Dirty Harry and the station queens: a Mertonian analysis of police deviance

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Dirty Harry and the station queens: a Mertonian analysis of policedeviancePatrick F. Parnabya; Myra Leydena

a Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON, Canada

First published on: 25 March 2011

To cite this Article Parnaby, Patrick F. and Leyden, Myra(2011) 'Dirty Harry and the station queens: a Mertonian analysisof police deviance', Policing and Society,, First published on: 25 March 2011 (iFirst)To link to this Article: DOI: 10.1080/10439463.2011.556733URL: http://dx.doi.org/10.1080/10439463.2011.556733

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Dirty Harry and the station queens: a Mertonian analysis of policedeviance

Patrick F. Parnaby* and Myra Leyden

Department of Sociology and Anthropology, University of Guelph, Guelph, ON N1G 2W,Canada

(Received 6 June 2010; final version received 30 December 2010)

In this article, we take advantage of the versatility inherent in Merton’s work andapply his theory of social structure and anomie to the realm of policing.Specifically, we argue that police deviance can be understood as a function of ananomic social structure in which an exuberant cultural emphasis on police asnoble, masculine ‘crime-fighters’ occupies a disproportionate relationship to theavailability and/or efficacy of institutionally accepted means. The outcomes, weargue, are forms of deviant behaviour that coincide closely with Merton’s fourclassic modes of adaptation.

Keywords: policing; misconduct; anomie; deviance; Robert Merton; crime

Introduction

Scholars interested in the sociology of deviance have rarely taken Merton’s theory of

social structure and anomie beyond its 1938 iteration where Merton conceptualised

the anomic disconnect between the culturally prescribed goal of monetary success

and the availability of legitimate means by which it can be achieved (except see

Parnaby and Sacco 2004). For Merton, however, culturally prescribed goals and

institutionally legitimate means were generic sociological phenomena that could take

myriad forms. In fact, in Social Theory and Social Structure (SS&A) Merton

reiterated, ‘the general theory of social structure and anomie is not confined to the

specific goal of monetary success. . . . ’ (1957/1968, p. 257). In this article, we take

advantage of the versatility inherent in Merton’s work to apply his theory of social

structure and anomie to the realm of policing. Specifically, we argue that police

deviance can be understood as a function of an anomic social structure where an

exuberant cultural emphasis on police as noble, masculine ‘crime-fighters’ occupies a

disproportionate relationship to the availability and/or efficacy of institutionally

accepted means (i.e. due process). Theoretically, this approach offers a fresh

perspective on police deviance in so far as it represents a conceptual departure

from existing scholarship that, while focused almost exclusively on police misconduct,

offers psychological (Sellbom et al. 2007), cultural (Herbert 1996, Waddington 1999)

and organisational (Sechrest and Burns 1992, Skolnick and Fyfe 1993, Hodgson

2001) explanations.

*Corresponding author. Email: [email protected]

Policing & Society

2011, 1�16, iFirst article

ISSN 1043-9463 print/ISSN 1477-2728 online

# 2011 Taylor & Francis

DOI: 10.1080/10439463.2011.556733

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Merton’s theory of anomie

Although Merton’s theory of social structure and anomie is undoubtedly familiar to

most scholars of social deviance, a brief review of its central postulates is necessary.

For Merton, aberrant conduct is likely to occur when individuals have limited or no

access to the institutionalised and normatively accepted means by which culturally

celebrated goals, purposes and interests are to be achieved (Merton 1938). Indeed,

when an opportunity structure restricts access to the means necessary for achieving

success (however it is culturally defined), the social system becomes anomic and the

normative capacity of institutions to regulate human behaviour is diminished.

Therefore, deviant behaviour is a probabilistic outcome of counterpoised structural

conditions (Merton 1938, Cullen and Messner 2007).In response to anomie, four deviant modes of adaptation are likely to occur:

innovation, ritualism, retreatism and rebellion. Each of the four modes has a

different orientation to the culturally prescribed goals and the opportunity structure.

In short, innovators reject the institutionalised means while still embracing the

culturally prescribed goals. Ritualists scale down the goals, rendering them more

readily achievable (Merton 1957/1968): They are, in a sense, ‘satisfied with what

they’ve got’ and are often unwilling to ‘stick their heads out’. Rejecting culturally

prescribed goals and the institutionally accepted means, the retreatist remains in

society but is no longer a part of it, instead living among others but no longer

socially engaged. Finally, rebellion involves a complete rejection of both means and

goals in order to usher in a new social system with an entirely different normative

structure. One’s location, relative to the opportunity structure, largely determines

which form of adaptation is likely to emerge, a point made clear in Cloward and

Ohlin’s (1960) Delinquency and Opportunity.

