Police Culture
Police Culture in the United States
Team B: Sean Milton, Shane Hunter, Joshua Nine, Tim Eichler, and Jason Fougere
CJA/214
November 20, 2012
Bernard Fitchpatrick
Needs to be 1,050-1400 words
Police Culture in the United States
Analyze police culture, including the significance of stress in policing The study in police culture started in 1960 and the 1970’s by the work of Cain and Banton in the United Kingdom and Skolnick and Westlesy in the United States. Even though the study work wasn’t specifically concerned with police culture but rather sociological analysis of police officer and police work, it provided a wealth of material through the observation and analysis that was then later used to help formulate the theories of police culture. The characteristics of police culture have tended to remain static since the early days when first police researching program started. The literature on the police culture remained uncontenious for many years. Once the research started the results were rarely challenged and it is in only recent years that anyone has begun to see a body of work that is questioning these ‘core assumptions’ (Chan, 1997) about policing that has emanated from a culture analysis. It makes the police more then rather than less human than they have and reproduce their own culture. The police officer job is a very stressful job in many aspects, the occupational stressors as a cop rank most highly within the population were not specific to policing. The organization issues such as the demands of work impinging upon the life at home, lack of consultation and communication, the lack of control over workload, and the support and excess workload in general. The most recent study confirms previous findings of organization culture and workload as the key issues in officer stress. Given that the degree that symptomatology appears to be worsening, management action is required. Further research is indicated within the police
Team B: Sean Milton, Shane Hunter, Joshua Nine, Tim Eichler, and Jason Fougere
CJA/214
November 20, 2012
Bernard Fitchpatrick
Needs to be 1,050-1400 words
Police Culture in the United States
Analyze police culture, including the significance of stress in policing The study in police culture started in 1960 and the 1970’s by the work of Cain and Banton in the United Kingdom and Skolnick and Westlesy in the United States. Even though the study work wasn’t specifically concerned with police culture but rather sociological analysis of police officer and police work, it provided a wealth of material through the observation and analysis that was then later used to help formulate the theories of police culture. The characteristics of police culture have tended to remain static since the early days when first police researching program started. The literature on the police culture remained uncontenious for many years. Once the research started the results were rarely challenged and it is in only recent years that anyone has begun to see a body of work that is questioning these ‘core assumptions’ (Chan, 1997) about policing that has emanated from a culture analysis. It makes the police more then rather than less human than they have and reproduce their own culture. The police officer job is a very stressful job in many aspects, the occupational stressors as a cop rank most highly within the population were not specific to policing. The organization issues such as the demands of work impinging upon the life at home, lack of consultation and communication, the lack of control over workload, and the support and excess workload in general. The most recent study confirms previous findings of organization culture and workload as the key issues in officer stress. Given that the degree that symptomatology appears to be worsening, management action is required. Further research is indicated within the police
References: * Grant, H.B. & Terry, K.J. 2012. Law Enforcement in the 21st Century, 3rd ed. Upper Saddle River, NJ. Pearson/Prentice Hall. * Walker, S. & Katz, C.M. 2011. The Police in America: An Introduction, 7th ed. New York, NY. McGraw-Hill. * University of Phoenix. (2011). CJ Interactive [Multimedia]. Retrieved from University of Phoenix, CJA214 website. * * * *