Law and order (politics)
Encyclopedia
In politics, law and order refers to demands for a strict criminal justice
system, especially in relation to violent
and property crime
, through harsher criminal penalties
. These penalties may include longer terms of imprisonment, mandatory sentencing
, and in some countries, capital punishment
.
Supporters of "law and order" argue that effective deterrence
combined with incarceration
is the most effective means of crime prevention. Opponents of law and order argue that a system of harsh criminal punishment is ultimately ineffective because it does not address underlying or systemic causes of crime.
"Law and order" is a recurring theme in political campaign
s around the world. Candidates may exaggerate or even manufacture a problem with law and order, or characterise their opponents as "weak" on the issue, to generate public support. The expression also sometimes carries the implication of arbitrary or unnecessary law enforcement, or excessive use of police power
s.
(as governor of California) and Richard Nixon
(as presidential candidate in 1968). They used it to dissolve a liberal consensus about crime that involved federal court decisions and a pushback against illegal drugs and violent gang activity. White ethnics in northern cities turned against the Democratic party, blaming it for being soft on crime and rioters
First introduced by Barry Goldwater
in his ill-fated run for president in 1964, "Law and order" punished Lyndon Johnson and the Democrats and propelled Reagan to the governorship in 1966 and Nixon to the White House in 1968.
Liberals, Flamm (2005) argues, were unable to craft a compelling message for anxious voters. Instead, liberals either ignored the crime crisis, claimed that law and order was a racist ruse, or maintained that social programs would solve the "root causes" of civil disorder, which by 1968 seemed increasingly unlikely and contributed to a loss of faith in the ability of the government to do what it was above all sworn to do-protect personal security and private property. Conservatives rejected the liberal notions. "How long are we going to abdicate law and order" House GOP leader Gerald Ford
demanded in 1966, "in favor of a soft social theory that the man who heaves a brick through your window or tosses a firebomb into your car is simply the misunderstood and underprivileged product of a broken home?"
Flamm (2005) documents how conservatives constructed a persuasive message that argued that the Civil Rights Movement
had contributed to racial unrest and Johnson's Great Society
had rewarded rather than punished the perpetrators of violence. Conservatives demanded that the national government should promote respect for law and order and contempt for those who violated it, regardless of cause.
After Reagan took office in 1981 and started appointing tough conservative judges, the law became as weapon against crime. The number of prisoners tripled from 500,000 in 1980 to 1.5 million in 1994. Conservatives at the state level built many more prisons and convicts served much longer terms, with less parole. By the time they were released they were much older and thus much less violent.
, Newark
and New York
, were burned out. National Guard and Army troops were called out. At one point machine gun units were stationed on the steps of the Capitol building in Washington to prevent rioters from burning it down. Every summer from 1964 through 1970 was a "long hot summer." Whites and Hispanics did not riot.
In response to sharply rising rates of crime in the 1960s, treatment of criminal offenders, both accused and convicted, became a highly divisive topic in the 1968 U.S. Presidential Election. Republican Vice Presidential
candidate Spiro Agnew
, then the governor of Maryland
, often used the expression; Agnew and Nixon won and were reelected in 1972.
passed in New York state in 1973— and later, laws mandating tougher sentences for repeat offenders, such as the three strikes law
s adopted by many states starting in 1993 and the re-legalization of the death penalty in several U.S. states.
Opponents of these and similar laws have often accused advocates of racism
. Civil rights
groups have steadfastly opposed the trend toward harsher measures generally. The law-and-order issue caused a deep rift within the Democratic Party
in the late 1960s and 1970s, and this rift was seen by many political scientists as a major contributing factor in Ronald Reagan
's two successful Presidential runs in 1980 and 1984. In both elections, millions of registered Democrats voted for Reagan, and they collectively became known as "Reagan Democrat
s." Many of these voters eventually changed their party registration and became Republicans, especially in the South.
Though violent crimes are the primary focus of law-and-order advocates, quality-of-life crimes are sometimes also included under the law-and-order umbrella, particularly in local elections. A tough stance on this matter greatly helped Rudolph Giuliani win two terms as mayor of New York City
in the 1990s, and was also widely cited as propelling Gavin Newsom
to victory over a more liberal opponent in San Francisco
's mayoral election of 2003.
