ABSTRACT
Since the 1960s the study of cop culture has provided social scientists with an array of fascinating ethnographies which have added to our understanding of police work. Authors such as Skolnick (1966), Manning (1977), and Holdaway (1983) have helped define and develop the framework which became the standard when researching the culture of the police. However, an over reliance on such approaches has led to numerous pieces of research which succeed in proving that some police officers sometimes display negative traits such as racism, sexism, and dishonesty. Such negative attributes are then taken as the norm amongst officers and ascribed as being the effect of some overwhelming culture. This, in itself, does not constitute an altogether helpful approach to the issue of cop culture as it lays itself wide open to criticisms of simplicity.
