Variations in the warriors’ police sub-culture: officers of two policing forces in France

• In Event: Police officers’ attitudes and work experience: comparing countries

Abstract

In this article, we examine the dominant conceptions of police activity (arresting offenders or preventing crime), as well as the judgements made about the causes of crime (economic and social causes, judicial tolerance, immigration) by police officers. The empirical basis is a survey conducted in the police and gendarmerie in France (DPOP, for Déontologie et relations police-population). We reveal predominantly repressive conceptions of the job (valuing arrests, criticising the criminal justice system), backed up by a fairly widespread mistrust of the public. We also highlight variations according to experience of the job, but also in terms of affiliation (with a difference between the police and the gendarmerie), making it possible to identify different classes of police officers and gendarmes.

Author

• Jacques de Maillard, University of Versailles-Cesdip