Beyond the Tarmac Road: Local Forms of Policing in Sierra Leone & Rwanda

Bruce Baker

Review of African Political Economy, 2008, vol. 35, issue 118, 555-570

Abstract: Civil war deeply disrupted policing in Sierra Leone and Rwanda, leaving their state police forces inadequate in numbers, skills and resources to serve all citizens. In this security vacuum local forms of policing play an important role. The article argues that the country-specific pattern of local forms of policing depends on three factors: the nature of the conflict and peace settlement; the regime ideology; and the level of regime insecurity and fear of conflict recurring. The empirical data concerning the local policing groups is presented under three headings: crime prevention and intervention; investigation and resolution; and punishment. The article concludes with an assessment of the hazards and potential for states and donors supporting such groups. They are certainly flawed agencies in the eyes of both users and government, but in a context of less than fair and accountable state policing, their widespread provision and support is not to be dismissed lightly.

Date: 2008
References: View complete reference list from CitEc
Citations: View citations in EconPapers (1)

Downloads: (external link)
http://hdl.handle.net/10.1080/03056240802569235 (text/html)
Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.

Related works:
This item may be available elsewhere in EconPapers: Search for items with the same title.

Export reference: BibTeX RIS (EndNote, ProCite, RefMan) HTML/Text

Persistent link: https://EconPapers.repec.org/RePEc:taf:revape:v:35:y:2008:i:118:p:555-570

Ordering information: This journal article can be ordered from
http://www.tandfonline.com/pricing/journal/CREA20

DOI: 10.1080/03056240802569235

Access Statistics for this article

Review of African Political Economy is currently edited by Graham Harrison, Branwen Gruffydd Jones, Claire Mercer, Nicolas Pons-Vignon, Aurelia Segatti and Ray Bush

More articles in Review of African Political Economy from Taylor & Francis Journals
Bibliographic data for series maintained by Chris Longhurst ().