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The racial ideology of the British Police: Protecting and maintaining the racial interests of the white institution

Wicks, Nikhaela (2024) The racial ideology of the British Police: Protecting and maintaining the racial interests of the white institution. British Journal of Criminology, . pp. 1-16. ISSN 0007-0955. E-ISSN 1464-3529. (doi:10.1093/bjc/azae043) (KAR id:106694)

Abstract

Previous canonical writings on racism and policing have focussed on the shift from overt to covert articulations (Loftus 2010; Holdaway and O’Neill 2013), finding that racism is communicated primarily by white, heterosexist men in ‘white spaces’ (Loftus 2008). This paper moves beyond individualistic conceptions of racism to explore how police officers subscribe to a white racial ideology (Bonilla-Silva 2018). By drawing upon over 600 h of observations and interviews and discussions with over 60 officers, this paper explores four police discourses that underplay, defend and maintain the unequal racial status quo in policing: (1) individualization, (2) historicization, (3) discursive deracialization and (4) racial stories.

Item Type: Article
DOI/Identification number: 10.1093/bjc/azae043
Uncontrolled keywords: policing; 'race'; racism, whiteness; discourse analysis
Subjects: H Social Sciences > H Social Sciences (General)
H Social Sciences > HM Sociology
Divisions: Divisions > Division for the Study of Law, Society and Social Justice > School of Social Policy, Sociology and Social Research
Funders: University of Westminster (https://ror.org/04ycpbx82)
Depositing User: Nikhaela Wicks
Date Deposited: 26 Jul 2024 08:26 UTC
Last Modified: 05 Nov 2024 13:12 UTC
Resource URI: https://kar.kent.ac.uk/id/eprint/106694 (The current URI for this page, for reference purposes)

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