Negotiating the Field: New Observations on the Making of Police Officers

This paper draws on the findings of a longitudinal study of police socialisation to refine and expand on the Bourdieuian framework of police culture developed in Chan (1997). The research supports the conclusion that the socialisation of police is a more complex and contingent process, and recruits far more active and reflective, than previously assumed. In addition, the paper shows that the socialisation process has become more unpredictable as a result of the changing social and political context of policing. It is argued that a deeper understanding of the socialisation process must take into account the interaction between the occupational “habitus” and the changing “field” of policing.