ABSTRACT
This chapter attempts to make sense of contemporary state violence in the US through an examination of the police militarization (PM) trend. US critical criminology during the 1990s and 2000s showed little concern about police violence, and instead focused primarily on mass incarceration, mass surveillance, and the influence of neoliberalism. Most critical academics, therefore, clung to the unchallenged assumption that the ascendance of these softer controls marked the decline of physical state violence. “Militarization” is best understood in conjunction with the concept “militarism.” Militarism is an ideology focused on the best means to solve problems. PM is playing an essential role in the crime-control growth complex, whether through direct extraction, indirect extraction, or an omnipresent threat of violence. Militarization means adopting and applying the central elements of the military model to an organization or particular situation. PM is the process whereby civilian police increasingly draw from, and pattern themselves around, the military model.
