The Politics of Crime in Turkey: Neoliberalism, Police and the Urban Poor

by Zeynep Gönen

Overview

This book focuses on urban crime and policing in Turkey since the steady economic decline of the 1990s. Concentrating on the attempts to 'modernize' the policing of Izmir, Zeynep Gonen highlights how the police force expanded their territorial control over the urban space, specifically targeting the poor and racialized segments of the city. Through in-depth interviews and ethnographic observations of these 'targeted' populations, as well as rare ethnographic data from the Turkish police, surveys of the media and politicians' rhetoric, Gonen shows how Kurdish migrants have been criminalized as dangerous 'enemies' of the order. In studying the ideological and material processes of criminalization, The Politics of Crime in Turkey makes the case for the neoliberal politics of crime that uses the notion of 'security' to legitimize violence and authoritarianism. The book will be of interest to criminologists, as well as those investigating the modern Turkish state and its relationship to the Kurds in the wider region. The multilayered methodology and conceptual approach sheds light on parallel developments in penal and security systems across the globe.

Product Details

ISBN-13:	9781784535438
Publisher:	Bloomsbury Academic
Publication date:	12/30/2016
Series:	Library of Modern Turkey
Pages:	288
Product dimensions:	5.50(w) x 8.60(h) x 1.10(d)

About the Author

Zeynep Gonen is an independent researcher, having been Assistant Professor at Beykent University, Turkey. She has a PhD in Sociology from Binghamton University, New York, where her thesis received two awards. She has published in the jourbanals Critical Criminology and Praksis as well as for the NGO TESEV. She is currently involved in various community projects in Turkey.

Table of Contents

List of Tables viii

List of Abbreviations ix

Acknowledgements xi

Introduction 1

1 Conceptual/Theoretical Framework and the Literature on the Neoliberal Penal State 23

2 Neoliberal Ideologies of Crime in Urban Turkey 50

3 The Crisis and Reinvention of the Police 78

4 Giuliani in Izmir: Restructuring of Public Order Policing and Criminalizing the 'Target Populations' 104

5 Policing a Kurdish Shantytown 151

Conclusion 204

Notes 214

Bibliography 252

Index 265