Policing the Peace In Northern Ireland: Politics, Crime and Security After the Belfast Agreement

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This timely and controversial book shows how crime, and the response of the authorities to it, became central to the peace process in Northern Ireland. At times, paramilitary activity threatened to destabilize the peace in Northern Ireland after 1998, but crime was central to maintaining capacity should the groups return to war. Over time, the reduction of crime was central to these groupsx2019; own attempts to reform and official judgements as to whether they were genuinely demobilizing. The statex2019;s response to crime added controversy. Police reform produced the Police Service of Northern Ireland (PSNI) and the new Organised Crime Task Force signalled the importance of crime control, but the Asset Recovery Agency, supposedly the x2018;magic bulletx2019; for organised crime, misfired. Law enforcement was also deeply affected by the British statex2019;s response to paramilitary crime. By 2007, peace was apparently secure and paramilitaries were "de-criminalizing," but this often chaotic process was marked with questions about the British statex2019;s adherence to the rule of law. Incorporating first-hand research in the PSNI, the book will be of interest to general readers and scholars of Irish Studies, criminology, and British and comparative politics.

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Jon Moran is Reader in Criminal Justice at the School of Legal Studies, University of Wolverhampton.