Policing Urban Poverty demonstrates that, since the nineteenth century, a core task of the police has been crime control and order maintenance, especially in poor communities. This illuminating book focuses on the policy implications of discourses on poverty and crime in America and Britain. It draws on sociological theory and extensive empirical evidence, which show that in recent history senior police policy-makers have been involved in a struggle with their political masters in determining the most judicious means to tackle urban poverty and crime.