Obstacles for Changes within the (Swedish) Police Force: Professional Motivations, Homosociality, and Ordering Practices

Abstract

This article discusses how professional motivations and homosociality within the Swedish police (training programme) become obstacles to both a changed police norm and diversity within the police force. This issue is discussed on the basis of two studies: one focused on the professional motivations of police students; the other focused on the issue of norms and normation within the police training programme. The norm regarding how a police officer should be is viewed as a manifestation of ordering practices as a form of continuous, on-going normation processes that emphasize practical, physically demanding, and violent working conditions focused on combating crime. This produces powerful conceptions of the types of body that are suitable for the profession, a normative (male) body. This normative body effects those bodies that are assumed to contribute to diversity in a police force dominated by white, Swedish, heterosexual males. This together moulds a culture founded on the conceptions of physically demanding and action-focused work that promotes a muscle culture that emphasizes the work as practical, rather than moving towards an intellectual and reflective approach to police work.