Patriarchy, gender, infantilisation: A cultural account of police intelligence work in Scotland
| DOI | 10.1177/0004865815626964 |
| Published date | 01 June 2017 |
| Date | 01 June 2017 |
| Author | Colin Atkinson |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
Australian & New Zealand
Journal of Criminology
2017, Vol. 50(2) 234–251
!The Author(s) 2016
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DOI: 10.1177/0004865815626964
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Article
Patriarchy, gender,
infantilisation: A cultural
account of police intelligence
work in Scotland
Colin Atkinson
Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research, Glasgow, UK
Abstract
Drawing upon qualitative research undertaken in Scotland, this paper provides new insights
into police culture by exploring the interactions between sworn police officers and civilian
intelligence analysts engaged in intelligence work. The claim is made that by exploring the
cultural impact of intelligence analysis, it is possible to identify patriarchal dispositions within
police culture and the emergence of a gender order in policing that subordinates femininity,
youth and other masculinities that run counter to police culture’s form of hegemonic mas-
culinity. This gender order is interwoven with processes of infantilisation that inhibit the
integration of intelligence analysts into police intelligence work. This article concludes by
discussing the prospects for cultural change in policing from the inter-related perspectives of
both social theory and professional practice.
Keywords
Gender regime, infantilisation, intelligence-led policing, patriarchy, police culture
Introduction
Around two decades ago, the prospects for the study of police culture seemed bleak: the
subject was taken-for-granted within criminology (Holdaway, 1997a, p. 204) or, alter-
natively, was considered to be so well-traversed that it had become cliche
´d (Dixon, 1995,
p. 63). Despite such assessments, the study of police culture was subsequently reinvigo-
rated through the work of scholars such as Janet Chan (see 1996, 1997, 2003) and has
more recently attracted the attention of a new and exciting array of academics (see
Campeau, 2015; Loftus, 2008, 2009, 2010). Importantly, there still remains scope for
further conceptual development in this area, particularly in relation to the roles, status
and impact of unsworn civilian police staff (see Atkinson, 2015). Over a decade ago Janet
Foster (2003, p. 212) argued that very little is known about how civilian police staff
Corresponding author:
Colin Atkinson, Scottish Centre for Crime and Justice Research, Ivy Lodge, 63 Gibson Street, Glasgow, G12 8LR,
UK.
Email: colin.atkinson@glasgow.ac.uk
perceive the world of policing, how much dominant cultures influence their attitudes,
values and approach to their work, or whether they in fact form significant sub-cultural
groups of their own. These matters remain largely overlooked in the academic literature,
which continues to neglect civilian police staff or account for the ways in which they may
exercise power, agency or resistance in contemporary policing.
1
This article addresses
these shortcomings by exploring the interactions between sworn police officers and civil-
ian intelligence analysts engaged in police intelligence work in Scotland.
This research draws upon data from a qualitative exploration of intelligence-led
policing in Scotland. The early history of policing in Scotland has been described as a
‘much neglected topic’ (Carson, 1984), but recent developments in Scottish policing – in
its people, practices, cultures and structures – also remain understudied. Rooting its
analysis in contemporary Scottish policing, this research renders visible a group of civil-
ian police staff – intelligence analysts – who, despite the rise of intelligence-led policing
(Heaton, 2000; Maguire, 2000; Maguire & John, 2006; Ratcliffe, 2008a), have featured
relatively little in academic research and been peripheral to public debate on policing.
This is concerning given that intelligence analysis has become increasingly pivotal to
intelligence-led policing (Deukmedjian & de Lint, 2007; Ratcliffe 2008a), with civilian
intelligence analysts emerging as the bearers of new knowledge and skills that are crucial
to making effective policing decisions (Ratcliffe, 2008b).
In doing so, this article develops two lines of inquiry. Firstly, it provides an appraisal
of previous accounts of police culture that is sensitive to the diverse range of personnel
who are active in policing. Despite the recent recognition that policing has become
increasingly pluralised (Johnston, 2003; Jones & Newburn, 2006; Loader, 2000), police
culture – that complex of values, beliefs, attitudes, expectations and norms shared
between police officers and which can influence their approach to policing and their
professional practices – remains dominant in the field. Police culture is formed in the
crucible of a police officer’s early and shared experiences of uniformed, street-policing,
and this is where it finds its fullest expression. However, aspects of this culture can
persist throughout a police officer’s career, even as they move beyond the role of the
street-level cop. Unpacking cultures in policing Peter K. Manning recently asserted that
distinctions should be made in discussions of policing between an occupational culture,
an organisational culture and a sub-culture characterising a distinctive set of inter-
actional patterns (Manning, 2014, p. 112). Manning’s distinctions disclose how it is
necessary to appreciate how police culture is shaped by both the external occupational
milieu and the internal organisational environment, and of how other cultures and sub-
cultures in the police service exist in relation to, or in dialogue with, the hegemony of
police culture. Crucially, it is argued in this paper that civilian police staff, having never
‘served their time’ on the street, cannot fully participate in police culture; a situation that
has inhibiting and exclusionary consequences for intelligence analysts. Secondly, and
with equal importance, this article addresses both how police culture adapts as it tran-
sitions from the street to the intelligence environment, and how civilian intelligence
analysts in Scotland experience and respond to police culture in this context. It is
argued that intelligence analysts are infantilised through a symbolic violence – rooted
in the forms of hegemonic masculinity and patriarchy ingrained within police culture –
that discriminates against the perceived femininity and youth of the analyst.
Intelligence analysts lack the required habitus – a Bourdieusian ‘feel for the game’
Atkinson 235
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