Merton’s theory has been tested extensively (Baumer and Gustafson 2007) and

conceptually expanded in myriad ways. Literature has been both consistent (Messner

and Rosenfeld 1994, Maume and Lee 2003, Murphy and Robinson 2008) and

inconsistent (Agnew 1992) with Merton’s original level of analysis.1 That said,

Merton’s demonstrative (and now classic) example of how, when coupled with

a disproportionate cultural emphasis on pecuniary success, a limited opportunity

structure leads to deviant adaptations has resonated so effectively with scholars that

his ‘American Dream’ hypothesis has routinely overshadowed his model’s ability to

explain deviant adaptations in relation to entirely different cultural success goals.

Merton was aware of this trend:

The cultural structure holds out goals of success of varying kind . . . I elected to examinein this paper economic success . . . but that was a decision. It doesn’t for amoment . . . [as] SS&A in 1938 makes clear, mean that the argument � the interpretationof the theory � holds only for economics. (Cullen and Messner 2007, p. 23)

Although there have been some exceptions (Parnaby and Sacco 2004), scholars have

remained faithful to the American Dream hypothesis and, thus, alternate success

goals have rarely been considered. While this article represents a step in the latter

direction, it does require a slight theoretical modification of the culturally celebrated

definition of success in question; although promoted widely, it exerts greater pressure

on a particular sub-population. Specifically, good police officers are thought to be

noble, masculine ‘crime-fighters’ (Niederhoffer 1967, Herbert 1996, Manning 2001).

2 P.F. Parnaby and M. Leyden

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The ubiquity and vigour with which this cultural imperative is promoted cannot be

understated. At the same time, however, variations in the availability and/or efficacy

of institutionally accepted means can make achieving that ideal difficult. The

outcomes, we argue, are forms of deviant behaviour among officers that coincide

closely with Merton’s four deviant adaptation classifications. Before examining this

phenomenon in more detail, however, a cursory review of the conventional literature

on police deviance is in order.

Explaining police deviance

Research on police deviance tends to focus on ‘misconduct’, specifically officers who

violate institutional codes of conduct (e.g. the Canadian Police Services Act) and/orthe laws of the state. Examples are myriad, but certain areas have captured scholars’

attention more than others, including corruption (Roebuck and Barker 1974,

Sechrest and Burns 1992, Punch 2000), racial profiling (Wortley and Tanner 2003,

Satzewich and Shaffir 2009) and excessive force (Skolnick and Fyfe 1993, Alpert and

Noble 2009). For the most part, analyses tend to cluster into three overlapping

modes: subcultural, psychological and organisational.

Subcultural

The literature on police culture is vast (Conser 1980, Herbert 1996, Waddington

1999, Paoline 2004, Satzewich and Shaffir 2009). Although there is some debate as to

whether a uniform police culture exists, many scholars agree that certain values,

rationalisations and techniques conducive to police misconduct are promoted

through on-the-job socialisation and become entrenched with the auspices of

occupational solidarity (Conser 1980, Paoline 2004). For decades research has

shown that police subcultures tend to be hyper-masculine (Rabe-Hemp 2009),

harbour antipathy towards civilians (Herbert 2001) and promote a sense of being

above the law (Skolnick and Fyfe 1993). Indeed, as Barker (1977) argues in his

analysis of peer group support for police occupational deviance, ‘the peer group

indoctrinates and socialises the rookie [officer] into patterns of acceptable corrupt

activities, sanctions deviations outside these boundaries, and sanctions officers who

do not engage in any corrupt acts’ (Barker 1977, p. 364, Punch 2000). Illustrative in

this regard is the memoir of former New York City police officer Robert Leuci who,

after being told by senior officers that he belonged to ‘the biggest, baddest gang in

town’, embarked on a career marred by corruption (Leuci 2004).Not all scholars agree. Waddington (1999) argues that much of the research

amounts to ‘police bashing’ and that scholars have failed to recognise the ability of

officers to separate, for example, the sexist and/or racist banter occurring behind

closed doors from what actually transpires on the street. Herbert (1996), too, has

called for a rethinking of police subcultures, arguing that while officers’ behaviour is

partially reflective of subcultural values, it is also shaped by formal, bureaucratic

regulations that promote safety, adherence to the law and respect for authority. Thus,

while most scholars agree that police subcultures are defined in part by norms and

values conducive to misconduct, there is disagreement about the extent to which

these norms and values influence officers’ behaviour.

