Books & ideas

A Panopticon for All

Julien Le Mauff — 2026-02-19T08:30:00Z

The rise of surveillance technologies is redefining the approach to security amid economic pressures. Wherever it is implemented, this surveillance, boosted by new technologies, raises the question of abuses that threaten civil liberties.

The elusive doctrine

Dimitri Coste — 2025-10-14T06:04:50Z

Criticized for its repeated failures, the French police seem to desperately lack an explicit approach for dealing with demonstrations. They could take inspiration from the principle of de-escalation promoted throughout Europe.

The Pseudoscience that Shieldied Police Violence

Magda Boutros — 2025-04-03T07:29:00Z

“Excited delirium” is a diagnosis that was used to absolve police officers of responsibility for the deaths of Black and Brown men. For decades, it was legitimized by a network of forensic pathologists, law enforcement agencies, and private companies that sustained this pseudoscience.

The Police Between Violence and Literature

Christian Chevandier — 2024-11-05T08:00:00Z

Around 1900, when Paris had absorbed its outlying communes and the city's lower depths were populated by a range of shady characters, police officers oscillated between repression and social chronicle. These bulwarks against crime were also painters of poverty, who did not shy away from poetry.

France – a Nation of Cops?

Yann Philippe — 2023-12-05T09:42:09Z

Is the French police on a downward slope? A vast encyclopaedia takes a historicist approach to the history of polices in France, while analysing it in light of contemporary challenges. It is a daunting task, made possible by adopting a long-term view and a broader geographical perspective.

Policing Prostitution

Anaïk Purenne — 2023-09-07T08:31:42Z

In France, the law is rather vague regarding the meaning of prostitution. The job of defining it is often left to the police, but they focus on street prostitution, that of the lower classes, paying barely any attention to the often luxurious type of prostitution used by the upper classes.

Why Has Racial Justice Still Not Been Achieved?

Editorial Team — 2020-06-08T07:00:00Z

As protests against racism break out all over the world following the murder of George Floyd, Books & Ideas gathers a selection of texts examining the history of these multifaceted discriminations and of the struggles for racial justice.

Who Benefits from the Crime?

Bilel Benbouzid — 2016-10-31T08:00:00Z

Can an algorithm predict crime? For several years, United States police forces have used software that is said to detect the locations of future crimes and offences. Of the many companies working in this field, Predpol is the name that is mentioned the most. But the success of this Californian start-up is more the result of marketing than any actual predictive effectiveness. The stance of this paper is twofold: first, a closer look from the seismologist who developed the algorithm reveals that this solution is far from having the predictive capacity boasted by its promoters. Second, the ethical problem with Predpol's algorithm appears not to be police discrimination, as many feared, but rather the exclusion of a section of the population from the public security offering.

A Splendid Isolation

Olivier Fillieule & Fabien Jobard — 2016-10-10T07:00:00Z

Whereas in France police forces deemed guilty of brutality have called for a demonstration against “anti-cop hatred,” in Germany, Sweden, and Switzerland, the interaction between the police and protesters is marked by restraint and dialogue. The French police are resisting the new models of policing built around the concept of de-escalation. Olivier Fillieule and Fabien Jobard explain the reasons for this doctrinal retrenchment.

The Origins of Mass Surveillance

Ivan Jablonka — 2016-03-17T08:21:05Z

By tracing the history of surveillance in Europe and the Soviet bloc, the historian Sophie Cœuré explains the differences between democracies and dictatorships in this area. She also urges us to put things in perspective: We do not (yet) live in a “surveillance society.”