Changing Police Culture: Policing in a Multicultural Society

By Janet B. L. Chan

Police culture is often considered as both a cause of police deviance and an obstacle for police reform. In this study of police racism and police reform in Australia, Janet Chan provides a critical assessment of police initiative in response to the problem of policeSHminorities relations. The book examines the dynamics of change and resistance within an organization and captures the complexity and unpredictability of the change process. It questions the utility of the traditional conception of police culture and proposes a new framework for understanding the interrelationships among the structural conditions of police work, police cultural knowledge, and police practice. A highly original and valuable contribution to policing studies and studies of organizational reform, the book is both empirically rich and theoretically informed.

Cambridge, UK; New York: Cambridge University Press, 1997, 267p.