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Theorizing Police Response to Domestic Violence in the Singaporean Context: Police Subculture Revisited

NCJ Number
211643
Journal
Journal of Criminal Justice Volume: 33 Issue: 5 Dated: September/October 2005 Pages: 429-439
Author(s)
Ganapathy Narayanan
Date Published
September 2005
Length
11 pages
Annotation
This article examines the concept of rank-and-file police subculture to conceptualize police response to situations of domestic violence within the Singapore context.
Abstract
Two major perspectives, situational and cultural have informed criminologists in their conceptualization of the problem of policing domestic violence. However, the situational perspective was limited in that it obscured an understanding of police decisions to avoid arrest. In an attempt to better conceptualize the issue of rank-and-file decisions to avoid arrest, this article examines and delineates aspects of rank-and-file police culture, with reference to the Singaporean context, which appears to determine rank-and-file officers’ handling of domestic situations. In order to derive a deeper understanding of police response to domestic violence, it was argued that an understanding of both the structural and cultural aspects of the organization of policing was necessary. The article calls for the need to rework the concept of police subculture by treating it as having a relationship with, and response to, the structural conditions of policing, while retaining a conception of the active role played by street-level officers in instituting a situational practice. In essence, it is advocated that any police reform designed to improve the policing of domestic violence must necessarily take into account both the cultural and structural aspects of the organization of policing, and the dynamics in which police subculture relates to the political, social, and legal context of policing domestic violence in Singapore. References