British criminology, undercover policing, and racist attacks: Notes on the ‘law and order’ information infrastructure
Year: 2024
Type: article
Abstract: This article examines the entanglement of British criminology and undercover policing (‘Spycops’) in the UK government's response to racism in 1981. The article discusses how criminology took a strategic role within the state's ‘ law and order’ information infrastructure by analysing archival materials related to a Home Office criminological study from that same year. This infrastructure involved an explicit logistical sensibility for gathering and analysing evidence, intelligence, and data about race and racism for a ‘law and order’ agenda focused on policing public order and ‘subversion’. It examines how two senior Home Office officials treated the gathering and utilisation of informational resources produced by criminologists and the Metropolitan Police Special Branch for tactical operations and perception management strategies that targeted racism and anti-racist groups as threats to public order. Reflecting on recent scholarship about security practices enabled by Big Data and machine learning, the article argues for greater attention on criminology and human sciences’ strategic and unnoticed involvement in designing and servicing contemporary ‘law and order’ informational infrastructures.
Source: History of the Human Sciences
Author: Julian Molina
Institution: University of Bristol
Language: English
Subfield: Law
Field: Social Sciences
Domain: Social Sciences
Open Access status: hybrid
Estimated APC paid: $3,450
OpenAlex ID: W4402940727