Talk:Police science

Merge

Crime science seems to be a non-notable neologism that is simply a variation on this subject. Merging 2 stubs would make one less stubby stub and be more informative. Anyone? bobanny 17:07, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

Not the same. "Police science" is an American term (also used in Canada, Japan, and some other places), often used to describe numerous more traditional college programs that train students for careers as law enforcement officers and professionals. [1] "Crime science" is a British approach used to deal with crime problems, detecting problems, analyzing them in a scientific, rigorous manner, and implementing effective crime prevention measures. [2] --Aude (talk) 17:30, 5 April 2007 (UTC)

Two points in response. First, "police science" is a much broader concept historically. It came into vogue in the 1930s to refer to the move towards using hard science as well as social sciences in policing. The term itself resonated then as now more in the US, but what it referred to was equally relevant in the UK, such as the establishment of scientific laboratories in CIDs, forensics, ballistics tests, fingerprinting, etc., in contrast to the reliance on outside experts for that kind of thing. The emphasis on science was important for reformers to overcome traditionalist policing that saw experience and intelligence as far superior to anything sissy academics had to offer. Old school police were generally distrustful of non-police interference that they saw as responsible for things like prohibition and probation.

Secondly, aside from the term "Crime science" (which I hadn't heard before, probably because I'm not in Britain), I don't really see anything in that article that's unique or distinctive. Criminology is an interdisciplinary subject, and has always drawn from other disciplines like psychology. Hard science has also been used by police on both sides of the pond for many decades. Environmental design, for example, has been trendy in crime prevention circles for quite a while now. Some examples where I live (Vancouver), city parks have been undergoing re-landscaping for about a decade with crime prevention in mind (essentially removing discreet hideaways that could be used by drug users and dealers), and computer programs for geographic profiling were developed at a local university by a cop getting his criminology PhD. "Broken windows" also seems to fit in with the more holistic thinking that emerged in the 90s, which it seems "Crime science" is just a localized example of. It's a stub, so maybe there's more to it that makes it distinct, but right now all I see are differences in terminology. bobanny 03:05, 6 April 2007 (UTC)

If I understand it well, both crime science and police science refers to a positivist approach to crime (using sciences & modern technologies, etc.) as well as being transdisciplinary (use of social sciences, etc.). If this is right, I don't see how they really differ between each other. Note that in German, "police science" is translated by Polizeiwissenschaft, but that latter term usually refers to something alltogether different from modern "police science". Tazmaniacs 13:15, 15 April 2007 (UTC)

Note that the second link provided by Aude doesn't really distinct "crime science" from criminology (it claims it is not the same for polemical purposes, but in fact nothing distinguish it from that). This can't be said of "police science", which is taught in police academies and concerns the use of social sciences, etc., relating to law enforcement matters & crime. Tazmaniacs 13:18, 15 April 2007 (UTC)