Analysis Of The Asshole By John Van Maanen

The topic that I had researched about being “The Asshole” which was written by John Van Maanen. The reading by Van Maanen explores the attitudes and typologies created by urban police officers as a means of accomplishing their job more efficiently. According to Van Maanen (1978), for the most part, he found that police officers tend to knot any citizen they encounter into one of three categories which are persons, assholes, and know nothings (p. 309). The author outlines the tasks and obligations associated with patrol work, then swings to a discussion of the concept of “street justice”. Such concepts as an affront, a confrontation, contentions, and remedies are discussed at length in relations to the police officer’s ability to do a difficult job. …show more content…
Understanding this relationship is imperative. Police depend on citizen to report crimes and to cooperate in the investigations and apprehension of criminals. Citizen rely on the police to provide services, to maintain order in their community, and to keep them safe. Thus, a cooperative and trusting relationship between the police and citizens is a key component in effective policing. A cooperative and trusting relationship between the police and citizens has turned out to be considerably more basic as the community policing movement continues to move forward. Docobo (2005) stated that, “community policing can fit into the overall national strategy for homeland security, little research specifically identifies community policing strategies and their direct application to the national strategy for homeland security (p. 1). The vast majority of these communities, the relationship between police and citizens has historically been tenuous, and tensions frequently remain high