Richard Riordan
became Los Angeles
's new mayor also in 1993 for the first time in 20 years, after Tom Bradley
retired.
Platt (1995) argues that the intensity of law-and-order campaigns represents a significant shift in criminal justice that involves modernization and increased funding for police technology and personnel, privatization of security services and surveillance, higher rates of incarceration, and greater racial inequality in security and punishment.
n, South Africa
n, French
, and New Zealand
politics.
and misconduct
, racial profiling
, and prison overcrowding. As an example, they argue that while crime in New York City dropped under Mayor Giuliani, reports of police brutality increased during the same period. This period included the fatal shootings of Amadou Diallo
and Sean Bell, and the Abner Louima
incident.
In extreme cases, civil unrest has broken out in retaliation against law-and-order politics, as happened in London's Brixton district in 1981, Los Angeles in 1992, and France in 2005
.
In 2009, Pennsylvania juvenile court judges Mark Ciavarella
and Michael Conahan were pled guilty in the "kids for cash" scandal, of taking kickbacks from private prison
industry officials in exchange for sentencing over 1,000 youths to prison terms for minor offenses.
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio
, a role model of tougher sentencing campaigners for his hardline corrections policies, was investigated by the FBI — starting in 2009 — for alleged abuses of power and intimidation of dissenting officials, among other controversies. http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2009/05/22/20090522FBI.html http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/03/05/20100305fbi-expands-joe-arpaio-probe-to-county-attorney.html
A United States Supreme Court ruling in 2011 ordered the state of California to cut its inmate population, citing prison overcrowding to be in violation of the Eighth Amendment
. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/24/us/24scotus.html?_r=2&ref=us
Criminal justice
Criminal Justice is the system of practices and institutions of governments directed at upholding social control, deterring and mitigating crime, or sanctioning those who violate laws with criminal penalties and rehabilitation efforts...
system, especially in relation to violent
Violent crime
A violent crime or crime of violence is a crime in which the offender uses or threatens to use violent force upon the victim. This entails both crimes in which the violent act is the objective, such as murder, as well as crimes in which violence is the means to an end, such as robbery. Violent...
and property crime
Property crime
Property crime is a category of crime that includes, among other crimes, burglary, larceny, theft, motor vehicle theft, arson, shoplifting, and vandalism. Property crime only involves the taking of money or property, and does not involve force or threat of force against a victim...
, through harsher criminal penalties
Sentence (law)
In law, a sentence forms the final explicit act of a judge-ruled process, and also the symbolic principal act connected to his function. The sentence can generally involve a decree of imprisonment, a fine and/or other punishments against a defendant convicted of a crime...
. These penalties may include longer terms of imprisonment, mandatory sentencing
Mandatory sentencing
A mandatory sentence is a court decision setting where judicial discretion is limited by law. Typically, people convicted of certain crimes must be punished with at least a minimum number of years in prison...
, and in some countries, capital punishment
Capital punishment
Capital punishment, the death penalty, or execution is the sentence of death upon a person by the state as a punishment for an offence. Crimes that can result in a death penalty are known as capital crimes or capital offences. The term capital originates from the Latin capitalis, literally...
.
Supporters of "law and order" argue that effective deterrence
Deterrence (legal)
Deterrence is the use of punishment as a threat to deter people from committing a crime. Deterrence is often contrasted with retributivism, which holds that punishment is a necessary consequence of a crime and should be calculated based on the gravity of the wrong done.- Categories :Deterrence can...
combined with incarceration
Incarceration
Incarceration is the detention of a person in prison, typically as punishment for a crime .People are most commonly incarcerated upon suspicion or conviction of committing a crime, and different jurisdictions have differing laws governing the function of incarceration within a larger system of...
is the most effective means of crime prevention. Opponents of law and order argue that a system of harsh criminal punishment is ultimately ineffective because it does not address underlying or systemic causes of crime.
"Law and order" is a recurring theme in political campaign
Political campaign
A political campaign is an organized effort which seeks to influence the decision making process within a specific group. In democracies, political campaigns often refer to electoral campaigns, wherein representatives are chosen or referendums are decided...
s around the world. Candidates may exaggerate or even manufacture a problem with law and order, or characterise their opponents as "weak" on the issue, to generate public support. The expression also sometimes carries the implication of arbitrary or unnecessary law enforcement, or excessive use of police power
Police power
In United States constitutional law, police power is the capacity of the states to regulate behavior and enforce order within their territory for the betterment of the general welfare, morals, health, and safety of their inhabitants...
s.
