‘Unless one of us dies’: The stickiness of taint and perceptions of support in policing
| Published date | 01 June 2024 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/14613557231219347 |
| Author | Camilla R De Camargo,Lilith A Whiley |
| Date | 01 June 2024 |
| Subject Matter | Original Research Articles |
‘Unless one of us dies’: The stickiness of
taint and perceptions of support in policing
Camilla R De Camargo
Lancaster University Law School, UK
Lilith A Whiley
Sussex Business School, University of Sussex, UK
Abstract
The behaviour of certain members of a profession can ‘taint’other workers. In this qualitative study, we explore how
police officers perceive media constructions of their profession. Participating police officers feel ridiculed by the
media and are overwhelmed by instances of public disdain. They acknowledge moments of esteem, often as a result
of self-sacrifice, yet lament that these are generally temporary and fleeting, and instead, their profession is tarnished
by the heinous acts committed by some police officers, constructed as representative of the profession as a whole.
We discuss police officers’understanding of the stickiness of ‘taint’within their occupation and how it can affect percep-
tions of the self.
Keywords
Police, policing, media, taint, esteem, prestige, dirty work
Submitted 13 Jul 2023, Revise received 27 Sep 2023, accepted 22 Nov 2023
Introduction
Media framings construct ‘collective understandings of
reality’(Ricciardelli et al., 2023) and play a crucial role
in the positioning of professions as dirty or prestigious
(Grandy and Mavin, 2012). Messner and Duncan (1998:
173) contend that the media ‘do not simply report news;
they actively construct it by framing it: that is, by offering
a context for viewing or understanding an event’(emphasis
in the original). For example, following the 2008 recession,
media reporting of investment banking contributed to its
loss of esteem in the public eye; what was once perceived
to be a prestigious occupation was positioned as responsible
for the economic chaos and, therefore, constructed to be
tainted and dirty (Stanley et al., 2014).
Owing to the current climate of mediatisation of politics
and social relations, policing is more a ‘matter of symbol-
ism’than ‘substance’, with public knowledge about
policing being determined, less by policing’s day-to-day
realities, but by the media (Reiner, 2012). Graziano et al.
(2010) evidenced in an experimental design that attitudes
about police conduct were indeed susceptible to media con-
structions. Since then, several studies have researched
media constructions of policing, including portrayals of
police brutality (Lawrence, 2022), heroism (Terpstra and
Salet, 2020) and racism (Fridkin et al., 2017). However,
less is known about how police perceive these media con-
structions of their profession. Indeed, how police officers
react to media portrayals is important because, as
Ricciardelli et al. (2023) argued with correctional officers,
these can influence how officers adapt their social practices
(especially when these can be recorded), and their overall
Corresponding author:
Camilla R De Camargo, Lancaster University Law School, Bailrigg,
Bowland North, Lancaster LA1 4YW, UK.
Email: c.decamargo@lancaster.ac.uk
Original Research Article
International Journal of
Police Science & Management
2024, Vol. 26(2) 243–257
© The Author(s) 2023
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DOI: 10.1177/14613557231219347
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