Policing Social Marginality: Contrasting Approaches

2018 ◽  
Vol 43 (04) ◽  
pp. 1491-1513 ◽  
Author(s):  
Steve Herbert ◽  
Katherine Beckett ◽  
Forrest Stuart
Keyword(s):  
Harm Reduction ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Police Culture ◽  
Public Concern ◽  
Police Practice ◽  
Widespread Adoption ◽  
Great Merit ◽  
Social Marginality ◽  
Police Tactics ◽  
Urban Police

Urban police officers concentrate much attention on individuals who experience various forms of inequality. Some police tactics that address the socially marginal garner public concern, especially when violence occurs. Solutions to such police-community tensions are elusive, in part because police cannot meaningfully reduce inequality. Yet there are better and worse ways to police the impoverished, and we use this article to contrast three general approaches: aggressive patrol, coercive benevolence, and officer-assisted harm reduction. We contrast their operating logics and their implications for police practice and tactics. We find great merit in officer-assisted harm reduction, which is a nascent effort. Pioneered in Seattle, it helps to reorient police culture and practice and enables efforts to address some of the challenges facing many impoverished individuals. Although its widespread adoption will not eliminate police-community tension in poor communities, it is superior to other alternatives, and thus deserves replication.

Changing the perception of police culture: recognising masculinity diversity and difference in a “dirty hands” vocation

2018 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 54-57
Author(s):  
Michael Kennedy ◽  
Philip Birch
Keyword(s):  
Police Officers ◽  
Hegemonic Masculinity ◽  
Social Institutions ◽  
Police Culture ◽  
Dirty Hands ◽  
Discussion Paper ◽  
Content Type ◽  
Police Practice ◽  
The Media ◽  
Biased Perception

Purpose The purpose of this paper is to problematise the application of hegemonic masculinity to police practice and culture. Design/methodology/approach This paper offers a viewpoint and is a discussion paper critiquing the application of hegemonic masculinity to police officers, their practice and culture. Findings The paper suggests that a broader conceptualisation of masculinity, offered by scholars such as Demetriou (2001), is required when considering policing and its culture, in order to more accurately reflect the activity and those involved in it. Research limitations/implications Writings concerning police practice and culture, both in the media and academic discourse, are questionable due to the application of hegemonic masculinity. The application of hegemonic masculinity can create a biased perception of policing and police officers. Practical implications The paper helps to engender a more accurate and balanced examination of the police, their culture and practice when writing about policing institutions and encourage social institutions such as academia to address bias in their examination of policing institutions and police officers. Originality/value There has been limited consideration in regards to multiple masculinities, police practice and culture.

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.

“Laying Hands” and Learning to Touch and Grab in the Police Academy

2019 ◽  
pp. 446-468
Author(s):  
Brian Lande
Keyword(s):  
Police Officer ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Gain Control ◽  
Police Force ◽  
Police Culture ◽  
Police Academy ◽  
Attitudes And Beliefs ◽  
Police Recruits ◽  
Hands On

Research on the formation of police officers generally focuses on the beliefs, accounts, and categories that recruits must master. Becoming a police officer, however, is not simply a matter of acquiring new attitudes and beliefs. This article attends to an unexplored side of police culture—the sensorial and tactile education that recruits undergo at the police academy. Rubenstein wrote in 1973 that a police officer’s first tool is his or her body. This article examines the formation of the police body by examining how police recruits learn to use their hands as instruments of control. In police vernacular, this means learning to “lay hands” (a term borrowed from Pentecostal traditions) or going “hands on.” This chapter focuses on two means of using the hands: searching and defensive tactics. It describes how instructors teach recruits to use their hands for touching, manipulating, and grabbing the clothing and flesh of others to sense weapons and contraband. It also examines how recruits are taught to grab, manipulate, twist, and strike others in order to gain control of “unruly” bodies. It concludes by discussing the implications of “touching like a cop” for understanding membership in the police force.

scholarly journals Patterns and Predictors of Alcohol Use in Male and Female Urban Police Officers

2010 ◽  
Vol 20 (1) ◽  
pp. 21-29 ◽  
Author(s):  
James F. Ballenger ◽  
Suzanne R. Best ◽  
Thomas J. Metzler ◽  
David A. Wasserman ◽  
David C. Mohr ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Alcohol Use ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Male And Female ◽  
Urban Police