Political issue in the United States
"Law and order" was a powerful conservative theme in the U.S. in the 1960s. The leading exponents in the late 1960s were Republicans Ronald ReaganRonald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
(as governor of California) and Richard Nixon
Richard Nixon
Richard Milhous Nixon was the 37th President of the United States, serving from 1969 to 1974. The only president to resign the office, Nixon had previously served as a US representative and senator from California and as the 36th Vice President of the United States from 1953 to 1961 under...
(as presidential candidate in 1968). They used it to dissolve a liberal consensus about crime that involved federal court decisions and a pushback against illegal drugs and violent gang activity. White ethnics in northern cities turned against the Democratic party, blaming it for being soft on crime and rioters
First introduced by Barry Goldwater
Barry Goldwater
Barry Morris Goldwater was a five-term United States Senator from Arizona and the Republican Party's nominee for President in the 1964 election. An articulate and charismatic figure during the first half of the 1960s, he was known as "Mr...
in his ill-fated run for president in 1964, "Law and order" punished Lyndon Johnson and the Democrats and propelled Reagan to the governorship in 1966 and Nixon to the White House in 1968.
Liberals, Flamm (2005) argues, were unable to craft a compelling message for anxious voters. Instead, liberals either ignored the crime crisis, claimed that law and order was a racist ruse, or maintained that social programs would solve the "root causes" of civil disorder, which by 1968 seemed increasingly unlikely and contributed to a loss of faith in the ability of the government to do what it was above all sworn to do-protect personal security and private property. Conservatives rejected the liberal notions. "How long are we going to abdicate law and order" House GOP leader Gerald Ford
Gerald Ford
Gerald Rudolph "Jerry" Ford, Jr. was the 38th President of the United States, serving from 1974 to 1977, and the 40th Vice President of the United States serving from 1973 to 1974...
demanded in 1966, "in favor of a soft social theory that the man who heaves a brick through your window or tosses a firebomb into your car is simply the misunderstood and underprivileged product of a broken home?"
Flamm (2005) documents how conservatives constructed a persuasive message that argued that the Civil Rights Movement
Civil rights movement
The civil rights movement was a worldwide political movement for equality before the law occurring between approximately 1950 and 1980. In many situations it took the form of campaigns of civil resistance aimed at achieving change by nonviolent forms of resistance. In some situations it was...
had contributed to racial unrest and Johnson's Great Society
Great Society
The Great Society was a set of domestic programs in the United States promoted by President Lyndon B. Johnson and fellow Democrats in Congress in the 1960s. Two main goals of the Great Society social reforms were the elimination of poverty and racial injustice...
had rewarded rather than punished the perpetrators of violence. Conservatives demanded that the national government should promote respect for law and order and contempt for those who violated it, regardless of cause.
After Reagan took office in 1981 and started appointing tough conservative judges, the law became as weapon against crime. The number of prisoners tripled from 500,000 in 1980 to 1.5 million in 1994. Conservatives at the state level built many more prisons and convicts served much longer terms, with less parole. By the time they were released they were much older and thus much less violent.
Ghetto Riots
Two developments were involved. After the first civil rights laws were passed, rebellions by angry blacks broke out in over 100 cities, with nights of violence against police and looting and burning of local white-owned businesses. The inner neighborhoods of many major cities, such as Detroit, Los AngelesLos Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
, Newark
Newark
-United Kingdom:* Newark-on-Trent, a market town in Nottinghamshire in the East Midlands region of England and the oldest Newark** Newark * Newark, Peterborough in Cambridgeshire...
and New York
New York
New York is a state in the Northeastern region of the United States. It is the nation's third most populous state. New York is bordered by New Jersey and Pennsylvania to the south, and by Connecticut, Massachusetts and Vermont to the east...
, were burned out. National Guard and Army troops were called out. At one point machine gun units were stationed on the steps of the Capitol building in Washington to prevent rioters from burning it down. Every summer from 1964 through 1970 was a "long hot summer." Whites and Hispanics did not riot.
