The effect on individual officers of traumatic exposure to death and upon the police subculture as a whole can be deleterious as well as functional. Themes, images, and symbols of death are prominent in police folklore and even in the anecdotal and descriptive academic literature of policing. Exposure to death is functional in that it integrates and socializes young officers by serving as a kind of rite of passage. It also enables officers to achieve and maintain a protective professional distance from aspects of their work, including fear for their own safety. 3 notes and 20 references