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Psychological

Popular culture, politicians and police administrators often attribute police

misconduct to a few ‘bad apples’ who somehow slipped through the psychological

screening tests used during recruitment. Research suggests that the Minnesota

Multiphasic Personality Inventory (MMPI) personality test or its revised successor,

the MMPI-2, can predict misconduct and poor performance to a certain extent.

Bartol’s (1991) ‘immaturity index’, for example, effectively predicted the disciplinary

discharge of small-town officers. Research by Sellbom et al. (2007) also suggests that

the ‘MMPI-2 can be a useful instrument in the prediction of behavioral and

attitudinal problems in law enforcement officer candidates’ (Sellbom et al. 2007, p.

1001).

In contrast, and while not necessarily denying the relevance of psychological

screening, sociological research has demonstrated that police organisations promote

normative systems conducive to misconduct. Research by Chappell and Piquero

(2004), for example, suggests that recruits develop favourable attitudes towards

police misconduct after joining the police service. In addition, because recruits are

introduced to misconduct slowly and because misconduct often requires networks of

complicit officers, one cannot explain the phenomenon adequately in terms of

individual, aberrant psychologies (Punch 2000).

Organisational

According to some scholars (Barker 1977, Skolnick and Fyfe 1993, Hodgson 2001),

the organisational structure of contemporary policing, including relations of

authority, standard operations, modes of supervision and methods of training, is

at the very heart of police misconduct. Literature suggests that modern police

organisations tend to limit creative thinking, emphasise police superiority in relation

to the citizenry and inadvertently promote the use of coercion and/or violence

through a hyper-masculine occupational culture (Birzer and Tannehill 2001,

Hodgson 2001). When combined with what some scholars believe is a fundamental

lack of accountability (Skolnick and Fyfe 1993), these organisational conditions set

the stage for misconduct. Citing Goldstein (1975), Punch (2000) argues: ‘a sloppy,

lax, poorly equipped, badly supervised and weakly led unit or organisation creates

the critical conditions within which the social and psychological conditions are

present for taking the first steps towards corruption’ (Punch 2000, p. 317). Matters

can degenerate further when, in the absence of proper training (Birzer and Tannehill

2001), officers must deal with the complex social, political and cultural needs of

today’s communities with skill sets honed almost exclusively in the reactive tradition.

Indeed, officers become the subject of distrust and disdain in ‘anti-police’ areas

(Herbert 1996) where tensions run high, where citizens’ reports of police misconduct

lack credibility and where the solitary nature of police work provides deviant officers

with little to no direct supervision (Barker 1977, Chappell and Piquero 2004). Fixing

these problems, scholars argue, requires a restructuring of organisational processes

and a transformation of occupational values (Sechrest and Burns 1992).In sum, analyses of misconduct have dominated the research on police deviance.

Here, however, we conceptualise police deviance broadly and in accordance with

Merton’s modes of adaptation. Although this article will note the significance of

4 P.F. Parnaby and M. Leyden

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misconduct among officers, it will also consider non-criminal forms of police

deviance: Machismo, Heroism and The Thin Blue Line.

North America’s preoccupation with the drama, machismo and adventure of

policing is well known and well documented (Doyle 2006, Rabe-Hemp 2009).

A cursory review of prime-time television often reveals officers chasing dangerous

suspects into alleyways, hanging from helicopters and racing through city streets in a

desperate bid to fight crime. Writers for the successful Canadian television police

drama, Flashpoint, for example, routinely borrow story lines from the Toronto Police

Service’s archives. Officers of the Strategic Response Unit are the central

protagonists and, as the show’s website proclaims, are best described as: ‘the elite,

the blueblood of the force. High risk is their business, and life-and-death stakes

are their world . . . they rescue hostages, bust gangs, defuse bombs, climb buildings,

see through walls, and talk down suicidal teens’ (CTV 2009). Policing, therefore, is

constructed as a non-stop adrenaline rush where the lines between good and evil are

relatively clear and where, more often than not, police work produces results � the

cops always seem to ‘get their man’ (Surette 2007). In conjunction with the media’s

affinity for spectacular crime news (Sacco 2005, Doyle 2006), these images of

policing have become part of how North Americans think about crime control and

policing. It is, therefore, not surprising that young recruits routinely cite the job’s

excitement and the opportunity to ‘fight’ crime when asked why they initially wanted

to become police officers (Raganella and White 2004).2 For example, Lester (1983)

found that fighting crime and enforcing the law ranked in the top 5 out of 12 possible

reasons for becoming an officer among recruits at a state training facility. Similarly,

