a new civil
society than the reconstruction of policing. Constantly challenged and modified, the
newest construction of policing and policing policy represents one of the largest and
boldest experiments in community policing globally.
Fundamental Questions
Restorative justice ideas have emerged as newly acceptable in American and global
criminal justice practice. Although not yet considered mainstream, certainly some of
the principles of restorative justice are reshaping justice policies. Yet there has been
little attention to the role of policing in this shift. Although there has been some atten-
tion to problem mediation, arrest diversion, and antiarrest approaches, there remains
question about how or if policing practice could be restorative.
Perhaps to discuss whether policing can be congruent with restorative justice prin-
ciples, it must first be necessary to ask whether policing itself is essential to social
functioning or holds intrinsic value for society. Certainly in any articulation of
nonutopian society, we must argue that some form of social control is necessary for
community to function. In complex societies in which informal means of social con-
trol are no longer sufficient, policing may be necessary to ensure fundamental human
needs of safety and security. Morris argues that both public safety or security, and per-
sonal safety, require peace and order and are components of restorative justice (Mor-
ris, 1992). Policing is fundamental to these goals and to the protection of domestic and
international human rights. Policing is a public good (Loader & Walker, 2001), but as
the legitimate purveyor of state coercion, it must be held accountable to democratic
control.
Policing may be necessary for the effective functioning of other social institutions.
The battered women’s movement for instance, demonstrated that personal safety
within the family might require police intervention. The use of police to intervene in
institutions such as families, schools, and workplaces is however not without problem
(Berger, 2003; Martin, 1999). Abuses of police power are well documented and the
ability to protect the most vulnerable members of society is questioned as police are
cited for both their failures to protect and their continuation of oppression.
There is enough evidence, however, from societies in conflict and in transition
from war to peace to demonstrate that although complex and wrought with significant
challenge, there is a fundamental need for police to act as maintainers of peace and
order (Brewer, 1991; United Nations, 2003). The vulnerability and risk faced by per-
sons in societies in conflict demonstrate the centrality of policing to the maintenance
of order and safety of persons as well as the preservation of cultural identities through

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protection of cultural artifacts. In the process of peace building, states must often wrest
control of policing from paramilitaries or other forces. Marenin (1982) argues that
although there is no state during revolutions or in anarchy, the state is a practical neces-
sity during other periods, for there is a demand for order. Order may be general, assur-
ing the safety of the public, or specific, using the power of the state to advance
particular interests.
Policing, seen through the lens of critical criminology, has traditionally been
viewed as a state mechanism for repression, oppression, and entry into the punitive
apparatus of the justice system of the state. It is without doubt that policing has been
used as an instrument of repression and has been integral to the maintenance of the
state (Williams, 2003). But as Marenin (1982) states, “The police, a priori, are neither
repressive nor deserving of support as defenders of a universal consensus on the public
good” (p. 259). Historically, policing developed concurrently with private capital and
the centralization of political power (Bayley, 1994). These associations may not be
essential or inevitable. If societies develop transitional practices to produce a more
ideal set of social relations centered in civil society and human rights, they must begin
by crafting new social structures and processes that are consonant with ideals of
restorative justice. Therefore, I will examine whether there are elements of emerging
practice in community policing that may be consistent with restorative justice
principles.
Restorative justice poses complex questions about equality and justice. These
questions are highlighted in police policy and practice. Can community policing be a
transitional structure to promote a nonpunitive, restorative justice system? Can polic-
ing itself ever be restorative? Could policing be restorative in stable societies, in soci-
eties in conflict, or in both? This article will present a policy analysis of the Northern
Ireland police reform experience. It will examine the policy now in formation, with
some attention to the process of the policy development. Although it is too early to
examine the impact of the policy in relation to restorative justice principles, it will
examine contradictions and challenges in the policy framework.
Congruence of Community Policing
With Restorative Justice Principles
Community policing may be a fashionable policy buzz word or a complex and
changeable set of philosophies, values, and practices that are simultaneously old and
very new. Undoubtedly, however, community policing does represent a particular
approach to police practice that can be contrasted with militaristic and managerialist
policing and that has gained popularity and credibility globally, especially during the
past decade. Community policing is characterized as democratic, accountable, and
transparent. It fits with emerging notions of civil society (Munck, 2002) that view
social institutions as reflecting local needs and representing the multiple interests
within communities.

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Martin / Restoring Justice Through Community Policing
317
Community policing is now the dominant paradigm of policing in the United
States, with more than 85% of the U.S. population now served by some type of com-
munity policing force (Hickman & Reaves, 2001). It is rapidly becoming a preferred
policy of policing internationally....