Question

What is the police subculture, and in what way does it conflict with the official mandates of police work?

Google Scholar website keyword: "police subculture"

Answer 1

As in every organizations, police force too have a set of shared values and norms, which effects the behavior of individuals working in police force, and this is called police subcultures. This sub culture shapes and influence the behavior of an individual from the very beginning when they join the police academy and continues to influence their life at police force.

Like any subculture, on one hand it has many positive effects on police officers, as it instill sense of identification with othwr members, confidence, security, will power etc that are very essential for this job. But, isolation from the societies they serve, mistrust of their higher officials instill cynicism, detachment and desensitization among them. The unique work demands creates prolonged stress and burnout in them, cause us versus them attitude among police officers. These conflicting situations creates hurdles in the official mandates of police work.