The book features data on the social, official, public, and private reaction to crime as it is related to the first link in the criminal justice system, the police. It also explores the relationships between police reactions to crime within the context of "democracy" as dynamic, ongoing political arrangements, processes and as a value system. The book is divided into five sections: (1) articles centered upon the theory of the relationships between police and democracy; (2) community policing as the supposed apex of democratic policing; (3) police and policing in stable democracies; (4) police and policing in societies that are in transition from repressive regimes towards democratic political systems and/or free market economies; and (5) special issues which democratic police and policing must consider either because of technical or social developments or because they are inherent in the processes and essence of police and security forces exercising their mandates. Notes, figures, tables, references, appendix, index