2nd Edition

Understanding Police Culture

By John P. Crank Copyright 2004
    416 Pages
    by Routledge

    416 Pages
    by Routledge

    Police culture has been widely criticized as a source of resistance to change and reform, and is often misunderstood. This book seeks to capture the heart of police culture—including its tragedies and celebrations—and to understand its powerful themes of morality, solidarity, and common sense, by systematically integrating a broad literature on police culture into middle-range theory, and developing original perspectives about many aspects of police work.

    Part I: Understanding Police Culture Prologue 1. Culture and Knowledge 2. Issues in the Study of Police Culture 3. Culture and Cultural Themes 4. Articulating Police Culture and Its Environments: Patterns of Line-Officer Interactions Part II: Themes of Police Culture Section I: Coercive Territorial Control 5. The Moral Transformation of Territory Theme: Dominion 6. Force Is Righteous Theme: Force 7. Crime Is War, Metaphor Theme: Militarization 8. Stopping Power Theme: Guns Section II: Themes of the Unknown 9. The Twilight World Theme: Suspicion 10. Danger Through the Lens of Culture Theme: Danger and Its Anticipation 11. Anything Can Happen on the Street Theme: Unpredictability and Situational Uncertainty 12. No Animal Out There Is Going to Beat Me Theme: Turbulence and Edge Control 13. Seductions of the Edge Theme: Seduction Section III: Cultural Themes of Solidarity 14. Angels and Assholes: The Construction of Police Morality Theme: Police Morality 15. Common Sense and the Ironic Deconstruction of the Obvious Theme: Common Sense 16. No Place for Sissies Theme: Masculinity 17. Mask of a Thousand Faces Theme: Solidarity 18. America’s Great Guilty Crime Secret Theme: Racism Section IV: Loosely Coupling Cultural Themes 19. On Becoming Invisible Theme: Outsiders 20. Individualism and the Paradox of Personal Accountability Theme: Individualism 21. The Truth Game Theme: Deception 22. Cop Deterrence and the Soft Legal System Theme: Deterrence 23. The Petty Injustice and Everlasting Grudges Theme: Bullshit Section V: Death and Police Culture 24. Thinking About Ritual 25. The Culture Eater Theme: Death 26. Good-bye in a Sea of Blue Theme: Police Funerals

    Biography

    John P. Crank is a Professor in School of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of Nebraska, Omaha. He received his M.A. in Sociology from the University of Arizona, his M.P.A. from the University of Illinois, and his Ph.D. in Sociology from the University of Colorado. He has published in the area of police effectiveness, and in the areas of organizational culture and structure, focusing on the police and on parole and probation. He has also published on criminal justice theory and counter-terrorism and was the recipient of the Academy of Criminal Justice Science's Outstanding Book Award in 2004 for his book Imagining Justice (Anderson Publishing).