ABSTRACT
This chapter provides an overview of research on police culture and its potential disadvantages and advantages. Police culture has long been of interest to researchers, in recognition of its pervasive influence on policing effectiveness. Researchers have generally studied police culture from two perspectives: examining overarching cultural themes encompassing all police officers and examining sub cultural variations within the broader police culture. Aspects of traditional police culture, such as the masculine ethos and value placed on dominant and authoritative behaviours, may deter officers from complaining about stress and bullying or revealing emotional distress and psychological illness. Recent conducted in police services has suggested that adopting an approach focusing on building positive, supportive, and psychologically safe work cultures is likely to reinforce strategies to transform police culture, without reinforcing the negative aspects of culture. Constructs related to the supportiveness of a work culture studied in police research have included perceived organisational support, the psychosocial safety climate, and work culture support.