Metabolic Syndrome and Carotid Intima Media Thickness in Urban Police Officers

2011 ◽  
Vol 53 (5) ◽  
pp. 553-561 ◽  
Author(s):  
Tara A. Hartley ◽  
Anoop Shankar ◽  
Desta Fekedulegn ◽  
John M. Violanti ◽  
Michael E. Andrew ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Metabolic Syndrome ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Intima Media Thickness ◽  
Carotid Intima Media Thickness ◽  
Media Thickness ◽  
Urban Police

scholarly journals Assessment of a prevention program for work-related stress among urban police officers

2012 ◽  
Vol 86 (1) ◽  
pp. 79-88 ◽  
Author(s):  
Bengt B. Arnetz ◽  
Eamonn Arble ◽  
Lena Backman ◽  
Adam Lynch ◽  
Ake Lublin
Keyword(s):  
Police Officers ◽  
Prevention Program ◽  
Work Related Stress ◽  
Work Related ◽  
Related Stress ◽  
Urban Police

Trials of loyalty: Ethnic minority police officers as ‘outsiders’ within a greedy institution

2012 ◽  
Vol 9 (4) ◽  
pp. 354-369 ◽  
Author(s):  
Abby Peterson ◽  
Sara Uhnoo
Keyword(s):  
Ethnic Minority ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Police Force ◽  
Police Culture ◽  
Police Organization ◽  
Security Officers ◽  
Minority Officers ◽  
New Recruits

In this article we interrogate how ethnicity interfaces with the police culture in a major Swedish police force. While addressing administrative levels, in particular police security officers’ screening of new recruits, we focus on the role that loyalty plays in defining how ethnicity interacts with mechanisms of exclusion and inclusion in the structures of rank-and-file police culture. The police authorities, perceived as ‘greedy institutions’, demand and enforce exclusive loyalty. We argue that ethnic minority officers are rigorously tested as regards their loyalty to their fellow officers and to the police organization, and the demands made on their undivided loyalty and the misgivings as to their unstinting loyalty act as barriers to inclusion in the organization.

Correlates of Pulmonary Function in Urban Police Officers

2009 ◽  
Vol 19 (9) ◽  
pp. 673
Author(s):  
P.N. Joseph ◽  
A. Mnatsakanova ◽  
H. Ochs-Balcom ◽  
H. Schünemann ◽  
M.E. Andrew ◽  
...  
Keyword(s):  
Pulmonary Function ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Urban Police

scholarly journals An Examination of Police Culture and its Effects on Patrol Officers Attitudes towards Restorative Justice

2020 ◽  
Author(s):  
◽  
Braeden Broschuk
Keyword(s):  
Restorative Justice ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Work Group ◽  
Structured Interview ◽  
Police Culture ◽  
Successful Implementation ◽  
Patrol Officers ◽  
Sequential Mixed Methods ◽  
Training Specialist ◽  
Two Phases

The purpose of this research is to examine the relationship between restorative justice and police culture, and the level to which this culture acts as barrier to the successful implementation and use of restorative justice by frontline police officers. Using a multi-level work group framework, frontline officer’s attitudes and understanding of restorative justice and police culture beliefs are examined, and then their impact on frontline police work is assessed. This study employs an explanatory sequential mixed methods design and is conducted in two phases. The initial quantitative phase involved distributing a Likert-style survey to frontline officers to measure their attitudes and understanding of restorative justice and police culture variables. After analysis of the initial quantitative findings, semi-structured interview questions were developed building on these findings to provide for a more in-depth qualitative analysis. Results indicate that police culture variables such as solidarity, teamwork, crime fighting and tough on crime attitudes are still persistent in policing, but frontline officers are generally accepting of restorative justice, and believe that it has a place in their frontline work as a dispositional tool. Findings indicate, however, that officers perceive restorative justice as another option only for less serious crimes and low risk offenders, and not as a new method of managing offender activity. Restorative justice is not being used to its fullest potential. To increase use of RJ diversion more thorough training, specialist designations and supervisory and middle management direction is recommended.

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