1997Cambridge University Press eBooksOpen access

Changing Police Culture

Janet B. L. Chan

Open full text 794 citations

Abstract

Police culture is often considered as both a cause of police deviance and an obstacle for police reform. In this case study of police racism and police reform in Australia, the author provides a critical assessment of police initiative in response to the problem of police/minorities relations. The book examines the dynamics of change and resistance within a police organisation and captures the complexity and unpredictability of the change process. It questions the utility of the traditional conception of police culture and proposes a new framework for understanding the inter-relationships between the structural conditions of police work, police cultural knowledge, and police practice. A highly original and valuable contribution to policing studies, this book is both empirically rich and theoretically informed.

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What this paper is about

Police culture is often considered as both a cause of police deviance and an obstacle for police reform. In this case study of police racism and police reform in Australia, the author provides a critical assessment of police initiative in response to the problem of police/minorities relations. The book examines the dynamics of change and resistance within a police organisation and captures the complexity and unpredictability of the change process. It questions the utility of the traditional conception of police culture and proposes a new framework for understanding the inter-relationships between the structural conditions of police work, police cultural knowledge, and police practice. A highly original and valuable contribution to policing studies, this book is both empirically rich and theoretically informed.

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Available abstract

Police culture is often considered as both a cause of police deviance and an obstacle for police reform. In this case study of police racism and police reform in Australia, the author provides a critical assessment of police initiative in response to the problem of police/minorities relations. The book examines the dynamics of change and resistance within a police organisation and captures the complexity and unpredictability of the change process. It questions the utility of the traditional conception of police culture and proposes a new framework for understanding the inter-relationships between the structural conditions of police work, police cultural knowledge, and police practice. A highly original and valuable contribution to policing studies, this book is both empirically rich and theoretically informed.

Key concepts: Deviance (statistics), Police science, Criminology, Resistance (ecology), Sociology, Obstacle, Political science, Public relations

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