Dynamiques d’intimidation contre la force publique : enjeux pour les policiers et les agents correctionnels
One of the most salient characteristics of police and correctional officers lies in their legitimate use of coercion to impose their authority. In theory, this public force must have precedence over any private force. In the study of violence, this feature makes their victimization particularly peculiar. Unlawful pressure and influence as well as intimidation tactics experienced by law enforcement officers have not been the focus of much attention. This thesis aims at bringing a better understanding of the intimidation dynamics, at identifying the major issues for the public force and at offering a more general theory of criminal intimidation. Public force being an inherently State function, we focussed first at the problem of intimidation in a global manner. By testing the theory of the action of security (Cusson, 2010), we observed that an intimidated and corrupted public force leads to a loss of legitimacy and efficiency of the judicial system in its fight against crime. We then adopted an interactionist approach to understand the everyday dynamics of intimidation. We asked ourselves what were the factors that officers considered severe and credible enough for them to consider an intimidation. By identifying the world of objects of police officers (Blumer, 1986), we observed that acts of intimidation that occurred outside the professional setting were considered more serious. Also, the fact that the intimidator belonged to a criminal organisation raised the gravity of the threat. Then, we looked into the social identities of correctional officers that experienced intimidation (Tedeschi et Felson, 1994). We discovered that minor but repeated acts of intimidation had a tendency to modify the professional practices of prison guards. An integrated analysis sheds light on two types of intimidation: on one side, a reactive and mild intimidation; on the other, a programmed and serious intimidation. This brings three issues for the public force: its symbolic aspects, a transformation of its action and its legitimacy. By integrating those issues, we have been able to offer a theory of the criminal intimidation. Lastly, preventive and repressive measures are discussed as a solution to criminal intimidation.
Police Prison Violence Intimidation Guards