Policing in a Changing Constitutional Order. By Neil Walker. [London: Sweet & Maxwell. 2000. xxiii, 297 (Bibliography) 25 and (Index) 24 pp. Paperback. £34.95 net. ISBN 0–421–63370–0.]

2002 ◽  
Vol 61 (3) ◽  
pp. 715-738
Author(s):  
Christopher Forsyth
Keyword(s):  
Police Culture ◽  
Occupational Culture ◽  
Constitutional Order ◽  
False Proposition ◽  
Primary Determinant ◽  
Fallen World

This book rests on what may well seem to most lawyers to be a self-evident truth: that “[a]ll policing systems are profoundly influenced by the constitutional order in which they are situated” (p. 1). But the author states that for many, particularly sociologists, this would be a debatable or false proposition. These would consider either that “occupational culture [was] the primary determinant of police behaviour” or would at any rate stress the discrepancy between the “legal ideal and profane reality” (p. 1, footnote 1). These latter propositions appear to be as self-evident as the first one: we live in a fallen world and so there will always be a gap between “legal ideal and profane reality” and who can doubt that police culture influences police behaviour.

Police Community Support Officers

2019 ◽  
Author(s):  
Megan O'Neill
Keyword(s):  
Detailed Analysis ◽  
Police Officer ◽  
Direct Observation ◽  
Community Policing ◽  
Community Support ◽  
Support Staff ◽  
Ethnographic Study ◽  
Police Culture ◽  
Occupational Culture ◽  
Budget Reductions

Police Community Support Officers: Cultures and Identities within Pluralized Policing presents the first in-depth ethnographic study of Police Community Support Officers (PCSOs) since the creation of the role in 2002. Situated within the tradition of police ethnographies, this text examines the working worlds of uniformed patrol support staff in two English police forces. Based on over 350 hours of direct observation and thirty-three interviews with PCSOs and police constables in both urban and rural contexts, the book offers a detailed analysis of the operational and cultural realities of pluralized policing from within. Using a dramaturgic framework, the author finds that PCSOs have been undermined by their own organizations from the beginning, which has left a lasting legacy in terms of their relationships and interactions with police officer colleagues. The implications of this for police cultures, community policing approaches, and the success of pluralization are examined. The author argues that while PCSOs can have similar occupational experiences to those of constables, their particular circumstances have led to a unique occupational culture, one which has implications for existing police culture theories. The book considers these findings in light of budget reductions and police reforms occurring across the sector, processes in which PCSOs are particularly vulnerable.

scholarly journals Eluding the Esculacho

2020 ◽  
Vol 6 (1) ◽  
pp. 68-85 ◽  
Author(s):  
Celina Myrann Sørbøe
Keyword(s):  
Police Officers ◽  
Rio De Janeiro ◽  
Police Culture ◽  
Occupational Culture ◽  
Attitudes And Practices ◽  
Police Attitudes ◽  
Warrior Ethos ◽  
Drug Traffickers ◽  
Police Practices

The Police “Pacification” Unit (Unidade de Polícia Pacificadora—UPP) program in Rio de Janeiro pledged to pacify both militarized police officers and the communities they patrolled: favelas occupied by armed drug traffickers. While the UPPs promoted a softer approach, police practices remained permeated with logics of violence. In understanding why, this article examines how an enduring “warrior ethos” influences the occupational culture of the police. I frame this warrior ethos by reference to notions of masculinity and honor both in the police culture and in the favela, and approach the warrior as a masculine performance. This masculinities perspective on the ways in which policing activities are framed and enacted provides important insights into why it was so difficult to change police attitudes and practices.

