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Explaining police support for the use of force and vigilante violence in Ghana

2011; Taylor & Francis; Volume: 21; Issue: 2 Linguagem: Inglês

10.1080/10439463.2010.540663

1477-2728

Justice Tankebe,

Crime Patterns and Interventions

Abstract Vigilante self-help and police use of force are widespread features of social control across sub-Saharan Africa. Attempts to understand these issues have often been studied from the perspective of citizens. This article approaches the issues from the standpoint of police officers; it reports a systematic quantitative analysis of the prevalence and determinants of officers' expressions of support for use of force and vigilante violence in Ghana. The analysis finds a strong disapproval of vigilante violence but an ambiguous attitude to the use of force. Organisational commitment and various dimensions of corruption are found to account for these attitudes. Additionally, support for police use of force is found to increase the likelihood of support for vigilante violence. Keywords: forcevigilantismcorruptionlegitimacydemocracyGhana police Acknowledgements The author is Affiliated Lecturer and Fellow of Fitzwilliam College at Cambridge University. He wishes to thank the British Academy for generous financial assistance which made the preparation of this article possible (award number PDF/2008/625). Further assistance came from Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge. He is grateful to Bankole Cole and Philip Stenning for comments on an earlier draft of this article. A version of the paper was presented at an international workshop on 'Colonial and Postcolonial Policing' at the Institute of Commonwealth Studies, London, in April 2010. Notes 1. The precise meaning of democracy is often contested by scholars. There is a traditional and more formal understanding of democracy which emphasizes regular elections or balloting 'usually in a multiparty political system, and thus governmental succession by constitutional, electoral procedures, and guaranteeing the rule of law' (Qadir et al. 1993, p. 416). Thus Huntington (Citation1993, p. 9) argues that '[e]lections, open, free, and fair, are the essence of democracy, the inescapable sine qua non' (see also Fukuyama Citation1992, p. 43). But other scholars have stressed the limitations of such a narrow appreciation of democracy, and have argued for a broader view of democracy in terms of 'political participation, dialogue and public interaction', and human rights (Sen Citation2009, p. 326; see also Qadir et al. 1993, Tilly 2007). However, it seems clear that these are fruitless debates, and both delineations of democracy need to be considered. 2. According Caldeira (1999, p. 114), these are '[…] privatised, enclosed, and monitored spaces for residence, consumption, leisure, and work', designed to protect their occupants from crime and thereby reduce their risk of victimisation. Entrances to the vicinities of most "gated communities" in Ghana are protected not only by private security personnel but also by sophisticated surveillance technology. For Bauman (Citation1995, p. 270), a surveillance culture of bolts, locks and alarms serves a symbolic value: 'inwardly, they mark the boundary of the hermitage where we won't be disturbed, while outwardly they communicate our decision: "For all I care, outside could be a wasteland" '.