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Police sub-culture is often portrayed as a pervasive, malign and potent influence on the behaviour of officers. The grounds for this portrayal are, however, insubstantial and appear to rely more upon the condemnatory potential of the concept than its explanatory power. This article reviews the literature on police sub-culture and concludes that what occurs in the canteen is expressive talk designed to give purpose and meaning to inherently problematic occupational experience. The canteen is an arena of action separate from the street, where in contrast to the latter officers act before an audience of their peers.
Paul Waddington (Mon,) studied this question.