Meagher and Yentes (1986) found that male recruits ranked the opportunity to fight

crime and the prospects of adventure third and fourth (respectively) out of

11 possible reasons. Thus, despite the somewhat tepid reality of day-to-day police

work, evidence appears to suggest that incipient officers partially internalise the

cultural construction of police officers as crime-fighters.3

Insofar as the North American public continues to expect officers to ‘fight the

good fight’, crime control remains synonymous with more officers on the street,

harsher sentences, zero-tolerance policies and longer jail times (Harcourt 2001,

Johnston and Shearing 2003). This crime-fighting message is reinforced vigorously

through myriad institutional arenas, including news media, popular culture and

government agencies. In Mertonian terms, then, the North American social system is

promoting a value system that equates successful policing with fighting crime;

however, the extent to which the opportunity structure effectively accommodates

officers in their struggle varies as a function of several overarching forces.

The structural impediments to crime-fighting

Here we argue that the opportunity structure varies as a function of three

overlapping phenomena: (a) the organisational capacity of police organisations to

respond effectively to criminal activity as a function of their resource base; (b) the

extent to which the legitimate means are supported by other criminal justice

institutions; and (c) the willingness and/or capacity of communities to assist the state

(e.g. the police) in the greater project of order maintenance. Each factor is outlined

below.

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The economics of fighting crime

It goes without saying that North American police organisations have characteristics

in common; they have similar subcultural values, operate using a paramilitary

structure and self-identify as the Thin Blue Line separating order from chaos. It is

equally true, however, that police departments have very different organisational

capacities and degrees of efficacy that are, in part, functions of the overlapping

economic structures within which they operate.Spending on law enforcement in the USA and Canada has increased steadily for

decades. In Canada, for example, government spending on policing increased by 57%

between 1997 and 2007 (Statistics Canada 2010). According to the Bureau of Justice

Statistics, the US primary sources for criminal justice statistics, between 1997 and

2006 and across all levels of government, total US government spending on policing

increased by a staggering 58% (see Bureau of Justice Statistics 2009). A steady

increase in government spending, however, does not mean that police departments

are awash in money. In fact, the recurring need to do more with less has become anorganisational mantra as departments look to scale back expenditures. In fact, across

the USA economic instability has led to reduced patrol hours, fewer new recruits and

civilian staff being told to work more efficiently (see Luhby 2010).

For example, consider the Police Executive Research Forum’s (PERF) research

on how the recent economic crisis has impacted police operations in the USA. After

surveying 233 large departments, PERF discovered that 88% of departments

were expecting budget cuts, of which, 53% and 27% said that they had already

implemented hiring freezes for non-sworn and sworn personnel, respectively (seePolice Executive Research Forum 2010). According to PERF’s executive director:

We know that when police departments saw increases in violent crime in 2005 and 2006,they were able to respond quickly by using overtime to flood crime hot spots withadditional patrol and sending specialized units in . . . This helped to bring crime backdown again in 2007 and the first half of 2008. The threat posed by the economic crisis isthat a lot of departments will no longer have these options available to keep crime andviolence down. (Police Executive Research Forum 2010)

In addition to reducing the number of officers on the street, fiscal restraint often

means that the best talent cannot be recruited, technological improvements are

deferred and crime prevention programmes are shut down. The point here is not that

budget cuts necessarily lead to an increase in crime. Rather, our argument is that

when broader economic ebbs and flows lead to budget cuts, civilian staff and front-

line officers often feel that they are working with one hand tied behind their backs.4

Institutional support

According to Bennett and Schmitt (2002), soon after joining the police service,

officers realise that they are not in a position to bring about permanent reductions in

criminal activity. The problem, officers argue, is the system’s ‘revolving door’, which

appears to release offenders as quickly as they are apprehended (Moskos 2009). Inshort, the system fails to prosecute, convict and sentence offenders in ways

commensurate with officers’ perceived standards of justice.

In Johnson’s (2004) study of police frustration with domestic violence calls, for

example, officers identified defence lawyers’ underhanded tricks and the unwillingness

6 P.F. Parnaby and M. Leyden

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of courts to prosecute batterers as key sources of personal cynicism and frustration.

Similarly, according to Goldschmidt (Goldschmidt and Anonymous 2008), officers

sometimes see the courts as being overly demanding, requiring stronger evidence to

prove probable cause, and more willing to release known offenders when evidence doesnot meet rising standards of factuality. Moreover, for decades officers have complained

when courts, in lieu of prison crowding, hand down shorter sentences (Goldschmidt

and Anonymous 2008) or, as is currently the case in Canada, when court backlogs

result in the dismissal of cases that might have otherwise ended with an offender being

held accountable for his or her actions (Green 2003). In short, when understood in

relation to our culture’s unbridled emphasis on fighting crime, the variable extent to

which other criminal justice institutions are willing and able to maintain the integrity of

due process contributes to the anomic disconnect in question.

