Rethinking Police Culture: Officers' Occupational Attitudes

• NCJ Number: 201086
• Author(s): Eugene A. Paoline III
• Date Published: 2001
• Length: 294 pages
• Sale Source: LFB Scholarly Publishing LLC
• Publication Format: Book (Hardbound)
• Publication Type: Issue Overview
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This book discusses the ways in which police officers perceive and cope with aspects of their working environments in contemporary police departments.

Abstract

The occupational attitudes associated with police culture include a distrust and suspiciousness of citizens, assessing people in terms of their potential threat, a “we vs. they” attitude toward citizens, and loyalty to the peer group. Officers vary in their attitudes toward citizens and supervisors, role orientations, legal restrictions, and policing tactics. They may cope differently with the strains of their work environment. This research examines multiple occupational outlooks, all of which are part of what culture includes. It questions if attitudinal subgroups are associated with differences in officers’ background characteristics and occupational attributes. The study adds the dimension of rank to the understanding of attitudinal similarities and differences among police officers. Results of the study show there are 7 distinct groups of patrol officers based on their responses to 10 attitudinal dimensions. They are traditionalists, law enforcers, old-pros, peacekeepers, lay-lows, anti-organizational street-cops, and Dirty Harry enforcers. Chapter 1 examines the concept of culture, workplace culture, police culture, and personnel heterogeneity in policing. Chapter 2 focuses on police officer attitudes, cultural and subcultural attitudes, and police officer background characteristics. In chapter 3, data and methodology for the study are detailed. Patrol officer measures and distributions are examined in chapter 4. Chapter 5 discusses attitudinal groups of patrol officers and cluster stability and subculture. Chapter 6 provides officers’ background characteristics and occupational attributes. In chapter 7, the attitudes of patrol supervisors and group membership are discussed. Chapter 8 provides key findings of the study, limitations of research, practical and theoretical implications, and future research suggestions. 111 notes, 5 appendices, 94 references, index