Many people, including some
experts in
psychology,
psychiatry and
sociology believe that it is possible for someone to go
overboard and
excessively and
irrationally
fear the
police, or even the brutally
oppressive secret police. Of course most people do not fear the police or secret police, but, instead, most people
respect such
government functions for their
benefits of
protection and an orderly
society. However, if the circumstances and conditions in a person's life merit so, it is indeed possible for that person to fear the police or secret police just as much as
strangers,
women,
light, or even
eggs.
Astynomiaphobia (
Greek αστυνομία
astynomia "police" + φοβία
phobia "fear") is a nearly seventy (70) year old name for what is
occasionally regarded as an irrational fear of police and
law enforcement; it is not a
neologism, but was
coined back in the early 1940's by Dr. Eryx Petalas, a Greek psychologist. Petalas, after
diligent research and
thorough observation,
concluded that there existed a
rational way, as well as an irrational way, to fear those who strictly
enforce the
law,
investigate crime and
arrest and
detain suspected
criminals without
warrant. However, Petalas'
ideas were utterly
scorned by most of his
colleagues, and the idea of a "police phobia" went virtually unrecognized and forgotten. The terms
police phobia and
policophobia have been used more as
informal,
vulgar and
humorous terms. Unlike
astynomiaphobia, they are not really
scientific terms, but instead are terms of common
humor,
slang and
conversation.
Astynomiaphobia has not been widely
published because few psychological specialists have actually done
research on the phobia, but research is
currently being done, mostly by a handful of psychologists in
Europe and in the
Middle East. Of course if such a
specific phobia actually
exists in its own right, then it would probably add to the
burden of the government's
prosecutors, because
defendants would be able to use
astynomiaphobia (fear of police) as a
criminal defense in
court under certain
circumstances.