Police Crime

Author: Martha K. Huggins

To promote discussions of methodological issues associated with cross-gender research in criminology, we focus on two women’s studies of Latin American police. This uncovered five working propositions about women studying organizations dominated numerically and structurally by men. First, feminist scholarship provides some guidelines for such research, but its applicability is neither direct nor immediate. Second, for example, much crossgender research requires negotiating and maintaining power differentials between researcher and researched. Third, particularly in cross-gender research on secrecy and danger, inter-gender dynamics can thwart some research objectives and promote others. Fourth, inter-gender dynamics can complicate the ethical dilemmas associated with research on powerful agents and agencies of the state. Finally, the emotional reflexivity associated with such intergender research is epistemologically relevant for understanding research outcomes.

Authors: Jude McCulloch and Marcus Clayton

The military-style training and ethos of police was alarmingly apparent at two Melbourne demonstrations.

Author: Maurice Punch

The 1976-78 investigation of police corruption in Amsterdam is used to examine the nature of organizational control in relation to police occupational deviance. It shows how patterns of deviance emerged and illuminates the disputes between higher and lower ranks in terms of control over work within the police organization.

Author: Jude McCulloch

Press reports concerning three fatal police shootings in Victoria misrepresent the facts and demonstrate manipulation of the media.

Author: Jude McCulloch

Eleven people have been shot dead by Victorian police in the past two years. This dramatic increase in the number of fatal shootings, and the circumstances surrounding some of them, has led to widespread calls for a full public inquiry.