The Widening Police Family, Community Policing, and Police Culture

2019 ◽  
pp. 3-26
Author(s):  
Megan O'Neill
Keyword(s):  
Community Policing ◽  
Community Support ◽  
Job Security ◽  
Police Work ◽  
First Century ◽  
Police Culture ◽  
Occupational Culture ◽  
The Public ◽  
Police Forces

Chapter 1 examines exiting research on policing pluralization, community policing, and police culture. Early studies of police occupational culture found that community policing and other types of ‘soft’ policing methods (such as partnership work) were not highly valued within the organization. However, this method was to revolutionize policing in the twenty-first century. In addition, ever more aspects of ‘police’ work are now undertaken by other actors in both the public and the private sectors. Consequently, what was once an insular and guarded organization is now more open to collaboration with outsiders, and it seems to appreciate better the ‘soft’ side of policing. However, as Police Community Support Officers are employees of police forces with a police-like mandate, these staff have been seen to present a greater danger to job security and the ‘purity’ of the police officer’s role.

scholarly journals AUTOBIOGRAPHIES OF A SPECIAL KIND: Recent writings by and on the police in South Africa

2016 ◽  
Author(s):  
Elrena Van der Spuy
Keyword(s):  
South Africa ◽  
Special Kind ◽  
Police Culture ◽  
Occupational Culture ◽  
Detailed Consideration ◽  
Police Perceptions ◽  
Anglo American

The occupational culture of police organisations has long fascinated policing scholars. In the Anglo- American world ethnographic enquiries have contributed much to our understanding of police perceptions, beliefs and actions. This article takes a closer look at efforts to describe and analyse police culture in South Africa. Three genres of writings are considered. Structural accounts of police culture and ethnographic accounts of the police are briefly discussed before turning to a more detailed consideration of a third and emerging genre: police autobiographies. Two recent autobiographies written by former policemen are explored in some detail with the view to considering the contribution of the autobiography to our understanding of the complex occupational dynamics of police and policing in South Africa.

scholarly journals Policewomen’s perceptions of occupational culture in the changing policing environment of England and Wales: A study in liminality

2020 ◽  
pp. 0032258X2091433
Author(s):  
Jennifer Brown ◽  
Jenny Fleming ◽  
Marisa Silvestri
Keyword(s):  
Cluster Analysis ◽  
Hierarchical Cluster Analysis ◽  
Hierarchical Cluster ◽  
Police Culture ◽  
Rite Of Passage ◽  
Occupational Culture ◽  
England And Wales ◽  
Empirical Demonstration ◽  
Transitional Phase

Liminality is the transitional phase of a rite of passage when individuals no longer hold to their traditions but have yet to transition to a new status. Utilising cultural characterisations reported by a sample of policewomen ( N = 127) from England and Wales, a hierarchical cluster analysis revealed empirical demonstration of a traditional preliminal condition, a transforming postliminal state and a liminal betwixt and between period, which are associated with different discriminatory experiences and policing styles. Women as potential liminal workers may offer a way to nudge movement towards the postliminal incorporation of a more academically oriented professional police culture.

scholarly journals Notes on law and police occupational culture in Brazil’s Military Polices: an explorative study

2021 ◽  
Author(s):  
Julia Goldani
Keyword(s):  
Exploratory Study ◽  
Police Culture ◽  
Occupational Culture ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Criminal Trials ◽  
Self Presentation ◽  
Legal Standards ◽  
Explorative Study ◽  
Interaction Rituals ◽  
Online Platforms

This research discusses the relations between law and police culture in the context of Brazil’s Military Polices, aiming to contribute both to discussions about these corporations’ non-compliance with legal standards and to socio-legal knowledge on policing. Pierre Bourdieu’s conceptualization of the juridical field, along with Erving Goffman’s theory of interaction rituals, are used to design a qualitative exploratory study that combines semi-structured interviews with lower-rank officers and observation of criminal trials in which these participated as witnesses. Due to COVID-19, methods were adapted to online platforms. The analysis suggests that Brazil’s juridical field structurally conditions the development of its police culture, although not in the ways intended. Additionally, law appears as an important symbolic figure in the construction of the officers’ occupational selves, and it is argued that contact with legal institutions engenders particular strategies of self-presentation, aimed at safeguarding both appearances and internal ideas about the profession.