Public assistance

Although popular culture still clings to the idea that crimes are solved by officersworking in isolation with only their finely tuned and readily available detective skills,

the truth is more prosaic; the police need the public’s help (Moskos 2009). In fact,

agencies are acutely aware of how important community-based social networks are in

the fight against crime, benefiting, as they do, from the flow of information that these

loosely coupled relations often provide (Maguire and Katz 2002, Ortiz et al. 2007).

Equally illustrative is the widespread use of tip lines (Lippert 2002), broadcast alerts

(Griffin et al. 2007) and prime-time television (Doyle 2006).

The extent to which these opportunity structures yield useful information isgenerally a function of broader social forces. Pre-existing racial tensions and decades

of social disorganisation sometimes turn communities into anti-police areas,

effectively closing down vital channels of communication that are instrumental in

the fight against crime (Anderson 1990, Davis 1992, Herbert 1996, Parenti 1999,

Harris 2005). Officers become frustrated when witnesses fail to come forward, when

community meetings yield little information or when the spread of misinformation

leads to unnecessary anxiety and tension among citizens. Police agencies often spend

years trying to reestablish functional relations with the alienated communities intheir midst.5 Although these community-based social networks are complex,

nuanced and not always dependable, they are, nonetheless, a vital component of

the legitimate opportunity structure.

Our intention thus far has been to highlight, in rather broad strokes, how the

unbridled cultural emphasis on police-as-crime-fighters is at odds with the legitimate

opportunity structure. Thus, on the basis of Merton’s theoretical model, we argue

that various forms of police deviance are probabilistic outcomes of these structural

conditions. What follows is an exploration of Merton’s modes of adaptation in theaforementioned context.

The innovator

In his 2004 autobiography, former police officer Juan Lopez revisits the seven years

he spent policing Chicago’s streets. His experiences are saturated with anger,

frustration and, at times, a sense of sheer hopelessness as he lays bare the extent

to which he and fellow officers engaged in unethical and sometimes malicious

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behaviour to fulfil objectives that were, in and of themselves, noble. Reflecting on an

encounter with a petty thief, Lopez remarks:

If the woman hadn’t been standing there I would have beaten the truth out of thatjunkie. But she was there, and I wasn’t going to get the answers I needed in front ofher . . . I drove one block and turned onto Bloomingdale Avenue, a vacant streetsurrounded by empty factories and bordered by train tracks. Perfect, I thought, no onearound to see me do what I need to do. (Lopez 2004, p. 67)

Lopez claims to have beaten the young male until he remembered where he hid the

stolen property; such behaviour is not uncommon among officers. For example, in2003, members of the Toronto Police Service already facing corruption charges were

accused of brutally abusing a suspected marijuana dealer during his interrogation,

leaving him bleeding and unable to breathe on his cell floor (see CBC News 2003).

The adoption of questionable means to achieve noble ends is more prevalent, and

likely more systemic, under less extreme circumstances. For the patrol officer who is

rarely under a senior officer’s direct supervision, opportunities for innovation

abound (Barker 1977, Chappell and Piquero 2004, Moskos 2009). Skolnick and Fyfe

(1993), for example, argue that deceptive practices are common in police work,especially when officers seek a confession: faking the availability of evidence and

lying to suspects are preferred strategies. Similar findings emerged in Goldschmidt’s

(Goldschmidt and Anonymous 2008) research on police dishonesty, when officers

admitted to planting narcotics, falsifying reports and searching without just cause.

Not surprisingly, Goldschmidt’s participants sought to legitimise their activity by

emphasising the noble cause of fighting crime by ‘getting their man’ that allegedly

was their objective, a clear example of innovative adaptation.6

The ritualist

While accepting the institutionalised means, ritualists scale back the goals so as to

render them more readily achievable; rarely do they ‘go the extra mile’ to fulfil

normative expectations. Ritualists are not hard to find in any North American police

organisation; however, two manifestations are illustrative: female police officers and

officers approaching retirement.

