Preview

Police Subculture Research

Good Essays
Open Document
Open Document
485 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Police Subculture Research
There is a very wide variety of jobs to choose from in the working world. Some jobs are made for certain types of people. Police work calls to a certain type of person, the type of person that would put his or her life in danger for the good of another. There is a debate on whether or not there is a distinct subculture in American Policing. I feel that there is a distinct subculture.

Current sociological research looks at police behaviors, values, beliefs, attitudes, socialization, or personalities to determine exactly what kind of people police officers are. Research shows that police officers when studied as a whole exhibit distinct tendencies. The same can be said however, for almost all professions. This may be due to the

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    When conducting his sociological study on police, Westley faced several difficulties getting the police to cooperate. Most of the time the police officers ignored Westley and refused to talk to him, nonetheless sit down to have an interview with him. On one occasion Westley observed a patrol sergeant come into the precinct and spout off delightment with himself stating he had just helped a woman with carrying her packages to her car. Upon further analysis of officers’ field notes, Westley noticed that there were a series of miniature incidents where the officers expressed an excessive amount of pleasure in aiding someone. Westley quickly rationalized that these expressions of pleasure and delightment from police personnel was due to the fact…

    • 388 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    You are interested in conducting research concerning police officers and their jobs. The information you want to gather, including job satisfaction or job hazards, is up to you as long as you clearly state ...…

    • 520 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Memo on Dhs to President

    • 2231 Words
    • 9 Pages

    2. Swanson, C. S., Territo, L., & Taylor, R. W. (2012). Police administration, structures, processes, and behavior. (8th ed.). Upper Saddle River,NJ: Prentice Hall.…

    • 2231 Words
    • 9 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Given the importance of the issue in improving police and community relations, many theories have been proposed for curbing the damaging behavior of police. Wilson (1 968), advocating police professionalism, identifies two models for controlling police misconduct: the professional model and the bureaucratic model. The professional model works by ensuring that only the best-trained, most honest candidates are employed as police officers. The bureaucratic model depends on the issuance and enforcement of rules and regulations through close supervision of police officer activities. Lundman (1 980) criticizes professionalism as a control on police misconduct. He suggests that professionalism, by focusing on the individual officer, ignore the social and organizational correlates of misconduct. Furthermore, professionalism is an obstacle to citizen control, since by definition a professional is one who has special knowledge and skills that the average person lacks. Instead, Lundman (1 980) maintains that most police misconduct is a product of organizational deviance, so that what needs to be controlled is not individual behavior, but organizational climates. According to this thesis, police departments may have different rates of citizen complaints. The difference varies with the particular departmental…

    • 11614 Words
    • 47 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In discussing the increasing militarization of police forces in the United States, historians have attempted to identify the origins and causes of this trend within various social, political, and economic contexts. Historians generally define police militarization as the process by which civilian police develop and display more militarized qualities in terms of ideology and practices.…

    • 55 Words
    • 1 Page
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    U.S. marshals enforced federal laws only; these were politicallyappointed positions with no training or pay.…

    • 507 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    This article talks about the relationship between passive and active representation for race in police departments. Interviews with police officers reveal that many would agree that police socialization may have a detrimental effect on the integrity of a department. They have found through research that African American police officers struggle with the pressure to be accepted by their community and this affects their ability to work. This article is unique in that they talk about the idea that with the presence of black officers there tends to be an increase in racial…

    • 699 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    By analyzing the culture for women and minorities in policing, it has been determined that a diverse force has become a necessity in today’s world to reflect the citizens who make up the population that they represent. Policing culture can be analyzed when looking at the internal and external mechanisms that control police discretion. Law enforcement officers use discretion every day to determine who to cite, who to arrest, and who to let go with a verbal warning.…

    • 1431 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    One well-known researcher in particular has been highlighted for his ample research on race as a determinant of attitudes from African-Americans toward police. He was one of the first researchers to explore this topic. His theory was that African Americans’ difficult past has led them to believe that there are active unethical practices within the justice system today, and that this belief leads to their generally unfavorable attitude toward police. In many of his findings, he observed and compared the differences between the attitudes of African Americans and their Caucasian counterparts when it came to dealings with law enforcement. What he found was that many of the African American subjects were…

    • 1337 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Police subculture is one that is questioned with police brutality, use of excessive force in administering order, cover-ups for fellow police officers, corruption, and other unethical issues in the police system. An efficient police system would mean a flawless one, where there is no corruption or any form of misconduct where recruitment and training would all be fair. The police have time and time again been on the frontline for assault against a particular society, such as the black community who continually are being harassed by the law-enforcement. The moment a police officer swears the oath, he also commits himself to serve all of mankind, regardless of age, color, ethnicity, social status, or race.…

    • 915 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Throughout the history of the United States, the ranks of police officers have been dominated by white males. As a result, the underrepresentation of minorities and women has long been a problem in policing. Title VII of the 1964 Civil Rights Act and the 1972 Equal Employment Opportunity Act made discriminating against any individual based upon their color, sex, religion or national origin illegal, thus paving the way for more minorities and women to become police officers. Before the implementation and enforcement of these acts, it was extremely difficult for minorities and women to get a job in policing. Experts in the field of law enforcement maintain that diversity in…

    • 958 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Police Ride Along

    • 3444 Words
    • 14 Pages

    Policing is surrounded by many myths and stereotypes. The most common of them all is that police are primarily crime fighters. This “crime fighter” title deals with the police, devoting most of their time and efforts to enforcing the criminal law meaning; patrolling to deter crime, investigating crimes, and arresting criminals. Only about one-third of an officer’s activities are devoted to criminal law enforcement (Walker & Katz, 2008). The average police officer rarely makes a felony…

    • 3444 Words
    • 14 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Police History Policing

    • 791 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Police History Kenna Puckett CJA/214 October 20, 2014 Eric Crawford Police History Policing in the United States dates back to the 1800s, but the police of the modern world are much different from the first police that took patrol. The first patrols did not have cars or two-way radio communication, but they started off always evolving policing and law enforcement organizations. In our current time the government has a direct relationship with law enforcement which affects policing practices. Federal, State, and local governments all play a role in policing practice. Although the law enforcement industry is ever-changing, sometimes it is important to understand where it came from and where it is going. Sir Robert Peel…

    • 791 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Racial profiling and law enforcement subculture have always been issues within the community. “Racial profiling refers to “any action that results in the heightened racial scrutiny of minorities—justified or not” (Russell-Brown, 2004, pp. 98–99). This definition recognizes racial discrimination by store clerks, governmental officials, and police.” (Gabbidon, Greene 2013) Law enforcement subculture refers to specific beliefs, behaviors, and attitudes in which police officers tend to follow or show. This refers to acts of violence, biased assumptions or conclusions, or acting in an unprofessional manner.…

    • 543 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    M., Marcum, C. D., Jennings, W. G., Higgins, G. E., & Banfield, J., 2014). Furthermore, empirical examinations have express possible contributing relationship between individual personality, impulsivity, youth, inexperience, gender, race, prior military service, academy performance, and police misconduct (social learning, strain, and organizational characteristics of how they conduct business) (Donner, C. M., Marcum, C. D., Jennings, W. G., Higgins, G. E., & Banfield, J., 2014) (Harris, C., 2014).…

    • 497 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics