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Cited by 390Policing Practices and PerceptionsCriminal Justice and PenologyCrime, Deviance, and Social Control

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POLICE SUBCULTURE RECONSIDERED

HERBERT, STEVE·1998·Criminology
DOI 10.1111/j.1745-9125.1998.tb01251.x
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Abstract

Most comprehensive discussions of the police acknowledge the inability of legal and bureaucratic regulations to determine officer behavior. Attention is turned instead toward the informal norms developed within the police subculture. These discussions, however, tend to overstress the chasm between the formal and informal. They also provide inadequate tools for understanding differentiation, conflict, and change within police departments. I address these shortcomings here by mobilizing a particular conceptualization of the term “normative order”—as a set of rules and practices oriented around a central value. Six such orders are crucial to policing: law, bureaucratic control, adventure/machismo, safety, competence, and morality. I illustrate the importance of each by drawing upon ethnographic observations of the Los Angeles Police Department, and explain how my conceputalization offers a comprehensive yet flexible means to understand the social world of policing.

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Metadata

Authors
HERBERT, S.
Affiliations
Indiana University Bloomington (US)
Corresponding author
HERBERT, STEVE
Venue
Criminology
Publisher
Wiley
Published
1998-05
Volume
36
Issue
2
Pages
343-370
ISSN
  • 0011-1384 (ISSN-L)
  • 1745-9125
DOI
10.1111/j.1745-9125.1998.tb01251.x
OpenAlex
W1987850680
Cited by
390
References
55
Citations by year
2026: 6 · 2025: 11 · 2024: 17 · 2023: 17 · 2022: 43 · 2021: 17 · 2020: 22 · 2019: 31 · 2018: 11 · 2017: 20 · 2016: 33 · 2015: 15 · 2014: 10 · 2013: 12 · 2012: 11
FWCI
31.12
Type
journal article
Language
en
Open access
closed
Licence
onlinelibrary.wiley.com/termsAndConditions#vor (vor, 2867 d)
Locations
Criminology (publishedVersion)
Topics
  • Social Sciences › Political Science and International Relations › Policing Practices and Perceptions
  • Social Sciences › Law › Criminal Justice and Penology
  • Social Sciences › Sociology and Political Science › Crime, Deviance, and Social Control
Keywords
police subculture, normative order, informal norms, police behavior, bureaucratic control, machismo, police competence, police officer safety, police enforcement, Los Angeles Police Department, police culture

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HERBERT, S. (1998). POLICE SUBCULTURE RECONSIDERED. Criminology. https://doi.org/10.1111/j.1745-9125.1998.tb01251.x