Female officers often find it difficult to find their place in the male-dominated

field that is law enforcement. Indeed, most are unavoidably confronted with the choice

of being a policewoman (officer first/female second) or a policewoman (female first/officer second) (Martin 1980). While this gendered viewpoint does not trouble

male officers, it does set women apart, forcing them to adapt within a male hegemonic

environment. Female officers who identify as a policewoman eschew the aggressive

and violent behaviours attributed to male police work by scaling back the crime-

fighting ideal, preferring to adopt more feminine roles that involve caretaking,

softness and empathy (Carlan and McMullan 2009, Rabe-Hemp 2009). Furthermore,

stereotypical feminine roles are clearly demarcated by male officers in so far as women

are encouraged to play by the rules, to embrace the ‘social work’ side of policing andto leave the crime-fighting to their male counterparts.

Those who embrace the role of policewoman are also ritualists. While prevailing

gender ideologies restrict women from fulfilling the masculine crime-fighter ideal,

many female officers nevertheless strictly observe the formal regulations and

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standardised procedures amenable to crime-fighting so as to avoid being seen as

either soft on crime by their co-workers (Rabe-Hemp 2009) or as pushovers by the

public. Thus, women who commit to the institutional means see rule adherence as

instrumental in gaining male officers’ approval. Nonetheless, women are acutely

aware that they will never fully achieve or embody the crime-fighter ideal, a

behavioural trait Merton attributed to the ritualist (Merton 1957).

Whatever the case may be (policewoman or policewoman), social isolation is often

the price women pay for joining the police service. Male co-workers are known to

assign the label ‘estrogen mafia’ (Rabe-Hemp 2009, p. 126) to female officers who

socialise with one another, thereby making it difficult for female officers to work

collaboratively with one another. As Merton argues, ritualists often respond by

‘individually seeking a private escape from the dangers and frustrations which seem

to them inherent in the competition for major cultural goals by abandoning these

goals and clinging all the more closely to the safe routines and the institutional

norms’ (Merton 1957/1968, p. 151). Hence, female officers are expected to embrace

organisational norms and values from an individual standpoint, not as ‘one of the

boys’ or as part of a united sisterhood in blue, but as singular women observing

the rules established for them by a masculine institution.

Research has long shown that men identify as being their work (Morse and Weiss

1955); this is especially the case in law enforcement where recruitment and training

strategies reinforce the profession’s insular nature (Waddington 1999, Herbert 2001,

Miller 2004) and where camaraderie in the fight against crime is woven into the

occupation’s normative structure; therefore, looming retirement means a loss of job,

identity and colleagues.

In many police organisations, soon-to-be retirees often choose assignments that

are less risky or opt for supervisory duties that keep them off the beat while becoming

sticklers for procedure (Brown et al. 1996, Paoline 2004).7 One becomes an ‘old

timer’ whose occupational distance from the street becomes the subject of derisive

humour. As Herbert (1996) notes in his analysis of the Los Angeles Police

Department, ‘station queens’, a label sometimes applied to crime prevention officers,

no longer fight the good fight, opting instead for the safety of a desk and the

predictability of bureaucratic routine, the gendered nature of the phrase further

reinforcing the inferiority of all things feminine. These ritualists � soothing their

discomfort by scaling back their cultural goals (Merton 1957/1968) � secure a

functional level of emotional distance as they prepare for their inevitable transition

out of work. These coping strategies, however reasonable, reflect an obvious and

deviant departure from what it means to be a ‘good cop’ in a society obsessed with

fighting crime (Herbert 2001, Miller 2004, Paoline and Terrill 2004, Chiaburu and

Harrison 2008).

The retreatist

Retreatists accept the cultural goals and institutional means yet are unable to fulfil

them. Unlike their innovative counterpart, their moral compass does not allow them

to deviate from the prescribed means, so instead they retreat into a reclusive world

seemingly outside the bounds of conventional society. For the police officer, thwarted

in his or her attempt to sustain the crime-fighter persona, retreatism is likely to be

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seen in those who have substance abuse problems or who suffer from extreme forms

of work-related stress, such as posttraumatic stress disorder.Research has consistently shown that the rate of drug and alcohol abuse among

police officers is on par with rates found in the general public (Mieczkowski et al.

2002, Loree 2006, Lindsay 2008) � about 1�2% of the police population. Although

rates are similar, scholars have argued correctly that we should be particularly

concerned about substance abuse among officers because it may lead to corruption

(Mieczkowski et al. 2002, Loree 2006), public distrust (Mieczkowski et al. 2002) and

a diminished capacity to act with restraint and/or follow protocol in potentially

violent situations (Mieczkowski et al. 2002). In addition, retreatists are no longer

capable of presenting a stoic, crime-fighter persona; thus, giving, or appearing to

give, ‘110%’ is no longer an option.

Myriad studies have demonstrated that policing is a stressful occupation.

