'Darker shades of blue': A comparison of three decades of South African Police Service culture
DOI:
https://doi.org/10.17159/2413-3108/2016/i57a1241Keywords:
Police culture, solidarity, isolation, cynicism, South Africa, SAPSAbstract
Research and thought on the public police have emphasized the value of police culture in comprehending the various aspects of policing. Recently a ‘contemporary police culture’ school of thought has risen, challenging prevailing traditional portrayals of homogeneity and universality. Aficionadas of this method argue that new developments in police and policing have dramatically changed police culture and conventional characterisations do not reflect the complex minutiae of the police character, and as such are antiquated, illogical and useless. This manuscript is an attempt to contribute towards this debate by gauging indicators evincing police culture solidarity, isolation, and cynicism amongst a representative sample of South African Police Service (SAPS) functional police officials with ten (10), twenty (20), and thirty (30) years SAPS experience.
Downloads
References
William A. Westley. "Violence and the police." American Journal of Sociology 59, no. 1 (1953): 34-41.
Nigel Fielding. Joining forces: Police training, socialization, and occupational competence. Routledge London, 1988. ; Dick Hobbs. Doing the business: Entrepreneurship, the working class, and detectives in the east end of london. Clarendon Press Oxford, 1988. ; M. E. O'Neill, Monique Marks, and A. Singh. Police occupational culture: New debates and directions. Vol. 8: Emerald, 2007. ; William A. Westley. Violence and the police: A sociological study of law, custom, and morality. MIT Press, 1971. ; Michael Banton. The policeman in the community. Tavistock Publications, 1964. ; B. C. G. Whitaker. The police. London: Eyre and Spottiswoode, 1964. ; Jerome H. Skolnick. Justice without trial: Law enforcement in democratic society. 1st Edition ed.: Wiley, 1966. ; Jerome H. Skolnick. Justice without trial: Law enforcement in democratic society. 3rd Edition ed. New York: Wiley, 1994. ; Arthur Niederhoffer. Behind the shield: The police in urban society. Doubleday, 1967. ; James Q. Wilson. Varieties of police behavior: The management of law and order in eight communities. Harvard University Press, 1968. ; Maureen Elizabeth Cain. Society and the policeman's role. Routledge and Kegan Paul, 1973. ; Jonathan Rubinstein. City police. Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 1973. ; John Van Maanen. "Police socialization: A longitudinal examination of job attitudes in an urban police department." Administrative Science Quarterly, 1975, 207-28. ; John L. Genz, and David Lester. "Authoritarianism in policemen as a function of experience." Journal of Police Science & Administration, 1976. ; Robert Reiner. "The blue-coated worker." A sociological studv of police unionism, 1978. ; Maurice Punch. "The secret social service." The British Police. London: Edward Arnold, 1979, 102-17. ; Michael K. Brown. Working the street. Russell Sage Foundation, 1981. ; Simon Holdaway, and B. H. Blackwell. Inside the british police: A force at work. Basil Blackwell Oxford, 1983. ; Elizabeth Reuss-Ianni, and Francis Ianni. "Street cops and management cops: The two cultures of policing." Control in the police organization, 1983, 251-74. ; Carl B. Klockars. The idea of police. Vol. 3: Sage Publications Beverly Hills, CA, 1985. ; David John Smith, and Jeremy Gray. Police and people in london: The psi report. Vol. 8: Gower Publishing Company, Limited, 1985. ; Michael Brogden, Tony Jefferson, and Sandra Walklate. Introducing policework. Unwin Hyman London, 1988. ; David H. Bayley. Model of community policing: The singapore story. DIANE Publishing, 1989. ; Peter K. Manning. "Occupational culture." Encyclopedia of Police Science. New York: Garland (1989 1989). ; Clifford Shearing, and Richard V. Ericson. "Culture as figurative action." British Journal of Sociology, 1991, 481-506. ; Malcolm Young. An inside job: Policing and police culture in britain. Oxford University Press, USA, 1991. ; Clifford Shearing, and Michael Brogden. Policing for a new south africa. London and New York: Routledge, 1993. ; Elizabeth W. McNulty. "Generating common sense knowledge among police officers." Symbolic Interaction 17, no. 3, 1994, 281-94. ; Peter A. J. Waddington. "Police (canteen) sub-culture. An appreciation." British journal of criminology 39, no. 2, 1999, 287-309. ; Roy R. Roberg, John P. Crank, Jack Kuykendall, and Lawrence W. Sherman. Police & society. Roxbury Los Angeles, CA, 2000.
