Shusta, Robert M., Deena R. Levine, Philip R. Harris, and Herbert Z. Wong. Multicultural Law Enforcement: Strategies for Peacekeeping in a Diverse Society. Englewood Cliffs, New Jersey: Prentice-Hall, 1995.
Unlike too many works on the problems of law enforcement with respect to multicultural issues, this book deals successfully in great detail with the specifics of those issues. Moving from the general to the particular, the authors comprehensively portray the difficulties of law enforcement officials as they work with Asian/Pacific-Americans, African-Americans, Latino/Hispanic-Americans, Arab-Americans and other Middle Eastern groups, and American-Indians. Each of these groups are analyzed with respect and in depth, with reference to all of the relevant cultural characteristics which might play a part in defining an encounter with law enforcement officials.
The book is relevant and significant not just on a practical level, but also on a more profound level. That is, it is clearly important that law enforcement officials learn about other cultures in order to deal more effectively with the members of that culture, particularly in the tension-filled encounters involving law enforcement. It is even more important, however, that law enforcement officials change their ways of perceiving members of other cultures. Too often, the members of other cultures are seen as alien enemies by law enforcement officials, and this book is designed to do away with such misperceptions, based on fear and prejudice, and to replace those biases with more accurate perceptions. Such a change in philosophy and perception will allow law enforcement officials to deal on a more humanistic level with the people of other cultures. In addition, the members of other cultures will come to expect more humane treatment from law enforcement officials, and a sense of mutual trust and respect will develop.
The authors make clear that it is best for all involve...