NCJ Number
160851
Journal
British Journal of Criminology Volume: 36 Issue: 1 Dated: (Winter 1996) Pages: 109-134
Date Published
1996
Length
26 pages
Annotation
This paper reviews the concept of police culture and its utility for analyzing the impact of police reform.
Abstract
The persistence of police culture has been considered a serious obstacle to police reform, but the concept itself has been poorly defined and is of little analytic value. Drawing on Bourdieu's concepts of "field" and "habitus" and adopting a framework developed by Sackmann, this paper suggests a new way of conceptualizing police culture, one which recognizes its interpretive and creative aspects, as well as the legal and political context of police work. Sackmann's four dimensions of cultural knowledge, when used as a way of elaborating on Bourdieu's habitus, contribute to an understanding of the processes of change. They are particularly useful for suggesting ways in which cultural change can be initiated and maintained. The police literature has tended to lump values, beliefs, attitudes, informal rules, practices, etc., together under the label of police culture. Sackmann's model provides a way of distinguishing the dimension of cultural knowledge that can be changed by management, that is, axiomatic knowledge, from those dimensions that can only be changed and reinforced by the successful implementation of strategies and enactment of processes that are supportive of the direction of change. By integrating Bourdieu's conception of field and habitus with Sackmann's dimensions of cultural knowledge, this article presents a model of police cultural change that emphasizes the relationship between the social, legal, and organizational context of policing and the schemas, classifications, and vocabulary of precedents central to the craft of policing. The utility of this framework is discussed in relation to a case study of reforming police/minority relations in Australia. 1 figure and 61 references