Crime
Second there was a dramatic rise in violent street crime, including drug-related murders, as well as armed robberies, rapes and violent assaults. Inner city neighborhoods became far more violent and people tried to move out to safer ones. The number of violent crimes more than tripled from 288,000 in 1960 (including 9,110 murders) to 1,040,000 in 1975 (including 20,510 murders). Then the numbers levelled off.In response to sharply rising rates of crime in the 1960s, treatment of criminal offenders, both accused and convicted, became a highly divisive topic in the 1968 U.S. Presidential Election. Republican Vice Presidential
Vice President of the United States
The Vice President of the United States is the holder of a public office created by the United States Constitution. The Vice President, together with the President of the United States, is indirectly elected by the people, through the Electoral College, to a four-year term...
candidate Spiro Agnew
Spiro Agnew
Spiro Theodore Agnew was the 39th Vice President of the United States , serving under President Richard Nixon, and the 55th Governor of Maryland...
, then the governor of Maryland
Maryland
Maryland is a U.S. state located in the Mid Atlantic region of the United States, bordering Virginia, West Virginia, and the District of Columbia to its south and west; Pennsylvania to its north; and Delaware to its east...
, often used the expression; Agnew and Nixon won and were reelected in 1972.
Results
Advocates of stricter policies toward crime and those accused of crime have won many victories since the issue became important. Highlights include stringent laws dealing with the sale and use of illicit drugs. For example the Rockefeller drug lawsRockefeller drug laws
The Rockefeller Drug Laws is the term used to denote the statutes dealing with the sale and possession of "narcotic" drugs in the New York State Penal Law. The laws are named after Nelson Rockefeller, who was the state's governor at the time the laws were adopted...
passed in New York state in 1973— and later, laws mandating tougher sentences for repeat offenders, such as the three strikes law
Three strikes law
Three strikes laws)"are statutes enacted by state governments in the United States which require the state courts to hand down a mandatory and extended period of incarceration to persons who have been convicted of a serious criminal offense on three or more separate occasions. These statutes became...
s adopted by many states starting in 1993 and the re-legalization of the death penalty in several U.S. states.
Opponents of these and similar laws have often accused advocates of racism
Racism
Racism is the belief that inherent different traits in human racial groups justify discrimination. In the modern English language, the term "racism" is used predominantly as a pejorative epithet. It is applied especially to the practice or advocacy of racial discrimination of a pernicious nature...
. Civil rights
Civil rights
Civil and political rights are a class of rights that protect individuals' freedom from unwarranted infringement by governments and private organizations, and ensure one's ability to participate in the civil and political life of the state without discrimination or repression.Civil rights include...
groups have steadfastly opposed the trend toward harsher measures generally. The law-and-order issue caused a deep rift within the Democratic Party
Democratic Party (United States)
The Democratic Party is one of two major contemporary political parties in the United States, along with the Republican Party. The party's socially liberal and progressive platform is largely considered center-left in the U.S. political spectrum. The party has the lengthiest record of continuous...
in the late 1960s and 1970s, and this rift was seen by many political scientists as a major contributing factor in Ronald Reagan
Ronald Reagan
Ronald Wilson Reagan was the 40th President of the United States , the 33rd Governor of California and, prior to that, a radio, film and television actor....
's two successful Presidential runs in 1980 and 1984. In both elections, millions of registered Democrats voted for Reagan, and they collectively became known as "Reagan Democrat
Reagan Democrat
Reagan Democrat is an American political term used by analysts to denote traditionally Democratic voters, especially white working-class Northerners, who defected from their party to support Republican President Ronald Reagan in both the 1980 and 1984 elections. It is also used to refer to the...
s." Many of these voters eventually changed their party registration and became Republicans, especially in the South.
Though violent crimes are the primary focus of law-and-order advocates, quality-of-life crimes are sometimes also included under the law-and-order umbrella, particularly in local elections. A tough stance on this matter greatly helped Rudolph Giuliani win two terms as mayor of New York City
New York City
New York is the most populous city in the United States and the center of the New York Metropolitan Area, one of the most populous metropolitan areas in the world. New York exerts a significant impact upon global commerce, finance, media, art, fashion, research, technology, education, and...
in the 1990s, and was also widely cited as propelling Gavin Newsom
Gavin Newsom
Gavin Christopher Newsom is an American politician who is the 49th and current Lieutenant Governor of California. Previously, he was the 42nd Mayor of San Francisco, and was elected in 2003 to succeed Willie Brown, becoming San Francisco's youngest mayor in 100 years. Newsom was re-elected in 2007...
to victory over a more liberal opponent in San Francisco
San Francisco, California
San Francisco , officially the City and County of San Francisco, is the financial, cultural, and transportation center of the San Francisco Bay Area, a region of 7.15 million people which includes San Jose and Oakland...
