Critiquing Evidence-Based Policing in Britain

<p>Evidence Based Policing (EBP) exerts significant influence on how actors think,&nbsp;act and speak about UK policing to the point that&nbsp;it is becoming institutionalised.&nbsp;Inspired by the insights of Michel Foucault into&nbsp;power-knowledge, governmentality and institutional reform over time, this book provides a&nbsp;comprehensive account of the emergence of EBP in Britain as well as&nbsp;original discourse analysis and analytical research into the texts produced by EBP. It presents&nbsp;a new history of EBP presented around EBP's story-lines, subject positions and the&nbsp;institutional changes it has created. This history shows EBP shares a genealogical&nbsp;heritage with modern discourses of managerialism and neoliberalism. EBP's roots are&nbsp;traced and it is re-presented as an extension of the problematic relationship in the&nbsp;production of criminological knowledge and the British state. This history fundamentally&nbsp;challenges the notion on which EBP rests: basing policing policy upon independent,&nbsp;robust knowledge. Instead this book argues EBP should be subject to greater illumination&nbsp;and challenge, suggesting EBP is a contestable device that is doing political work. It speaks to those interested in policing, critical criminology and political science.</p>