Social Work’s Constrained Influence over Police: A Historical Analysis of Social Work–Police Relations in the Field of Charities and Corrections, 1874–1982

In the twenty-first century, racialized police violence and related protests have renewed debates over the proper relationship between social work and policing. Although debates often center on social work’s capacity to reform policing, they can overlook scholarship documenting social work’s carceral and coercive practices and historical evidence of the social work–police relationship, which is critical for assessing how social workers have attempted to influence police. This article offers a historical analysis of the relationship using proceedings from the National Conference of Charities and Correction. Drawing on strategic action field theory, we examine how social work actors sought to influence police and, through these relationships, the broader field of charities and corrections. We trace this relationship across three eras (1874–1904, 1909–49, 1954–82), showing how social workers partnered with police to address social problems while seeking to reshape the field in line with social work’s rehabilitative and preventive ethos. Our findings reveal a persistent pattern of social workers seeking influence through partnership but stymied by power asymmetries and organizational constraints. By historicizing these dynamics, our study underscores the challenge of advancing reform through social work–police partnerships and the value of historical analysis for contemporary debates.