Humanism as Repression: Counselors Training Police

Abstract

Passage of the Omnibus Crime Control and Safe Streets Act of 1968 has led to both increased expenditure on police technology and humanistically oriented police training programs. While those two outcomes may seem contradictory, both aid police in their attempt to achieve social control. Advocates of humanistic police training programs have generally ignored the role of police in maintaining societal inequalities, repressing assent and social change, and diffusing legitimate protest. Seen in the light of those larger social issues, human relations skills in the hands of the police can become effective tools with which to achieve social control while avoiding the resistance generated by more coercive methods. As such, they function not as progressive, humanistic measures, but rather as a means for perpetuating human oppression.