Overview

"Although public safety agencies protect our well-being, they also shape social problems and community inequities. Public safety protections promote what T.H. Marshall called ""social rights"" of equitable citizenship. Frontlines of Welfare State shows how public safety agencies function as welfare state agencies, responsible for a range of essential public functions including emergency service, criminal investigation, regulatory oversight and social service outreach. Furthermore, this volume shows how public safety agencies are being asked to absorb more social welfare functions amidst cut-backs in other areas of the welfare state. Two areas of public safety are examined: arson control and fire prevention, especially within the contexts of urban change and gentrification, and community policing, especially as a mechanism of expanding drug treatment service and prevention programs. Facilitating a greater understanding of institutional biases within the state built around organizational structures, procedures and cultures and their impact on social outcomes, this original and exciting book will be of interest to researchers, practitioners and undergraduate and postgraduate students in the fields of Policing and Fire Control, Public Policy and Administration, Drugs and Substance Abuse and White Collar Crime."

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9781138393066

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Reviews

Barry Goetz clearly demonstrates how public safety agencies function as welfare state agencies, responsible for a range of essential public functions including emergency service, regulatory oversight and social service outreach. Amid cut-backs in other areas of the welfare state, public safety agencies are now asked to absorb even more social welfare functions. As Goetz cogently argues regarding arson control and community policing, public safety agencies not only protect our well-being, but also shape social problems and community inequities. This book has major implications for understanding institutional biases within society and the ways organizational structures, procedures and cultures impact social outcomes. It not only offers brilliant insights for scholars and theory building, but a solid context for progressive social policy. I highly recommend it. Henry N. Pontell, Distinguished Professor, John Jay College of Criminal Justice, CUNY; Emeritus Professor, University of California, Irvine. Goetz has crafted a book that is both unique and timely. Through detailed analysis of what might seem to be two very different types of problems - fire and drugs - readers will be rewarded with rich insights into governmental responses to each. This book will be a welcome addition to the library of anyone with an interest in community safety and its relationship to issues of social inequality. Laura Huey, Associate Professor of Sociology, Western University, Canada

Author Information

Barry Goetz is Associate Professor of Sociology at Western Michigan University.

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