TY - JOUR

T1 - Scrutiny of Police Institutions and the Spectre of Culture

AU - Feilzer, Martina

AU - Loftus, Bethan

PY - 2024/8/1

Y1 - 2024/8/1

N2 - 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.

AB - 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.

KW - police culture

KW - organisational and structural reform

KW - VAWG

U2 - 10.1111/1467-923X.13434

DO - 10.1111/1467-923X.13434

M3 - Article

JO - Political Quarterly

JF - Political Quarterly

ER -