C Beal. "Thank god for police culture." Police Journal Online 82, 2001, 12. ; Samuel Walker. "Police accountability." Belmont, CA: Wadsworth, 2001. ; Eugene A. Paoline. "Taking stock: Toward a richer understanding of police culture." Journal of criminal justice 31, no. 3, 2003, 199-214. ; David M Downes, and Paul Rock. Understanding deviance: A guide to the sociology of crime and rule-breaking. Oxford University Press, USA, 2011. ; John Crank. Understanding police culture. Anderson Pub., 2004. ; David Alan Sklansky. "Police and democracy." Michigan law review, 2005, 1699-830. ; Janet Chan. "Police stress and occupational culture." Police occupational culture: new debates and directions 8, 2007, 129-51. ; Michael E. Meyer, and Jean Steyn. "Nurturing isolation in the south african police service: A comparison of male and female recruits." Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management 32, no. 1, 2009, 108-27. Bethan Loftus. "Police occupational culture: Classic themes, altered times." Policing & society 20, no. 1, 2010, 1-20. ; Tom Cockcroft. "Police culture and transformational leadership: Outlining the contours of a troubled relationship." Policing, 2014.
Jerome H. Skolnick. Justice without trial: Law enforcement in democratic society. 3rd Edition ed. New York: Wiley, 1994.
John Van Maanen. "The asshole." Policing: A view from the street, 1978, 221-38.
Elizabeth Reuss-Ianni, and Francis Ianni. "Street cops and management cops: The two cultures of policing." Control in the police organization, 1983, 251-74.
Arthur Niederhoffer. Behind the shield: The police in urban society. Doubleday, 1967.
Nigel Fielding. Joining forces: Police training, socialization, and occupational competence. Routledge London, 1988. ; Dick Hobbs. Doing the business: Entrepreneurship, the working class, and detectives in the east end of London. Clarendon Press Oxford, 1988. ; M. E. O'Neill, Monique Marks, and A. Singh. Police occupational culture: New debates and directions. Vol. 8: Emerald, 2007. ; Janet Chan. Changing police culture: Policing in a multicultural society. Cambridge University Press, 1997. ; Monique Marks. Transforming the robocops: Changing police in South Africa. University of Kwazulu Natal Press, 2005. ; David Alan Sklansky. "Seeing blue: Police reform, occupational culture, and cognitive burn-in." Police occupational culture: New debates and directions 8, 2007, 19-45. ; Tom Cockcroft. Police culture: Themes and concepts. Routledge, 2012.
M. E. O'Neill, Monique Marks, and A. Singh. Police occupational culture: New debates and directions. Vol. 8: Emerald, 2007. ; David H. Bayley. Model of community policing: The Singapore story. DIANE Publishing, 1989. ; David Alan Sklansky. "Police and democracy." Michigan law review, 2005, 1699-830. ; Bethan Loftus. "Police occupational culture: Classic themes, altered times." Policing & society 20, no. 1, 2010, 1-20. ; Tom Cockcroft. "Police culture and transformational leadership: Outlining the contours of a troubled relationship." Policing, 2014. ; Michael E. Meyer, Jean Steyn, and Nirmala Gopal. "Exploring the public parameter of police integrity." Policing: an international journal of police strategies & management 36, no. 1, 2013, 140-56. ; P. Moir, and M. Moir. "Community-based policing & the role of community consultation." In Policing Australia: Old issues, new perspectives. Melbourne: MacMillian, 1992. ; Mollie Weatheritt. "Community policing now." In Policing and the community, edited by Peter Willmott, 7-20: Policy Studies Institute London, 1987. ; John Alderson. "Community policing." In The future of policing. New York: McGraw-Hill, 1983. ; Herman Goldstein. "Improving policing: A problem-oriented approach." Crime & delinquency 25, no. 2,1979, 236-58.
Clifford Shearing, and Michael Brogden. Policing for a new South Africa. London and New York: Routledge, 1993.
Janet Chan. Changing police culture: Policing in a multicultural society. Cambridge University Press, 1997.
J. Steyn. "Recruiting newcomers to the South African police service for the organisation's culture." Acta Criminologica 18, no. 3, 2005, p-82. ; J. Steyn. "Darker shades of blue': A ten year gender comparison of police culture attitudes in the South African police service." African Journal of Public Affairs 8, no. 3, 2015, 166-89.
