Navigating Police Contact: How Situations Shape Police–Youth Relations

Abstract

Researchers have increasingly emphasized the dynamics of social situations when investigating, for example, encounters between youth at risk and police officers. Based on numerous field observations of police–youth interactions, this article explores how police–youth relations change during different situations. Using a situational perspective as an interpretive lens, I unpack how the dynamics of police–youth relations are dependent upon: (1) the concrete physical space of the interactions, (2) the audiences present and (3) the emotions that are activated. Typically, street-based interactions with other youth as audiences develop in a different manner to interactions at the police station. More sensitivity to the characteristics of such social situations, I conclude, may prove useful to develop more efficient preventive interventions and policing strategies.