ABSTRACT
The influence of occupational or professional cultures on the practical operation of the criminal process is often emphasised in literature on (comparative) criminal justice (Hodgson, 2005, Hodsgon and Mou 2019; Cape et al., 2010; Blackstock et al., 2013). However, the concept itself often remains undefined. Within the area of criminal justice, ‘occupational’ or ‘professional’ cultures have been studied mostly with regard to policing (see Section 2.1). In criminal justice literature, ‘occupational cultures’ are sometimes viewed as the informal, or everyday, ‘working rules’ related to a job, which differ from the formal norms or regulations (Ashworth and Redmayne, 2010: 64). In a more general (and neutral) fashion, ‘professional’ or ‘occupational’ cultures may be described as a set of attitudes, beliefs and ideas which characterise a certain professional or occupational group. 1 ‘Occupational culture’ (of police) was also defined as ‘a reduced, selective, and task-based version of culture that is shaped by and shapes the socially relevant worlds of the occupation’ (Manning, 1995: 472). Thus, ‘occupational culture’ is conceptualised as the commonly accepted beliefs and attitudes, in part embedded in history and tradition, which are used, often unconsciously, to give (selective) meaning to the present-day reality encountered by the respective professionals. The cultures embody what is taken for granted by the occupational members, the ‘invisible yet powerful constraints’ (ibid.) in the respective professionals’ view of the world, which condition their day-to-day behaviour.
