Opinion: Is Police Culture Cultural?

This paper briefly reviews the changing usage of the concept of police culture in studies of policing. It argues that what are regarded as the early classic studies in the field (which hardly used the term culture itself) analyzed the world-views of police officers are primarily shaped in a dialectical interaction with structural factors stemming from the police role. Some of these factors are intrinsic to policing in any circumstances, others vary between political economies, social and organizational forms, and general cultures.