Perspectives on the police profession: an international investigation (original) (raw)
Related papers
Shedding Light on Police Culture: An Examination of Officers’ Occupational Attitudes
Police Quarterly, 2004
Research on police culture has generally fallen within one of two competing camps—one that depicts culture as an occupational phenomenon that encompasses all police officers and one that focuses on officer differences. The latter conceptualization of police culture suggests subcultures (or at least segmentation) that bound or delimit the occupational culture. Using survey data collected as part of the Project on Policing Neighborhoods (POPN) in two municipal police departments, the research reported here examines the similarities and differences among contemporary police officer attitudes in an effort to locate some of the boundaries of the occupational culture of police. Seven analytically distinct groups of officers are identified, suggesting that officers are responding to and coping with aspects of their occupational world in different ways. The findings call into question some of the assumptions associated with a monolithic police culture.
Taking stock: Toward a richer understanding of police culture
Journal of Criminal Justice, 2003
Police researchers have long speculated on the importance that culture plays in the everyday functioning of officers. Most characterizations of police culture focus on describing the various elements and facets of a single phenomenon among occupational members (e.g., group loyalty, crime fighter image, organizational tension with supervisors, etc.). Little work has been done in synthesizing what we ''know'' about this occupational culture, as textbook depictions highlight broad generalizations that tend to differ from text to text. A conceptual model of the police occupational culture is presented here that explains its causes, prescriptions, and outcomes. This monolithic model is then critiqued based on research that highlights the complexity of culture, noting variation across organizations and within by rank and style. The article also assesses the ways in which police culture thought is beginning to change, as departments diversify demographically and philosophically. The article concludes with recommendations for future studies of police culture.
Police culture: An empirical appraisal of the phenomenon
Criminology & Criminal Justice, 2019
Although police culture is a widely researched topic, not much is known about the nature of the relationships among the various components and the degree to which they are critical in the make-up of police culture. In this study, we revisit the concept of police culture and explore the nature and directions of the relationships among the various elements that constitute police culture. Drawing data from a survey of 1970 Turkish National police officers we identify six commonly recognized dimensions of police culture based on the existing literature. The results from the four different confirmatory factor analyses (CFA) indicate that of the six dimensions, the first-order CFA with five factors best fit the data. Further, the results suggest that police culture did not account for the covariation among the six first-order factors. These findings suggest that police culture is a more complex and multifaceted concept than the prior literature suggests.
Occupational Culture in Policing Reviewed: A Comparison of Values in the Public and Private Police
International Journal of Public Administration, 2009
Recent years have seen an increasing privatization of the security sector, leading to an intermingling of private and public policing and a possible 'value-shift' for the overall security policy. Systematic comparative research between police and private security values is, however, still lacking. This article intends to help filling this void by giving an overview of literature on values and occupational culture in both sectors. We conclude that culture is mostly approached in a one-sided, stereotypical and negative way. Our recommendation is to integrate the occupational culture research in the broader academic tradition that focuses on organizational culture and climate. 1.