's mayoral election of 2003.
Richard Riordan
Richard Riordan
Richard J. Riordan is a Republican politician from California, U.S.A. who served as the California Secretary for Education from 2003–2005 and as the 39th Mayor of Los Angeles, California from 1993–2001...
became Los Angeles
Los Ángeles
Los Ángeles is the capital of the province of Biobío, in the commune of the same name, in Region VIII , in the center-south of Chile. It is located between the Laja and Biobío rivers. The population is 123,445 inhabitants...
's new mayor also in 1993 for the first time in 20 years, after Tom Bradley
Tom Bradley (politician)
Thomas J. "Tom" Bradley was the 38th Mayor of Los Angeles, California, serving in that office from 1973 to 1993. He was the first and to date only African American mayor of Los Angeles...
retired.
Platt (1995) argues that the intensity of law-and-order campaigns represents a significant shift in criminal justice that involves modernization and increased funding for police technology and personnel, privatization of security services and surveillance, higher rates of incarceration, and greater racial inequality in security and punishment.
International issue
Recently, crime has also become a prominent issue in Canadian, AustraliaAustralia
Australia , officially the Commonwealth of Australia, is a country in the Southern Hemisphere comprising the mainland of the Australian continent, the island of Tasmania, and numerous smaller islands in the Indian and Pacific Oceans. It is the world's sixth-largest country by total area...
n, South Africa
South Africa
The Republic of South Africa is a country in southern Africa. Located at the southern tip of Africa, it is divided into nine provinces, with of coastline on the Atlantic and Indian oceans...
n, French
France
The French Republic , The French Republic , The French Republic , (commonly known as France , is a unitary semi-presidential republic in Western Europe with several overseas territories and islands located on other continents and in the Indian, Pacific, and Atlantic oceans. Metropolitan France...
, and New Zealand
New Zealand
New Zealand is an island country in the south-western Pacific Ocean comprising two main landmasses and numerous smaller islands. The country is situated some east of Australia across the Tasman Sea, and roughly south of the Pacific island nations of New Caledonia, Fiji, and Tonga...
politics.
Criticism
Critics of law-and-order politics commonly point to actual and potential abuses of judicial and police powers, including police brutalityPolice brutality
Police brutality is the intentional use of excessive force, usually physical, but potentially also in the form of verbal attacks and psychological intimidation, by a police officer....
and misconduct
Police misconduct
Police misconduct refers to inappropriate actions taken by police officers in connection with their official duties. Police misconduct can lead to a miscarriage of justice and sometimes involves discrimination...
, racial profiling
Racial profiling
Racial profiling refers to the use of an individual’s race or ethnicity by law enforcement personnel as a key factor in deciding whether to engage in enforcement...
, and prison overcrowding. As an example, they argue that while crime in New York City dropped under Mayor Giuliani, reports of police brutality increased during the same period. This period included the fatal shootings of Amadou Diallo
Amadou Diallo
Amadou Diallo was a 23-year-old Guinean immigrant in New York City who was shot and killed on February 4, 1999 by four New York City Police Department plain-clothed officers: Sean Carroll, Richard Murphy, Edward McMellon and Kenneth Boss. The four officers fired a total of 41 shots...
and Sean Bell, and the Abner Louima
Abner Louima
Abner Louima is a Haitian who was assaulted, brutalized and forcibly sodomized with the handle of a bathroom plunger by New York City police officers after being arrested outside a Brooklyn nightclub in 1997....
incident.
In extreme cases, civil unrest has broken out in retaliation against law-and-order politics, as happened in London's Brixton district in 1981, Los Angeles in 1992, and France in 2005
2005 civil unrest in France
The 2005 civil unrest in France of October and November was a series of riots by mostly Muslim North African youths in Paris and other French cities, involving mainly the burning of cars and public buildings at night starting on 27 October 2005 in Clichy-sous-Bois...
.
