Jake Monaghan, "Just Policing" (Oxford UP, 2023)

Nov 28, 2025

In this engaging discussion, philosopher Jake Monaghan explores the complexities of policing and morality. As an Assistant Professor at USC and author of Just Policing, he delves into the necessity of police discretion amidst imperfect laws. Monaghan critiques the belief in mechanical enforcement and argues for a more nuanced, educative approach to policing. He also examines the challenges of public perception and the balance between authority and community trust. His insights highlight the urgent need for a just framework in policing practices.

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INSIGHT

Policing Emerges From Urban Density

Urban density drives a permanent need for social-control institutions like policing.
Jake Monaghan argues abolition removes agencies but not the policing activity those communities still require.

ADVICE

Use Non‑Ideal Theory And Data

Use non-ideal theory and empirical evidence when evaluating policing practices.
Check proportionality by comparing outcomes and statistics, not by abstract ideals.

ANECDOTE

Central Park Keepers Example

Frederick Law Olmsted designed Central Park keepers to educate rather than punish park users.
Monaghan contrasts this light-touch model with aggressive policing to show alternatives for common-space order.

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Policing is a source of perennial conflict and philosophical disagreement. Current political developments in the United States have only increased the urgency of this topic. Today we welcome philosopher Jake Monaghan to discuss his book, Just Policing (Oxford UP, 2023), which applies interdisciplinary insights to examine the morality of policing.

Though the injustices of our world seemingly require some kind of policing, the police are often sources of injustice themselves. But this is not always the result of intentionally or negligently bad policing. Sometimes it is an unavoidable result of the injustices that emerge from interactions with other social systems. This raises an important question of just policing: how should police respond to the injustices built into the system? Just Policing attempts an answer, offering a theory of just policing in non-ideal contexts.

Monaghan argues that police discretion is not only unavoidable, but in light of non-ideal circumstances, valuable. This claim conflicts with a widespread but inchoate view of just policing, the legalist view that finds justice in faithful enforcement of the criminal code.

But the criminal code leaves policing seriously underdetermined; full enforcement is neither possible nor desirable. Police need an alternative normative framework for evaluating and guiding their exercise of power.

Just Policing critiques popular approaches to police abolitionism while defending normative limits on police power. The book offers a defense of police discretion against common objections and evaluates controversial issues in order maintenance, such as the policing of "vice" and homelessness, democratic control over policing, community policing initiatives, police collaborations and alternatives like mental health response teams, and possibilities for structural reform.

Jake Monaghan is Assistant Professor of Philosophy at the University of Southern California. He earned his Ph.D. in philosophy at the University of Buffalo. His research is primarily in moral and political philosophy.

He is interviewed by Tom McInerney, an international lawyer, scholar, and strategist, who has worked to advance rule of law and development internationally for 25 years. He has taught in the Rule of Law for Development Program at Loyola University Chicago School of Law since 2011. He writes the Rights, Regulation and Rule of Law newsletter on Substack.

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