Occupational solidarity : the case of the police

Abstract

The poor relationship police have established with the public has long been recognized as a serious problem. There has developed a "mutual resentment" for one another primarily from the police officer's ethos of policing and the citizen's sensitivity of being policed. The results of such a relationship have had considerable impact on police. They have developed strong feelings of social rejection which has subsequently led to social isolation and in consequence, occupational solidarity. The purpose of this study was to investigate what elements in the police role increased occupational solidarity. It was felt that to determine the causes and effects of solidarity would aid in explaining how the social environment effects police behavior and ultimately what modifications could be made to improve police-citizen relations. The study was based on a theory developed by Jerome Skolnick in 1966. Skolnick perceived police occupational solidarity to be a direct result of certain elements in the police role. He viewed the police role as having two principles, danger and authority, which tended to increase social isolation and consequently resulted in a high degree of occupational solidarity.

In order to empirically evaluate this theory, a questionnaire was administered to police officers in Youngstown, Ohio. A similar questionnaire was administered to various student members of professional engineering organizations, who acted as a comparison group. The results of the survey suggested Skolnick's theory to partially hold true. That is, all the hypothesized variable relationships were positively correlated. However, the data revealed the possibility of a spurious relationship in the independent variables, danger and authority. It was suggested that the independent variables be reversed, i.e., the use of authority increases the element of danger in the police role instead of the hypothesized element o danger increasing the use of authority. Discussion suggested that any ameliorative action concerning police-public relations could be more easily dealt with if this data was further supported.