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A Visigoth System

Shame, Honor, and Police Socialization

Duquesne University, contin{at}duq.edu

This article documents the process by which a police academy staff generates an interaction order of obedience to authority during recruit training. Specifically, it examines the formal pattern of face-to-face interaction that recruits are expected to embrace before they can engage the larger occupational culture. The staff utilizes a dialectical method akin to Braithwaite's model of reintegrative shaming in which recruits are simultaneously degraded for what are defined as highly stigmatic civilian characteristics and offered a status elevation for the excision of these problematic attributes. Subscription to or deviance from established rituals is taken as evidence of personal character and assists in driving recruits through a moral career, in which they can evolve to an idealized status of police officer.

Key Words: moral career • reintegrative shaming • interaction order • police culture • professional socialization

This version was published on June 1, 2009

Journal of Contemporary Ethnography, Vol. 38, No. 3, 409-432 (2009)
DOI: 10.1177/0891241608330092


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