Behind the Line of Truncheons’: Crimes of the Powerful and the Policing of Valid Knowledge

This paper is concerned with the prospects for the development of criminological knowledge of the incidence of 'crimes of the powerful', as part of the current 'boom ' in state-funded criminological knowledge. Following a brief analysis of the current trajectory of university based social science and a focus upon the scope and content of recent research commissioned by the Home Office, the paper turns to examine, with reference to an analysis of crime and disorder partnerships in the North West of England, the subject matter of data which informs local crime reduction and community safety strategies. The paper then discusses the forms of data that have been constructed as 'valid ' by the Home Office, before concluding with a discussion of the prospects for the inclusion of 'crimes of the powerful ' in future crime reduction agendas