Primary stressors, attributed to the organisational/bureaucratic structure of policing,

are also related to the role requirements that come with being an officer (Violanti and

Aron 1995). Behaviourally congruent with Merton’s description of the retreatist,

officers suffering from stress-related illnesses may find themselves emotionally

isolated from co-workers, friends and family, eventually withdrawing into a world

of drugs, alcohol, depression or suicide (Violanti and Aron 1995, Chapin et al. 2008,

Ouimette et al. 2010). That said, the retreatist is deviant on two levels: Firstly, officers

experience the stigmatisation that accompanies mental and physical illness and,

secondly, they find themselves living a life that no longer resembles the idealised

image that helped lure them to the occupation in the first place. It is no wonder that

over-stressed and/or ill officers sometimes refer to themselves as ‘incompetent’ and

‘damaged’ (Tolin and Foa 1999, p. 530).8

The sense of escape that substance abuse provides offers the retreatist respite

from the demands of a role they can no longer fulfil. With its adverse health effects �physical and emotional � retreatism appears to be the most self-destructive mode of

adaptation. The prolonged effects of substance abuse are well documented, as is the

growing body of literature on the negative outcomes of posttraumatic stress disorder,

especially when left untreated. It would appear that the retreatist’s life is both lonely

and isolating � a cruel irony, given the importance of solidarity in the police

subculture.

The rebel

In November 1990, Neil Stonechild, a 17-year-old Aboriginal man, froze to death in

a remote industrial area north of Saskatoon, Saskatchewan. Neil was a victim of

a ‘starlight tour’. Police officers had dropped him off on the city’s outskirts to sober

up while walking home. The temperature that night was �28.18C, according to the

judicial inquiry (Wright 2004). The officers involved had eschewed formal protocol

and exacted their own form of discriminatory street justice.

In an unrelated incident, Abner Louima, a 30-year-old Haitian immigrant, was

horribly brutalised by Justin Volpe, a white New York City police officer, on 9 August,

1997. Volpe admitted to ramming a broken broomstick into Louima’s rectum and later

testified that he mistakenly believed that Louima had assaulted him during

a previous encounter. Volpe was found guilty and sentenced to 30 years in prison

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while the New York City Police Department was again criticised for its ongoing

mistreatment of black Americans (see New York Times n.d.; also see Daniels 2000).

Although separated by time, geography and culture, the violence exacted upon

Stonechild and Louima reflect a complete and utter disregard for human rights infavour of a violent, discriminatory social order where the institutionally legitimate

means of exercising social control and the culturally celebrated goal of being a noble,

masculine crime-fighter were summarily dismissed. This form of street justice, wherein

a desire for revenge supplants an officer’s pursuit of a more noble cause, fulfils clearly

the principle components of Merton’s rebellion category. Although Merton intimated

that rebellion could herald positive change, the adaptive responses outlined above are,

unfortunately, infused with long-standing histories of racial and ethnic discrimina-

tion, the US in relation to African Americans and Canada in relation to its Aboriginalpeoples.

Police brutality is not rebellion’s only manifestation, however. The institutionally

accepted means and culturally prescribed goals are cast aside similarly when officers

engage in self-interested corruption. Buying and selling narcotics, theft, taking bribes

and negotiating kickbacks reflect a willingness to let personal gain trump the ethical

standards of public service (Punch 2000). Interestingly, however, self-interested

corruption also seems to fulfil the criteria for innovation if the institutionally

accepted means and culturally prescribed goals in question are hard work andeconomic success (i.e. the classic application of Merton’s thesis). This appears to

suggest that officers may adapt to overlapping anomic conditions.

Discussion and conclusion

Admittedly, this model has departed slightly from Merton’s original thesis in so far

as he did not conceptualise systemic anomie in terms of how a narrow slice of the

population adapts to the limited availability and/or efficacy of acceptable means;however, our argument is consistent with Mertonian logic because the essential

theoretical components remain intact. Doing something about the ‘crime problem’ is

now a ubiquitous cultural imperative. That the effects of these social facts are

experienced acutely by police officers does not stray from the underlying casual

dynamics originally outlined by Merton: the pressure to fulfil a particular definition

of success when paired with a limited opportunity structure creates systemic

conditions that increase the probability of certain kinds of deviant behaviour.

Moreover, our argument appears to lend itself to empirical research. Although fullyoperationalising this model would be a challenge, it would not be impossible. Data

on prison overcrowding, court backlogs, recidivism rates and the number of cases

thrown out of court could function as proxy measures for a limited opportunity

structure. Similarly, data on early retirement, rates of substance abuse and violations

of protocol could offer a viable starting point for measuring the frequency of

ritualism, retreatism and innovation.

