Gewaltanwendung als repressives Rollenmerkmal des Polizisten

Abstract

This essay is the extract of a sociological study in which role enactments of policemen in conflict situations with students were analysed (Heidelberg 1968/69). Police is seen as an action system containing a surplus of structural violence by socializing its members with strong reglementations and routine programs; potential action scopes are narrowed. Characteristics of situations are pointing to mechanisms by which normative expectations are actualized. The acting policemen are confronted with role requirements the repressive contents of which they are able to sustain only by ambivalent coping forms without role distance. For political functions it is necessary to construct a normative theory of police in the context of a strong concept of democracy.