War Stories And Occupying Soldiers: A Narrative Approach To Understanding Police Culture and Community Conflict

• In Event: Narrative Criminology IV: What Narratives of the State Do, and Doing Resistance

Abstract

Narrative theory and methods are gradually finding a place in the study of crime and its control. However vibrant narrative criminology has been to this point, narrative scholars have somewhat ignored policing, both in terms of the language and grammar of individual officers and the cultural life of the institution itself. In this article, we elaborate the importance of storytelling in the (re)production of contemporary police culture and the broader police power. While storytelling as cultural production is, of course, not the sole purview of police, they are uniquely positioned to shape the broad social, cultural and political imaginaries of crime and the realities of crime control and community interactions. Therefore, in paying close attention to the narratives of police and the cultural work accomplished through storytelling, we gain insight into the production and maintenance of police authority and culture.

Authors

• Lindsey Upton, Tennessee Tech University

• Don L. Kurtz, Kansas State University