Deviance and Conformity in the Reproduction of Order (From Organizational Police Deviance - Its Structure and Control, P 29-47, 1981, Clifford D Shearing, ed. - See NCJ-85562)

• NCJ Number: 85564
• Author(s): C D Shearing
• Date Published: 1981
• Length: 19 pages
• Sale Source: Butterworth
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This paper considers how Canadian police officers working within a communications center responsible for receiving calls for assistance and dispatching officers respond to the expectations of the police subculture as well as to the police organizations's formal rules and values.

Abstract

The officers responded to nonegalitarian subcultural norms and egalitarian departmental policy in different ways. Based on these differences, researchers identified a typology of role models that police used in constructing their own actions and in identifying themselves and others within the police community. Police officers recognized four ideal responses as role models: the wise officer, fully committed to the police subculture; the real officer, committed but contemptuous of legitimizing their responses under public policy; the good officer, rejecting fully police subcultural norms and the hypocrisy of 'management by appearances;' and the cautious officer, indifferent to both the police subculture and policy. The police department response to these four types of responses is to place each type of officer in positions where their inclinations are aligned with organizational objectives. So long as even critical individuals operate within the police organization, they become part of the system. Notes and over 40 references are supplied.