ABSTRACT
This chapter explores the empirical evidence about the way staff used their authority across the police detention facilities in the cities in the research. It examines how the social order was created and maintained through strategies which mapped on to the several different styles of authority. The chapter explains the politeness and respect afforded to some detainees; the use of force or delays in detention as well as rewards, such as cigarettes; and the total and all-encompassing power of the police, which rendered detainees relatively powerless. Coercive forms of authority – based on the use of force and inducement – existed across all detention facilities and cities in varying degrees and forms, as did more legitimate styles of authority. More legitimate forms of power were manifest in the extent to which staff recognised and treated detainees as fellow human beings, rather than seeing them as a criminal ‘other,’ undeserving of their respect.