The myth(?) of the police sub-culture
This study examines empirically the extent to which there is evidence of an endemic sub-culture of policing among a sample of sheriffs' deputies. While failing to observe widespread adherence to the sub-cultural norms and values suggested in the literature, such adherence is observed among a subset of our sample. Advanced statistical techniques (i.e. cluster analysis and discriminant function analysis) are then used to create, replicate, and validate a numerical taxonomy of policing. The taxonomy reveals three types of law enforcement orientations: ``Sub-Cultural Adherents,'' ``COP Cops,'' who represent a nouveau sub-culture strongly committed to public service, and``Normals,'' who, on average, are quite average and are not especially committed to either sub-cultural form. Both those working in the sociology of work and occupations and those in industrial/occupational psychology acknowledge that employees tend to adopt job-specific sub-cultural responses (i.e. shared beliefs, attitudes, values, and norms) to the contingencies they experience in their organizational and. Criminologists working within these perspectives have consistently noted the unique sub-cultural responses of criminal justice practitioners, especially law enforcement and correctional officers, given the particular characteristics of these fields. That is, the occupational environment of criminal justice includes exposure to human misery, exposure to great situational uncertainty, and exposure to intrinsic danger, all coupled with high levels of coercive authority and``invisible discretion'' granted to these officers which enable them to carry out their mandates. Moreover, most criminal justice employees work in unique organizational environments which expose them to rigid, militaristic authority structures with fixed lines of command and communication that are coupled with often vague and conflicting The Emerald Research Register for this journal is available at http://www.emeraldinsight.com/researchregister The current issue and full text archive of this journal is available at
Police personnel cultures: a comparative study of counter terrorist and criminal investigation units
Criminal Justice Studies, 2009
There seems to be no such thing as one single police culture. Depending on organization, structure, and task, culture in the police varies. In this research, counter terrorist police and criminal investigation police in Norway are compared. Although Norway has one police service, which is based on the principle of coherence, meaning that all functions are in one organization, significant cultural differences were found. The most significant difference in occupational culture was found on the scale from time firm vs. time floats. Police officers in the counter terrorist police find that time schedules, deadlines, and speed are important in their job. On the other hand, police officers in the criminal investigation police find sufficient time and not being run by the watch important in their job. The second most significant difference in occupational culture was found on the scale from legality vs. effectiveness. Police officers in the counter terrorist police find it more important to follow regulations and instructions than criminal investigators.
The Professional Identity of Police Officers
Barometr Regionalny, 2023
The research results presented in the article concern several aspects of the professional identity of police offi cers. The concept of professional identity includes such aspects as the mission, basic goals and values of a given organization and its organizational culture. The main objective was to identify the key elements of the identity of Polish police offi cers that contribute to the eff ectiveness of the organization. The article discusses the factors in the workplace that aff ect the formation of a police offi cer's professional identity. The authors assumed that a mere refl ection on the professional identity of a police offi cer is enough to extract those elements or features that testify to its specifi city and distinctiveness in relation to other professions. The research began in January 2021 and was completed in July 2021. The (anonymous) survey covered 1,054 police offi cers. The research confi rmed that the competence of Polish police offi cers acquired during their service shapes their personal, relational and professional identity and that their interpersonal relations are focused primarily on the tasks assigned rather than on building their professional identity. Factors such as specifi c working conditions in the police (stress, pressure, changes) aff ect the formation of police offi cers' professional identity, both in individual and collective terms. The results are of supra-regional importance, as the indicated aspects concern most police services in Europe and in the world.
Sociological Research Online, 2017
This article focuses on police officers' views of the professionalisation of policing in England against a backdrop of government reforms to policing via establishment of the College of Policing, evidence-based policing and a period of austerity. Police officers view professionalisation as linked to: top-down government reforms; education and recruitment; the building of an evidence-base; and the ethics of policing (Peelian principles). These elements are further entangled with new public management principles, highlighting the ways in which professionalism can be used as a technology of control to discipline workers. There are tensions between the government's top-down drive for police organisations to professionalise and officers' bottom-up views of policing as an established profession. Data is presented from qualitative interviews with 15 police officers and staff in England.
“Tough, loyal, reputable”: D/discourses and subcultures in police vocational training
avetra.org.au
A critical examination of police training (i.e., vocational knowledge and skills to fulfil police operations) raises concerns about its doctrinal intent and value versus its educative intent and value, and questions its capacity to meet the demands of policing in the 21 st century. Police training acts as a formally sanctioned vehicle for police culture, subcultures, and D/discourses but this is complicated by (a) the predominance of pedagogical training practices that support a trainer-centred approach and standardised lecture format for training, (b) a focus on law enforcement at the cost of higher-order conceptual skills, (c) police management education with a subculture resistant to theoretical analysis and critical reflection, and a set of unconscious and unchallengeable assumptions regarding police work, conduct, and leadership, and (d) debates about the relevance of a traditional (i.e., command and control) versus a contemporary (i.e., community policing) model of policing. This paper provides an overview of research into the 'discourse-practice' framework of policing in a vocational police training context with recruits. The research distinguishes the dominant subcultures and prevailing D/discourses (words, tools, beliefs, thinking styles), and analyses the impact of these on individuals' identity, subjectivity, agency, learning, and 'membership' within the policing community. A backdrop to this research is the agenda amongst Australian and New Zealand police services for policing to become a profession.