刘宇辰
【摘要】美国当前警民关系处在关键的十字路口：美国民众比历史上任何时期都更需要警察，但警民关系却因种族问题、经济不平等和司法不公而空前紧张。本文通过文献回顾研究认为，美国当前警务困境形成的重要原因之一是以“对犯罪宣战”为代表的运动警务治理模式失败造成的一系列连锁反应。现有研究往往孤立研究运动警务治理本身，而忽视更广泛的政策与社会反应。本文指出，要理解当前美国警务困境，不仅要认识“对犯罪宣战”等警务的实质，即美国精英难以解决统治危机，转而有罪化社会特定群体，并造成了警民关系紧张、大规模监禁和广泛社会抗议；还需进一步将为应对警务运动治理带来的问题而开展的社区警务和问责制改革纳入考量，探讨整体警务运作的得失。美国警务改革前景极为不确定，究竟是进一步增强警察权力和提升警察权威，还是削弱警察，转向其他力量, 成为当今美国政治争论的一大焦点。
【关键词】美国警察；对犯罪宣战；对毒品宣战；社区警务
【作者】刘宇辰，北京大学政府管理学院助理教授。
【Title】The political Dilemma of Police-Citizen Relations in the United States：The Origin，Evolution and Future of “War on Crime”
Abstract: The police-citizen relation in the United State is now at a crossroad: facing multiple challenges from both abroad and at home, Americans are more desperately in need of police protection and service than they have been in the past several decades while at the same time, police-citizen relations are at its nadir due to racial and ethnic discrimination, economic inequality, and criminal injustice. This paper, by carefully and critically review major police study literature, argues that the failure of campaign-style policing practices exemplified by “War on Crime” is one of the most important factors in shaping the dilemma American policing facing today. Policing practices such as “War on crime” is more of a revelation and result of American political elites’ inability to fix its political, economic, and social problems than the efforts by police to fight crime per se . As elites find it impossible to solve political and social crisis, they resorted to criminalize certain social groups to divert voters’ attention. War on crime, followed by War on Drugs and War on Terror resulted in tensions between police and citizen, mass incarceration and widespread social protests. To cope with those crisis, American policing adopted community policing and accountability reform, which at best achieved limited results in improving police-citizen relation. The policing reform ahead remain largely uncertain.
Key Words: American Policing, War on Crime, War on Drugs, Community Policing