Scrutiny of Police Institutions and the Spectre of Culture

In this paper, we revisit the concept of police culture and its explanatory value in understanding recent scandals that have rocked policing in England and Wales. The focus will be on the concerns around the prevalence of sexism and Violence Against Women and Girls (VAWG) within policing and we explore whether an increase in the diversity of police officers has pushed aspects of police culture into specific specialist and less visible areas of policing. We suggest that any attempts at substantive police reform need to consider radical organisational and structural change, including a new narrative for British policing. Such a new narrative needs political and social support, and will require wider engagement beyond internally focused police discussions.