CRIM 3652 Lecture Notes - Lecture 9: Field Training Officer, Field Officer, Acculturation
14 Dec 2016
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Week 2 Readings and Review for Exam
LOFTUS
1)How is police culture produced and reproduced?
• Police view themselves as ‘outsiders’ doing society’s ‘dirty work’.
• Officers are part of a subculture governed by norms and values designed to manage the
strain of the ‘outsider role’.
• Police culture is managed by;
1) ‘everybody hates cops’
2) ‘always protect your police brothers and sisters’
3) ‘lay low and avoid trouble’
According to Loftus, police culture is produced by how they identify themselves and their
role (outsider role as they view themselves as outisders doing societys dirty work), the
goals and values they carry (doing meaningful work), how officers use their time, how
they interact with people.
How they learn the craft of the job is an example of it being reproduced (learning from
other officers, the academies rules and rituals plus standards)
• Officers are suspicious, lead socially isolated lives, and display defensive solidarity
with colleagues. (Loyalty a theme)
• The police culture views criminality as simplistic (only in black and white)
2)Van Mannen classifies police as outsiders. What are the insights that
result from his analysis?
• Police view themselves as ‘outsiders’ doing society’s ‘dirty work’
• There is a gap between the police and the public; they feel cut out of mainstream
culture and unfairly stigmatized.
• Officers are part of a subculture governed by norms and values designed to manage the
strain of the ‘outsider role’
• . Police culture is managed by; 1) ‘everybody hates cops’
2) ‘always protect your police brothers and sisters’
3) ‘lay low and avoid trouble’
3)What is the process of socialization and acculturation that takes
places in police training?
I would say the 4 stages describe the socialization process
• The process in the classroom of having guest speakers, higher up officers sharing
their “war stories”, learning attitudes and behaviors, listening to these stories you
are exposed to the organizations history which details personalities, past events,
relationships, events places etc.
• Having classroom rituals ex. Every week an asshole in the class got a gorilla
trophy dressed as an officer
• Training with your field officer, having you experience things first hand
• Getting to know the culture through the academy life with veterans
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