A Mertonian approach to understanding police deviance does not negate the

importance of traditional, remedial policy initiatives when it comes to dealing withthe more harmful side of police deviance (substance abuse and anger management

programmes, support groups, etc.). Instead, it offers an additional opportunity to

look beyond individual-level solutions. While admittedly a formidable task, finding

ways to deconstruct the noble, masculine crime-fighter image would go a long way

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towards bringing the cultural complex into line with the reality of police work; it

would challenge the dominant image of policing and help redefine what it means to

be a successful officer. In addition, identifying and supporting under-resourced

criminal justice institutions while simultaneously maximising their efficiency would

help maintain the integrity of the existing opportunity structure. At the same time,

and as is currently the case in some jurisdictions (Harris 2005), the opportunity

structure must also be expanded and diversified such that officers and departments

can embrace and promote different definitions of success (e.g. excellence in crime

prevention and community policing).

In his ethnographic study of policing, Moskos’ (2009) narrative highlights the

symbiotic relationship between beat officers’ experiences, the broader structural

forces that shape communities and the administration of justice. Moskos’ analysis is

insightful and at times humorous as he shares personal anecdotes and lays bare the

everyday minutia of policing. What is particularly interesting is how officers adapt to

challenging work environments. From the overly aggressive to the overly recluse,

officers respond differently to the pressures of policing Baltimore’s east side. While

partially inspired by Moskos’ work, this article has attempted to transcend

traditional levels of analysis by conceptualising the aetiology of deviant conduct

less in terms of abnormal psychology, subcultural values and/or organisational

relations and more in terms of discordant structural conditions. Ideally, this revised

Mertonian model will set the stage for new research questions, new data collection

methods and new ways of explaining police deviance.

Acknowledgements

The authors thank the anonymous reviewers and our wonderful colleagues at the University ofGuelph.

Notes

1. Messner and Rosenfeld’s (1994) work is conceptually closer to Merton’s middle-rangetheory than to Agnew’s (1992) strain theory. In fact, according to Cullen and Messner,Merton was somewhat mystified by the tendency of scholars to interpret his work inrelation to the highly individualised concept of strain (Cullen and Messner 2007).

2. Raganella and White’s (2004) results actually show that out of 12 possible reasons,‘excitement’ and the opportunity to ‘fight crime’ were ranked the fourth and fifth mostimportant reasons for becoming an officer. That said, we would argue that the difference inmean scores, while statistically significant, still alludes to the importance of both factors,especially when compared with reasons 6 through 12.

3. Paradoxically, this dominant conceptualisation of policing is at odds with the reality ofpolice work in most rural and urban settings. As Ericson (1982) demonstrated in hisseminal work Reproducing Order: A Study of Police Patrol Work, one of the challenges line-level officers face, especially early in their career, is getting used to the mundane and time-consuming elements of police work. Tasks such as writing incident reports, responding tocitizen complaints and routine patrol are not classified as ‘real police work’ by officers, andmany are reluctant to engage in tasks that deemphasise their role as crime-fighters (Herbert2001).

4. A more dramatic example involves the experiences of the New Orleans Police Department(NOPD) in the wake of Hurricane Katrina in 2005. Two years after the disaster, criticalinfrastructure, including office space, lab space and essential computer equipment,remained unavailable. While facing one of the highest crime rates in the country, membersof the NOPD felt that they were unable to do their jobs effectively. Admittedly, the New

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Orleans Hurricane Katrina experience and its effects remain unprecedented; nevertheless, itillustrates the extent to which the viability and effectiveness of routine police operations aretied to adequate funding and economic stability.

5. The challenges faced by the Los Angeles Police Department in the wake of Rodney King’snotorious beating in March of 1991 and the ongoing struggle to improve relations betweenthe police and Arab communities are but two examples that come to mind (Davis 1998,Ortiz et al. 2007).

6. For scholars of policing, the conceptual overlap with Klockars’ (1985) ‘Dirty Harry’problem is likely clear: Competing ethical imperatives mean that officers must choosebetween playing by the rules or adopting unethical tactics in order to take an offender offthe streets.

7. The military equivalent would be the ‘short-timer’; one who avoids unnecessary risks as theend of his or her tour of duty draws near.

8. A similar phenomenon occurs in the military. Soldiers returning home from active duty areoften besieged by mental illness and routinely confront the intense stigmatisation associatedwith no longer being ‘fit’ for military service (Vitzthum et al. 2009).

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