Reiner (2000) outlines the sociological literature on cop culture, and how it came to be regarded as a central determinant of police behaviour as studies showed that the formal rules or law enforcement codes were subject to the exercise of police discretion.

Waddington’s (1999) article, ‘Police (Canteen) Sub-Culture: an Appreciation’, provides an important reconceptualisation of sub-culture, and argues that it can be understood as a response to the demands of police work, rather than something that determines the way in which officers behave.

Cockroft’s (2012) Police Culture: Themes and Concepts (Routledge) provides a concise analysis of contemporary approaches to many of the issues outlined in this chapter. Loftus’s (2009) Police Culture in a Changing World (Oxford University Press) examines the changing terrain of culture in policing in terms of results from a major ethnographic study conducted by the author.

The website of the National Black Police Association (www.nbpa.co.uk) provides an array of information on racism within the police service and campaigns and policies introduced to tackle it. The site also provides links to many other police resources, including many of the associations linked to particular constabularies. 

The Christian Police Association was established in 1883 and is part of an extended worldwide network: more information on the Northern Ireland branch can be found at http://www.cpani.com/.

 The British Association of Women Police website (http://www.bawp.org/) contains more information relating to the ‘gender agenda’ and a host of other useful resources.

The website of the LGBT Police Network (https://www.lgbtpolice.uk/) contains useful updates on news items relating to homophobia, crime and policing.

A useful early study examined the question of police working personality: Balch, R.W. (1972) ‘The Police Personality: Fact or Fiction?’, The Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology, and Police Science, 63: 106–19.

The status of a minority group among police ranks is reviewed in one of the first studies of gay police officers: Burke, M. (1994) ‘Homosexuality as Deviance: the case of the Gay Police Officer’, British Journal of Criminology, 34: 192–203.

The changing and dynamic nature of police culture is explored in Loftus’s work: Loftus, B. (2008) ‘Dominant Culture Interrupted: Recognition, Resentment and the Politics of Change in an English Police Force’, British Journal of Criminology, 48: 756–77.

An important reappraisal of the nature and value of police sub-culture is offered by Waddington: Waddington, P.A.J. (1999) ‘Police (Canteen) Sub-Culture – an Appreciation’, British Journal of Criminology, 39: 287–309