Changing Police Culture: Policing in a Multicultural Society

Abstract

Police culture is often considered as both a cause of police deviance and an obstacle for police reform. In this case study of police racism and police reform in Australia, the author provides a critical assessment of police initiative in response to the problem of police/minorities relations. The book examines the dynamics of change and resistance within a police organisation and captures the complexity and unpredictability of the change process. It questions the utility of the traditional conception of police culture and proposes a new framework for understanding the inter-relationships between the structural conditions of police work, police cultural knowledge, and police practice. A highly original and valuable contribution to policing studies, this book is both empirically rich and theoretically informed.