Encountering Ambiguity: Muʿtazilī and Twelver Shīʿī Approaches to the Qur'an's Ambiguous Verses

2016 ◽  
Vol 18 (3) ◽  
pp. 91-115 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tehseen Thaver
Keyword(s):  
Eleventh Century ◽  
Arabic Language ◽  
Conceptual Approach ◽  
Islamic Jurisprudence ◽  
Primary Determinant ◽  
Linguistic Challenges ◽  
Qur'anic Exegesis ◽  
Exegetical Tradition ◽  
Qur'an Commentaries ◽  
Early Islamic

Within the broader discipline of Qur'anic exegesis, the sub-genre of the mutashābihāt al-Qurʾān (the ambiguous verses of the Qur'an) is comprised of works dedicated to the identification and explication of those verses that present theological or linguistic challenges. Yet, the approach, style, and objective of the scholars who have written commentaries on the ambiguous verses are far from monolithic. This essay brings into focus the internal diversity of this important exegetical tradition by focusing on the Qur'an commentaries of two major scholars in fourth/eleventh-century Baghdad, al-Sharīf al-Raḍī (d. 406/1016) and Qāḍī ʿAbd al-Jabbār (d. 415/1025). Al-Raḍī was a prominent Twelver Shīʿī theologian and poet while ʿAbd al-Jabbār was a leading Muʿtazilī theologian during this period; al-Raḍī was also ʿAbd al-Jabbār's student and disciple. Through a close reading of their respective commentaries on two Qur'anic verses, I explore possible interconnections and interactions between Shīʿī and Muʿtazilī traditions of exegesis, and demonstrate that while ʿAbd al-Jabbār mobilised the language of Islamic jurisprudence, al-Raḍī primarily relied on early Islamic poetry and the etymology of the Arabic language. Methodologically, I argue against a conceptual approach that valorises sectarian and theological identity as the primary determinant of hermeneutical desires and sensibilities.

Tire Treadwear — A Comprehensive Evaluation of the Factors: Generic Type, Aspect Ratio, Tread Pattern, and Tread Composition Part III: Results of Supplementary and UTQG Treadwear Test Series

1986 ◽  
Vol 14 (4) ◽  
pp. 235-263
Author(s):  
A. G. Veith
Keyword(s):  
Carbon Black ◽  
Comprehensive Evaluation ◽  
Work Intensity ◽  
Generic Type ◽  
Aspect Ratios ◽  
Index Variation ◽  
Primary Determinant ◽  
Severity Levels ◽  
High Test ◽  
Better Than

Abstract The effect of tread compound variation on tire treadwear was studied using bias and radial tires of two aspect ratios. Compound variations included types of rubber and carbon black as well as the levels of carbon black, process oil, and curatives. At low to moderate test severity, SBR and an SBR/BR blend performed better than NR while at high test severity NR and SBR were better than the SBR/BR blend. The SBR/BR blend was the best at low severity testing. Higher structure and higher surface area carbon black gave improved treadwear at all severity levels. The concept of a “frictional work intensity” as the primary determinant of treadwear index variation with test severity is proposed. Some factors which influence frictional work intensity are discussed.

Empowering Women in Blue Uniforms—Gender and Police in South Africa

2020 ◽  
Vol 7 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Shanta Singh ◽  
Sultan Khan
Keyword(s):  
South African ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Police Work ◽  
Police Force ◽  
Police Culture ◽  
The South ◽  
South African Police Service ◽  
Female Police Officers ◽  
South African Police ◽  
Female Officers

Gender in the police force has received scant attention by researchers, although there are complex social dimensions at play in how male and female law enforcement officers relate to each other in the workplace. Given the fact that males predominate in the police force, their female counterparts are often marginalised due to their sexual orientation and certain stereotypes that prevail about their femininity. Male officers perceive female officers as physically weak individuals who cannot go about their duties as this is an area of work deemed more appropriate to men. Based on this perception, female officers are discriminated against in active policing and often confined to administrative duties. This study looks at how female police officers are discriminated against in the global police culture across the globe, the logic of sexism and women’s threat to police work, men’s opposition to female police work, gender representivity in the police force, and the integration and transformation of the South African Police Service to accommodate female police officers. The study highlights that although police officers are discriminated against globally, in the South African context positive steps have been taken to accommodate them through legislative reform.

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