The Police and Social Conflict: Rhetoric and Reality (CONFLICT AND CHANGE IN BRITAIN: A NEW AUDIT)

Volume two in a series which provides reports on areas of British life conventionally conceived to be conflict-laden, assessing the scale and character of the conflict in those areas. The series aims to consider new or little-heeded evidence, balancing the claims of different commentators and placing such conflict in its historical and social contest, allowing intelligent judgements to be made. It provides prognoses about the likely development of that conflict and ascertain what measures have been taken to manage it and what success they have had, drawing on international experience where helpful. This book focuses on the police and social conflict. The media and the politicians draw one image of the police whereas empirical research portrays another. This book provides a dispassionate and systematic analysis of the role of the police in social conflict and advances and informs the debate with a synthesis of the evidence for and against. Fielding's other publications include "The National Front" (1981), "Probation Practice" (1984), "Linking Data" (1986), "Joining Forces" (1988) and "Action and Structure" (1988).