John Crank. Understanding police culture. Anderson Pub., 2004. ; Paul E Willis, Simon Jones, Joyce Canaan, and Geoff Hurd. Common culture: Symbolic work at play in the everyday cultures of the young. Open University Press Milton Keynes, 1990. ; Janet Chan. "Police and new technologies." Handbook of policing, 2003, 655-79. ; Jerome H. Skolnick, and James J. Fyfe. Above the law: Police and the excessive use of force. Free Press New York, 1993. ; Warren Christopher. Report of the independent commission on the Los Angeles police department. Diane Publishing, 1991. ; Peter K. Manning. Police work: The social organization of policing. MIT Press Cambridge, MA, 1977. ; Lewis A. Coser. The functions of social conflict. Vol. 9: Routledge, 1956.
Jerome H. Skolnick. Justice without trial: Law enforcement in democratic society. 1st Edition ed.: Wiley, 1966.
Douglas S. Drummond. Police culture. Sage Publications Beverly Hills, California, 1976. ; Michael Banton. The policeman in the community. Tavistock Publications, 1964. ; B. Kingshott, and Johann Prinsloo. "The universality of the" police canteen culture"." Acta Criminologica 17, no. 1, 2004, p-1.
Arthur Niederhoffer. Behind the shield: The police in urban society. Doubleday, 1967.
John Crank. Understanding police culture. Anderson Pub., 2004.
G. Marie Wilt, and James D. Bannon. "Cynicism or realism-critique of niederhoffers research into police attitudes." Journal of police science and administration 4, no. 1, 1976, 38-45.
The constitution of the republic of south africa (act 108 of 1996). 1996.
South african police service act 68 of 1995. 1995.
John R Hall, and Mary Jo Neitz. "Culture: Sociological perspectives.", 1993.
Robert Redfield. "The folk society and culture." American Journal of Sociology , 1940: 731-42.
Edgar H Schein. Organizational culture and leadership. Vol. 356: John Wiley & Sons, 2006.
Mike Schraeder, Rachel S Tears, and Mark H Jordan. "Organizational culture in public sector organizations: Promoting change through training and leading by example." Leadership & Organization Development Journal 26, no. 6 (2005): 492-502.
John Crank. Understanding police culture. Anderson Pub., 2004.
John Crank, and Michael A. Caldero. "Police ethics." The Corruption of the Noble Cause. Anderson, Cincinnati, 2000.
Janet Chan. "Police and new technologies." Handbook of policing, 2003, 655-79. ; John Crank. Understanding police culture. Anderson Pub., 2004.
Jerome H. Skolnick. Justice without trial: Law enforcement in democratic society. 1st Edition ed.: Wiley, 1966. ; Douglas S. Drummond. Police culture. Sage Publications Beverly Hills, California, 1976.
Arthur Niederhoffer. Behind the shield: The police in urban society. Doubleday, 1967.
Jerome H. Skolnick. Justice without trial: Law enforcement in democratic society. 3rd Edition ed. New York: Wiley, 1994. ; Arthur Niederhoffer. Behind the shield: The police in urban society. Doubleday, 1967. ; John Van Maanen. "Police socialization: A longitudinal examination of job attitudes in an urban police department." Administrative Science Quarterly, 1975, 207-28. ; Elizabeth Reuss-Ianni, and Francis Ianni. "Street cops and management cops: The two cultures of policing." Control in the police organization, 1983, 251-74. ; David H. Bayley. Model of community policing: The Singapore story. DIANE Publishing, 1989. ; Peter K. Manning. "Occupational culture." Encyclopedia of Police Science. New York: Garland, 1989. ; Clifford Shearing, and Richard V. Ericson. "Culture as figurative action." British Journal of Sociology, 1991, 481-506. ; John Crank. Understanding police culture. Anderson Pub., 2004. ; Janet BL Chan. "Negotiating the field: New observations on the making of police officers." (2001).
J. Steyn. "Recruiting newcomers to the South African police service for the organisation's culture." Acta Criminologica 18, no. 3 (2005 2005): p-82.
M. E. O'Neill, Monique Marks, and A. Singh. Police occupational culture: New debates and directions. Vol. 8: Emerald, 2007. ; David Alan Sklansky. "Police and democracy." Michigan law review, 2005, 1699-830. ; Tom Cockcroft. "Police culture and transformational leadership: Outlining the contours of a troubled relationship." Policing, 2014.
Downloads
Published
Issue
Section
License
Copyright (c) 2016 Author and Institute for Security Studies
This work is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License.
SACQ is licenced under a creative commons licence (CC BY) that allows others to distribute, remix, tweak, and build upon your work, even commercially, as long a they give appropriate credit, provide a link to the license, and indicate if changes were made. They may do so in any reasonable manner, but not in any way that suggests the licensor endorses you or your use.
Copyright for articles published is vested equally between the author/s, the Institute for Security Studies and the Centre of Criminology (UCT).
.png){kind=spacer}