Individual Submission Summary
Share...

Direct link:

Time is a Flat Dircle: Police Narratives and Storytelling

Thu, Nov 20, 8:00 to 9:20am, Marriott, Sierra C, 5th Floor

Abstract

This paper explores storytelling and narratives of police officers as used to understand and shape officer worldviews, behavioral choices, and organizational or individual motives. Storytelling is an important aspect of the development of police culture an in the words of Van Hulst (2013) stories appear to “do all kinds of work.” While storytelling is not the sole privy of officers, they are uniquely positioned with the authority of criminal justice system to shape their own narratives, and more importantly those of others--criminal offenders and the broader community. In a dialectical relationship with popular culture, officers interpret their observations and shape their stories through existing socio-cultural themes.

Authors