Blog on Social Reseach

Police Responses to Diversity: A Social Representational Study of Rural British Policing

in a Changing Representational Context - evaluation of research methods used in this study - Morant and Edwards (2010)

http://eds.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?sid=7d4f8ffc-7071-47e3-8625-1515be0d505b%40sessionmgr113&vid=7&hid=106

As I have previously mentioned a big sociological interest of mine is the British police force today; in particular the extent to which our police force today is diverse and reflects the society in which we are in today. The article states that "The last decade of British policing has seen enormous reforms in how the police interact with members of ethnic minority groups, and respond to diversity in modern society" (281:2010), This suggests that policies and reforms in laws have created a more diverse force. Events such as the murder of Stephen Lawrence in 1993 sparked huge reform in the British police force as the Macpherson report (1999) deemed the police "institutionally racist", it also stated that the ethic minority groups were "under policed and over protected" (Macpherson report cited in McLaughlin 2007:21), this in turn lead to an increase in mistrust and an overall dislike of the British police force. However much more is now done in order to maintain a healthy relationship between the police and communities.

It is clear to see that diversity within the police force is now seen as an important part of having a well rounded police force; and with this in mind many criminologists and sociologists are employed to carry out research into the effectiveness of diversity policies. The area of research and topic looked at in the article is a social representational study of rural British policing in a changing representational context. This suggests that the study aimed to produce data and findings that would lead to either new theory or  support pre-existing theory. 

The methods used in this study are both quantative and qualitative, as both data and personal findings were recorded. Semi- structured interviews were carried on 10 officers who were geographically located in rural communities and their response to the recent increase in migrant workers working on the land etc. The researchers titled the semi- structured interviews "the experiences of police officers in this region of interacting with diverse ethnic minority communities"(Morant and Edwards 2010 84). This suggests that the researchers wanted to create an overall picture of policing diverse groups from the experiences of front- line officers within local communities and gain an understanding of how their work has impacted the relationship with diverse ethnic minority gorups. "Interview questions were designed with a clear focus on personal experiences of practical policing situations" (Morant and Edwards 2010:85) interviews were then conducted in private rooms at police stations with both times and dates chosen by participants, each interview lasted 45 minutes and anonyminity was put into practice at all times.

The findings from the research provide an interesting read, for example the study found that 

" Across many examples of police practice, two

inter-related characteristics of recent immigrant groups are central: lack of cultural assimilation and language and communication difficulties. These are experienced as barriers or challenges to respondents’ aspirations to treat these groups fairly, with associated implications for their sense of professional competence and identities" (Morant and Edwards 2010:289) this suggests that the police officers who were questioned found it difficult to interact with the diverse ethnic groups because of barriers for example, language and culture. Another finding suggests that officers are ofetn scared of coming across as "institutionally racist" and therefore are sometimes reluctant to deal with diverse ethic groups. Finally the research suggests that although policing continues to move on and become more and more diverse it terms of dealing withe community, more still needs to be done in order to break down barriers.

Reference list

MacPherson Report (1999) The Stephen Lawrence Inquiry: Report of an Inquiry by Sir William MacPherson of Cluny, Cm 4262–1, London, The Home Office.

MCLAUGHLIN, E. (2007). The new policing. London, SAGE.