The stages of transfer: Explaining the divergent forms of zero-tolerance policing in Oakland,California and Lima,Peru

Social scientists have long been interested in understanding how policies transfer from place to place. Most of the studies focused on this question have investigated the mechanisms involved in transfer and the factors influencing adoption of certain policy “innovations” (often described as “policy learning”). Recently, however, critical policy transfer scholarship has raised key questions about how and why policies transfer, what policies look like once implemented, and how to effectively identify the local factors shaping distinct implementation of the same policy. The present study sheds light on these issues by conducting sequential ethnographic comparison of zero-tolerance policing of local forms of “disorder” in two locations—East Oakland, California and the district of La Victoria in Lima, Peru. To trace the development of zero-tolerance policing and identify key junctures and factors that drove divergent implementations between these cases, it employs a novel “stages of transfer” approach that disaggregates the policy transfer process into three discreet stages: (1) rationale for adoption, (2) the interpretive framework of authorities, and (3) implementation by street-level bureaucrats. Applying this approach, it shows how Oakland and Lima went from initial similarity to increasing divergence as this policy was translated by officials and street-level bureaucrats. The study presents a systematic model for policy mobilities research and contributes to criminological debates on the spread of US-style crime-control policy to different parts of the world, revealing the ways these penal practices are (and are not) making their way abroad.