Introduction to Policing

This groundbreaking new text by Michael Rowe is the first genuinely introductory, comprehensive textbook on policing. Introduction to Policing has been carefully developed to incorporate all the key areas of a policing course, from the history of the police and the legal framework, to current debates around issues such as diversity, surveillance, and the impact of the media. The book highlights the way in which theory applies to practice at every step.

Key Features

• Offers accessible coverage of all essential topics
• Provides an insightful approach, which explores and unpicks contemporary issues in a truly ′readable′ and lucid manner
• Includes excellent learning features throughout, to challenge and stimulate students – including boxed examples, self-check questions and answers, further reading, and a full glossary
• Presents a student-friendly writing style that encourages students to engage with debates and to develop critical thinking skills

With its breadth and depth of coverage, extensive learning features, and engaging writing style, students of criminology and criminal justice will find Introduction to Policing an indispensable introduction to key themes in modern-day policing.

Professor Michael Rowe′s research interests have tended to focus on accountability and governance in policing, and the changing organisation and delivery of policing in relation to diversity, professionalisation, the application of Evidence Based Policing and the challenges of policing in a digital age. A recent project has explored the changing nature of visible policing in relation to the impact of police buildings, material culture and social media on public perceptions of legitimacy and authority, as well as on police officer and staff professional culture and identity. Other projects have examined innovative police responses to domestic violence, organisational and cultural change in the policing of adult sexual assault investigations and the ethical and governance challenges of using scientific research and AI technology in contemporary policing.  He is currently developing work exploring the policing of Anthropocentric climate change.

He has published widely on these and related matters in the British Journal of Criminology, Policing and Society, Public Management Review, the Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Criminology and Criminal Justice and many other journals. His books include Policing the Police (Policy Press, 2020) and Accountability in Policing: Contemporary Debates (Routledge, 2015, edited with Stuart Lister) and Introduction to Policing (Sage, 2018, third edition). He is editor of the International Journal of Police Science and Management.