ABSTRACT
Police autonomy and discretion would be limited and individual citizens would be dealt with according to rules, procedures and laws known in advance and publicly-announced, instead of principles and norms privately operated by the police. The purpose of law reform is therefore an object of enquiry not an unproblematic given, and lends substance to McBamet's claim that attention must be paid not only to the 'front-men' of the legal system but also to 'the judicial and political elites' who make the law. When authors began their research they anticipated as one tangible product a set of reform proposals which would address critical points of the criminal justice process causing 'problems' with a view to fixing the system. Police culture is important because it significantly affects who gets drawn into the criminal justice process: The occupational culture favours a law-enforcement approach to policing over a broader problem-solving approach.
