Annotated Bibliography: Police Discretion Project, Political Science

This annotated bibliography project examines the multifaceted concept of police discretion through the lens of several key academic sources. The project begins with an introduction that outlines the purpose of the bibliography, emphasizing the importance of evaluating the relevance, accuracy, and quality of cited sources. The bibliography includes annotations of four articles and reports: Halliday's work on police discretion, a research report on "Broken Windows" and Police Discretion, Sherman's research on experiments in police discretion, and Young's paper on police discretion in contemporary America. Each annotation summarizes the central themes, scopes, and arguments presented in the sources, highlighting the authors' perspectives on the challenges and complexities faced by police officers, the role of discretion in the criminal justice system, and the importance of establishing standards to ensure proper use of discretion aligned with democratic values. The annotations reveal a consensus among the authors on the need for standards and the varying application of discretion in different situations, underscoring the critical nature of police discretion in maintaining law and order.

Police Discretion
Project 1
Student
[Pick the date]

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Introduction
The aim of this project is to prepare an annotated bibliography for the final project so that the
readers are able to know about the relevance, accuracy and quality of the sources that have been
cited in the project. This bibliography will be prepared using the intellectual skills like the
exposition will be concise, the analysis will be succinct and the research will be done in the
library. The annotated bibliography will summarize the central theme and the scope of the article
in the document or book and the comparisons and contrast will also be made with the other
researches.
Annotated Bibliography 1: Halliday, G. LEJA (n.d) 518-Issues paper: Police discretion.
The author has described the work of police in detail here. The work and the tasks that police
officers do are very complex and difficult. They have to deal with many challenges because the
police officers have the responsibility to maintain law and order. They have the duty of directly
interacting with the citizens and fir that, they have to intersect and interact with the people
constantly. The author talks about the criminal justice system of US where the role of discretion
is immense. The author agrees with the other researchers in this paper that the discretion
requires the police officials to make difficult choices which are subject to scrutiny and they need
to exercise good and sound judgment every time.
Annotated Bibliography 2: RA, O. P. “Broken Windows” and Police Discretion.
This is a research report which summarizes the history of the police accountability that led to
various interventions by the government s that the police, law and the constitution can work in
the same line. Just like the paper by Young, the author here has described the police discretion in
detail and has mentioned that how the discretion is practiced differently in different situations.

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The complexity of the police work has been analyzed in this report. The author says that it is
very important for the community to achieve effective policing because it directly impacts the
citizens and hence the country.
Similar to the recommendations that other authors have given in their paper, here also, the author
has tried to establish some standards that can help the police in practicing the discretion in such a
way that it maintains the law and order and discipline in the country.
Annotated Bibliography 3: Sherman, L. W. (1984). Experiments in police discretion:
Scientific boon or dangerous knowledge?. Law and contemporary problems, 47(4), 61-81.
In this paper, the author talks about the ways in which the police discretion can be
revolutionized. This change or revolution can be brought with the help of science and by using
the scientific methods. The author tries to solve the problem about the abuse of knowledge and
the consequences of the police discretion. The author did some experiments in the activities of
police discretion and he found that the experiments provide proof that there are differential
effects of the arrests and also allows the police to avoid the wastage of the resources. This article
is useful in giving an insight to the people that the ways in which the police discretion is
practiced can be applied differently and it can lead to different resuts which are for the benefit of
all.
Annotated Bibliography 4: Young, B. B. (2011). Police discretion in contemporary
America.
In this paper, the author has described discretion as the capacity of the police officials to choose
among many possible courses of action. Here, the ways in which police exercise the discretion
has been discussed and its relation with the US Constitution and the field of criminal justice has

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been discussed. The author says that police discretion is most commonly practiced when the
police interact with the citizens, at the traffic stops and when they have to maintain the order.
But, many times, the discretionary authority us abused. So, the author ties to establish some
standards so that the police can focus on proper use of discretion and they are using it in line
with the democratic values of the USA.
The standards in this paper can be elaborated further with the help of the experiments that are
done by Sherman in the above citation. This will help in justifying the standards and they will be
utilized in a proper way.
Conclusion
From the above annotations, it is clear that all the authors agree on the point that discretion is
practiced differently in different situations an there are lack of standards which the officials can
follow.