Police culture, stress conditions and working styles
| Author | Jan Terpstra,Dorian Schaap |
| Published date | 01 January 2013 |
| Date | 01 January 2013 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/1477370812456343 |
| Subject Matter | Articles |
European Journal of Criminology
10(1) 59 –73
© The Author(s) 2013
Reprints and permission: sagepub.
co.uk/journalsPermissions.nav
DOI: 10.1177/1477370812456343
euc.sagepub.com
Police culture, stress conditions
and working styles
Jan Terpstra and Dorian Schaap
Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice, The Netherlands
Abstract
The standard model of police culture assumes that internal and external stress shapes police
culture and that this culture promotes certain styles of policing. This model has been tested using
a survey of police officers in the Netherlands. The street-level culture of the Dutch police has
some elements in common with what we know from Anglo-Saxon studies, but there are also
important differences. Dutch rank-and-file police are less conservative, the machismo element is
less dominant and the fundamental mistrust of strangers is not as widespread. The findings of this
study generally correspond with the causal relations of the model. Remarkably, no relationship
was found between the professional police style and cultural elements in the police.
Keywords
Culture, police, police styles, stress, the Netherlands
Introduction
One of the central notions of police research is that the police have a distinct culture. The
early years of police research produced some classic studies on police culture in the
United States and the United Kingdom (such as those of Banton, 1964; Cain, 1973;
Rubinstein, 1973; Skolnick, 1966; Westley, 1970). Contemporary understandings of
these ‘complex ensembles of values, attitudes, symbols, rules, recipes, and practices’
(Reiner, 2010: 116) are largely based on these studies. The notion of a police culture is
now so commonly accepted that it often appears to be an ‘unquestioned orthodoxy’
(Sklansky, 2007: 20). This concept is often used as a taken-for-granted explanation of all
kinds of (mostly negative) aspects of the police, such as a lack of accountability, resist-
ance to innovation, adverse treatment of members of ethnic minorities, or a lack of com-
pliance with formal rules.
Corresponding author:
Jan Terpstra, Institute of Criminology and Criminal Justice, Faculty of Law, University of Nijmegen,
Nijmegen, NL 6500, The Netherlands.
Email: j.terpstra@jur.ru.nl
456343EUC10110.1177/1477370812456343European Journal of CriminologyTerpstra and Schaap
2013
Article
To continue reading
Request your trial