Transforming the Culture of Policing: Thoughts from South Africa
| DOI | 10.1177/00048658950280S107 |
| Date | 01 December 1995 |
| Published date | 01 December 1995 |
| Author | Clifford Shearing |
| Subject Matter | Article |
Transforming the Culture of Policing:
Thoughts from South Africa
Clifford Shearing*
Introduction
Almost every discussion of the transformation of the way policing is provided
considers the issue of the police occupational culture (ways of seeing, being
and doing
-
Bourdieu’s habitus, ‘mental and corporeal schemata of
perception, appreciation and action’ (Wacquant 1992: 16 cited in Chan
forthcoming)) that shapes the way in which police officers practise policing.
Equally universal is the conclusion that for policing to be transformed this
culture must be reshaped in ways that will promote policing that conforms
with the rule of law. Sometimes these discussions also question the nature of
the formal law and policy on the grounds that law and policy provide an
enabling rather than a limiting framework that promotes deviation from the
freedom and equality that the rule of law is designed to protect (Ericson 1981;
Brogden, Jefferson
&
Walklate 1988: 170). Whether this additional argument
is made or not, there is near universal agreement that if policing is to be
reshaped then the culture of the police must be transformed. I
do
not want to
quarrel with either of these arguments but I will in what follows point to the
limitation of their focus on the public police as the locus of attempts to reshape
policing. In making this argument I will locate my remarks within the context
of the discussions and initiatives that are taking place within South Africa to
transform policing there. The argument I
am
going to develop builds upon and
elaborates the arguments of Brogden and Shearing (1993). The discussion will
be in two parts. First I will review our understanding of police culture and how
it operates to shape policing. Second I will explore the implications of this
analysis for the question of transformation and how it might be accomplished.
Culture and policing
There is widespread agreement among scholars that the policing which people
get is a function of the culture of policing that permeates the institutions
through which policing takes place. The argument that has been developed
reflects more general arguments within sociology about the relationship
between culture and action. As I indicated, there have been two variants to
these arguments. Both of these take
off
from a rule-based analysis that arises
from, and is captured by, the use of a dramaturgical metaphor. Culture, within
this conception, is a script, or a set of instructions/rules, for action. Culture
constitutes agency by constructing agents as actors
-
actors who play out
roles that tell them what to do, that is, how to ‘go on’ from one space-time
moment to the next.
~
*
Centre
of
Criminology, University
of
Toronto and Community
Peace
Foundation, University
of the
Western
Cape.
54
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