In 2009, Pennsylvania juvenile court judges Mark Ciavarella
Mark Ciavarella
Mark Arthur Ciavarella Jr. is a convicted felon and former President Judge of the Luzerne County Court of Common Pleas in Wilkes-Barre, Pennsylvania who committed, along with fellow judge Michael Conahan, the "Kids for cash" scandal in 2008.In August 2011, Ciavarella was sentenced to 28 years in...
and Michael Conahan were pled guilty in the "kids for cash" scandal, of taking kickbacks from private prison
Private prison
A private prison, jail, or detention center is a place in which individuals are physically confined or interned by a third party that is contracted by a government agency...
industry officials in exchange for sentencing over 1,000 youths to prison terms for minor offenses.
Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio
Joe Arpaio
Joseph M. "Joe" Arpaio is the elected Sheriff of Maricopa County in the U.S. state of Arizona. First voted into office in 1992, Arpaio is responsible for law enforcement in Maricopa County. This includes management of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office, county jail, courtroom security,...
, a role model of tougher sentencing campaigners for his hardline corrections policies, was investigated by the FBI — starting in 2009 — for alleged abuses of power and intimidation of dissenting officials, among other controversies. http://www.azcentral.com/arizonarepublic/news/articles/2009/05/22/20090522FBI.html http://www.azcentral.com/news/articles/2010/03/05/20100305fbi-expands-joe-arpaio-probe-to-county-attorney.html
A United States Supreme Court ruling in 2011 ordered the state of California to cut its inmate population, citing prison overcrowding to be in violation of the Eighth Amendment
Eighth Amendment
Eighth Amendment may refer to:*Eighth Amendment to the United States Constitution, part of the United States Bill of Rights*Eighth Amendment of the Constitution of Ireland, which bans termination of pregnancy in the Republic of Ireland...
. http://www.nytimes.com/2011/05/24/us/24scotus.html?_r=2&ref=us
See also
- Back to Basics (campaign)Back to Basics (campaign)Back to Basics was an ill-fated attempt to relaunch the government of British Prime Minister John Major in 1993; a year after winning the general election the party's reputation was declining, not least due to the Black Wednesday economic debacle of September 1992...
- Civil disobedienceCivil disobedienceCivil disobedience is the active, professed refusal to obey certain laws, demands, and commands of a government, or of an occupying international power. Civil disobedience is commonly, though not always, defined as being nonviolent resistance. It is one form of civil resistance...
- Culture warCulture warThe culture war in American usage is a metaphor used to claim that political conflict is based on sets of conflicting cultural values. The term frequently implies a conflict between those values considered traditionalist or conservative and those considered progressive or liberal...
- Justice of the PeaceJustice of the PeaceA justice of the peace is a puisne judicial officer elected or appointed by means of a commission to keep the peace. Depending on the jurisdiction, they might dispense summary justice or merely deal with local administrative applications in common law jurisdictions...
- Peace, order and good governmentPeace, order and good governmentIn many Commonwealth jurisdictions, the phrase "peace, order and good government" is an expression used in law to express the legitimate objects of legislative powers conferred by statute...
(Commonwealth) - Queen's peaceQueen's peaceThe Queen's peace is the term used in the Commonwealth realms to describe the protection the monarch, in right of each state, provides to his or her subjects...
(common law) - Wedge politics
- Ira CarmenIra CarmenIra Harris "Law and Order" Carmen is an American Professor Emeritus of Political Science at the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign, where he taught from 1968-2009....
Further reading
- Flamm, Michael W. Law and Order: Street Crime, Civil Unrest, and the Crisis of Liberalism in the 1960s (2005) excerpt and text search
- Hameiri, Shahar. "Governing disorder: the Australian Federal Police and Australia's new regional frontier," Pacific Review, Dec 2009, Vol. 22 Issue 5, pp 549-574
- Niaz, Ilhan. "The Debate on Law and Order and Development: Pakistani Elite's Orientations," Journal of South Asian and Middle Eastern Studies," Summer 2009, Vol. 32 Issue 4, pp 1-19
- Platt, Anthony M. "The Politics of Law and Order," Social Justice Volume: 21. Issue: 3. 1994. pp 3+ online edition
- Don Weatherburn. Law and Order in Australia: Rhetoric and Reality (Sydney: The Federation Press, 2004) 256 pp, ISBN 9781862875326