Jake Monaghan, "Just Policing" (Oxford UP, 2023)

May 8, 2025

Join philosopher Jake Monaghan, Assistant Professor at USC, as he dives into the complex world of policing ethics in his new book, Just Policing. He challenges the traditional views on police discretion, arguing it's crucial in non-ideal circumstances. Monaghan critiques both police abolitionism and the legalist standpoint on justice. The conversation also touches on historical ties between policing and social norms, the tension between enforcing laws versus building community trust, and the stark differences in perceptions of street and white-collar crimes.

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INSIGHT

Policing’s Urban Roots and Necessity

Policing as an activity is inseparable from urbanized society and social control needs.
Abolitionist calls often reject agencies, but not the fundamental need for policing activities.

ANECDOTE

Light-Touch Policing Anecdotes

Central Park Keepers exemplified light-touch social control focused on education over punishment.
California beach police often engage quietly and informatively to maintain order without harsh enforcement.

INSIGHT

Mechanical Law Enforcement Myth

The idea that police must mechanically apply all laws is a myth according to police textbooks.
Law empowers officers with tools but requires judgment rather than blind enforcement.

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Policing is a source of perennial conflict and philosophical disagreement. Current political developments in the United States have only increased the urgency of this topic. Today we welcome philosopher Jake Monaghan to discuss his book, Just Policing (Oxford UP, 2023), which applies interdisciplinary insights to examine the morality of policing.

Though the injustices of our world seemingly require some kind of policing, the police are often sources of injustice themselves. But this is not always the result of intentionally or negligently bad policing. Sometimes it is an unavoidable result of the injustices that emerge from interactions with other social systems. This raises an important question of just policing: how should police respond to the injustices built into the system? Just Policing attempts an answer, offering a theory of just policing in non-ideal contexts.

Monaghan argues that police discretion is not only unavoidable, but in light of non-ideal circumstances, valuable. This claim conflicts with a widespread but inchoate view of just policing, the legalist view that finds justice in faithful enforcement of the criminal code.

But the criminal code leaves policing seriously underdetermined; full enforcement is neither possible nor desirable. Police need an alternative normative framework for evaluating and guiding their exercise of power.

Just Policing critiques popular approaches to police abolitionism while defending normative limits on police power. The book offers a defense of police discretion against common objections and evaluates controversial issues in order maintenance, such as the policing of "vice" and homelessness, democratic control over policing, community policing initiatives, police collaborations and alternatives like mental health response teams, and possibilities for structural reform.

Jake Monaghan is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern California. He earned his Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Buffalo. His research is primarily in moral and political philosophy.

He is interviewed by Tom McInerney, an international lawyer, scholar, and strategist, who has worked to advance rule of law and development internationally for 25 years. He has taught in the Rule of Law for Development Program at Loyola University Chicago School of Law since 2011. He writes the Rights, Regulation and Rule of Law newsletter on Substack.

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