Can the use of fair procedures mitigate the impact of proactive anti-terror policing within minority communities?

New York University, New York NY

Investigators

Abstract

This proposal seeks to identify effective strategies for managing the threat of terrorism within minority communities in the United States and the United Kingdom. It draws upon previous research concerning the management of crime within inner city communities, testing the relevance of these findings for policing strategies within the immigrant communities most relevant to recent terrorist threats. Within inner city minority communities it has been found that the police can take effective actions to manage crime without alienating members of these communities, or undermining their willingness to cooperate with the police, as long as they exercise their authority in ways framed by procedural justice models. This study explores the degree to which this model can be effectively applied to anti-terror policing, a situation in which the relevant communities are potential different from inner city minorities in terms of their commitment to alternative ideologies, their lack of socialization into democratic systems of government and/or their lack of identification with the society into which they have immigrated (the US or the UK). From a theoretical perspective this research is important because it tests the range and robustness of procedural justice models of policing. From a societal point of view is provides guidelines about how to most effectively manage one important aspect of the threat of terror?the possibility of gaining support within internal immigrant communities.