New threats or phantom menace? Police institutions facing crises

Rousseaux, Xavier [UCL] Campion, Jonas [UCL]

Social, economic, political, regime or environmental crises bring about challenging periods for the proper working of society. Crises take part in the transformation process of structures and practices of established authorities. The latter develop new policies to best handle these unconventional times and safeguard the effectiveness or legitimacy of their actions in changing environments4. In contemporary States, one of the major consequences of crises is to foster changes in the frameworks of citizenship and social statuses, which are reconfigured between victims, “dangerous” groups to be closely watched, leading elites or populations which have been recently integrated within the social and political life of the State.