Book Review: Changing Police Culture: Policing in a Multicultural Society,
| Published date | 01 August 1997 |
| DOI | 10.1177/000486589703000207 |
| Author | Simon Holdaway |
| Date | 01 August 1997 |
| Subject Matter | Book Reviews |
Book Reviews
Changing Police Culture: Policing in a Multicultural Society, Janet B L
Chan, Cambridge University Press, Cambridge, (1997), 255 pp.
With intellectual origins in the USA, continuing research exploration in
Europe and now, with the publication of this Australian research monograph
by Janet Chan, the police occupational culture has achieved a global
significance. Police culture has become a taken-for-granted subject within
criminology, explaining the separation of law as it is written and law in action,
of policy as it is written and policy in action. Within this terrestrial context it
is reasonable to ask what more might be said about this phenomenon, other
than that it remains as solid as ever?
Janet Chan's research monograph sets out to make two main contributions
to the research literature, both realisable, both important. The first is to
discover and document empirically the existence
of
the occupational culture
within Australian policing, thus adding to criminology in general and police
studies within Australia in particular. The second is to enhance the theorisation
of the occupational culture, which challenges the host of atheoretical
evaluation-type studies that have characterised so much criminology.
Racism is a documented feature of the occupational culture. In Changing
Police Culture Janet Chan charts the fate of police reforms in the New South
Wales force, all intended to render officers more sensitive and responsive to
the multi-cultural context of their work. The lessons of the research have a
wide application. As she puts it, 'The New South Wales experience, then,
represents an important social experiment: the reasons for its lack of success
are of great interest to those concerned with police reform' (page 5).
Using a questionnaire survey, conducted on a random sample of police
officers working in areas of relatively high ethnic minority population,
semi-structured interviews with selected members of the police organisation
and a small number of other non-police sources, the findings from a case study
are unfolded chapter by chapter. First, the relevant literature about
discrimination in police work is described and discussed in an interesting,
analytical manner. This excellent section of the'
-'text
will prove of lasting
relevance for students. Next, two related chapters deal respectively with
attempts to change the occupational culture and the specific literature about
police culture. The conclusion is that reform based on changing rules
governing police work is inadequate. Studies that present an all-embracing
culture into which officers are uniformly socialised are equally deficient. The
former view is based on the notion of the police officer as a slavish follower
of rules, the latter characterises officersas cultural dupes. References back to
police culture explain everything and nothing. Perhaps the notion of police
culture should be jettisoned?
Chan aims to revive the analytical clarity of police culture by drawing on
Pierre Bourdieu's notions of 'field' and 'habitus', arguing that this permits the
retention of structural constraints upon action located beyond the police and,
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