ABSTRACT
Introduction There has been much focus upon where the police should or should not situate themselves within the context of restorative policing, as well as the potential of restorative policing to drive police reform. From this latter perspective, restorative policing draws police officers closer to their communities but the converse question of how changes to the governance of policing, and more broadly criminal justice, have driven the growth of restorative policing have rarely been explored. This chapter picks up this question and explores changes to the configuration of justice and security networks across the globe as well as their impact upon what Bayley and Shearing (2001) refer to as the ‘multi-lateralisation’ of policing. Policing has been subject to the same external forces that drove the emergence of restorative justice across neoliberal societies and similar patterns of change and trajectory can be identified. Modern policing evolved out of disparate and informal networks of civic and commercial police and, throughout the evolution of professional policing, the position of state police as the most prominent security node has continued to be challenged, as has its purpose and organisational mission. The challenges that restorative policing encounters within this context are thus cultural and organisational tensions regarding the purpose of both justice and policing that have been accelerated by changes to the governance of criminal justice, policing and security. This chapter reflects on these changes in the configuration of policing and criminal justice and their implications for the purpose of a plethora of policing agencies. The chapter begins with an overview of changes in the shape and governance of criminal justice before assessing their implications for police and policing. Attention then turns to theories of policing and their attempts to explicate the impact of post-modern cultural, organisational and political shifts for policing and criminal justice organisations. Four areas are identified for further investigation: Changes in interpretations of the police role; the emergence of hybrid policing agencies and collaborations with new purposes and mentalities; questions about the capacity of communities, voluntary organisations and the commercial sector to undertake policing in a fair and equitable manner; and, ongoing diversification and adaptation in the shape of policing.
