Magda Boutros

Magda Boutros’ research examines how policing and criminal justice institutions (re)produce social inequalities, and how people act collectively to challenge them. Her first book, The Police, Activists, and Knowledge (2026), examines the social movements that brought the issues of police violence, racial profiling, and police impunity to the forefront of public conversations in France. Drawing on a comparative ethnography of three activist coalitions, the book analyses how activists challenge the police's epistemic power (i.e. their ability to determine what is known and what remains hidden about policing). It shows that that the way in which activists produce knowledge about policing and inequalities shapes how they define the problem of racialized policing, and how they influence the public and political debate about policing, equality, and justice. 

In another project, Magda published with Aline Daillère a report for the Defender of Rights, entitled Fines, Evictions and Stops (2025), which examines policing practices aiming to “evict undesirables” from urban spaces. 

She is currently working on the production and reception of local security policies in three mixed neighbourhoods.

• Inquiries in Sociology (Bachelor students)
• Méthodes Qualitatives II : Ethnographie (Masters students)

• 2026, The Police, Activists, and Knowledge: The Struggle Against Racialized Policing in France, Stanford University Press, February, 278p. 
• 2026, « L’éviction policière des “indésirables”: inégalités raciales et organisation spatiale à Paris », Déviance et Société, Vol. 49, n° 3, à paraître. 
• 2025 (avec Aline Daillère), “Amendes, évictions, contrôles : la gestion des ‘indésirables’ par la police en région parisienne”, Rapport pour le Défenseur des droits, série “Ėclairages”, avril, 36 p.  [English version]
• 2024, "The Epistemic power of the police", Theoretical Criminology, Online First, 23 July.
• 2023, "Contrôles au faciès in France: From denial to recognition to inaction”, In: J. de Maillard, K. Verfaillie, M. Rowe (eds), The politicization of police stops in Europe: Public Issues and Police reform, Palgrave.
• 2023, « Mobilisations contre les pratiques policières », In: Wesley Skogan and Jacques de Maillard (eds), Police et Société en France,  Presses de Sciences Po. 
• 2022, “Antiracism without Races: How activists produce knowledge about race and policing in France”, Social Problems, spac011.
• 2022, “Legal mobilization and branches of law: Contesting racialized policing in French courts”, Law and Society Review, vol. 56, n°4, p. 623-645.
• 2022 (with Anthony Pregnolato and Paul Le Derff), « Comprendre les mobilisations contre les violences policières – Understanding mobilizations against police violence », Champ Pénal, n° 26.