The Development of Rapport through the Negotiation of Gender in Field Work among Police

This paper concerns the phenomenon of rapport in participant observation. It is divided into two parts. Part one concerns a critical evaluation of the sociological literature on rapport and presents an alternative definition of the subject matter. In particular, rapport is defined as the process whereby the researcher becomes competent to membership by first displaying an awareness that membership is problematic and must be negotiated, and second by demonstrating a salient knowledge of the essential features by which subject members distinguish themselves from nonmembers. This demonstration is a necessary condition for instituting an ongoing relationship of trust within which researcher and subjects can engage in acts of communication and the construction of intersubjective meaning.Part two explores the development of rapport in the author's field work among police. It is suggested that status and gender are the two most basic categories which define membership in the policeman's world. Real cops must d...