The Occupational Culture of Corrections and Police Officers

This paper is a comparative analysis of the police and corrections occupations in the criminal justice system. Using field data and interviews gathered in several American police departments and in correctional sites in the Midwest, it explores the extent to which these occupations can be characterized by common analytic themes. Several matters are analyzed: features of the work, the bureaucratic environment of the work, and structural factors, such as their inspectorial strategy, rank structure and hierarchical chain of command, rule orientation. Finally, the occupational culture(s) of policing and correctional work is contrasted and compared. Neither culture is a unitary entity, but rather three segments exist: lower participants, middle management, and top command This paper will systematically describe each segment. The comparison will provide a finer analysis and discrimination of the dimensions of both occupations and afford a richer detailed exploration of policing and correctional work.