Formal Influence Of Peers In Policing

The source of this culture lies with the informal influence of peers, especially during the officer’s early experience of patrol. Typically, the ‘rookie’ is advised to forget everything taught during training and to learn how policing is really done on the street. The loyalty of rookies to their peer group is often tested by exposing them to minor misconduct and by enticing them into committing minor infractions (such as ‘easing’ in ‘tea-holes’; Cain 1973), before inducting them into more serious and systematic wrongdoing. Peers are also a source of excuses that neutralize moral and legal deviancy (Kappeler et al. 1994).

While widely accepted and employed in research and commentary, some conceptual and empirical issues arise concerning police