Abstract
Whilst contemporary studies of police culture have drawn attention to the idea of ‘machismo’ and, until comparatively recently, policing has been an overwhelmingly male occupation, scholars have tended not to foreground masculinity as a key category of analysis. The construction of gender – as identity, performance and practice – has been most explicitly examined in historical and sociological work on women’s venture into policing, informed by feminist theory and politics. This edited collection is, therefore, to be welcomed as marking a step-change in the way that mainstream police history is written, presaged by Clive Emsley’s thoughtful consideration of the relationship between English working-class masculinities and urban policing in his Hard Men: Violence in England Since 1750 . The collapse of the hegemonic association of maleness with military and civilian law enforcement enables previously marginalised social groups to enter policing and results in different forms of critical reflection.
The editors set themselves something of an impossible task in positing that the collection will explore ‘how ideologies about masculinity have shaped police culture, practice, policy and institutional organization from the 18th century to the present day’ (p. 1). A range of 11 contributions offer case studies of precise periods that are national (England, Scotland, Italy, America) or municipal (Paris, Melbourne, New York state) and are often based on specific types of document (such as officers’ memoirs, police manuals, popular representations in tabloids). Overall, the book leaves us with a useful set of impressions and vignettes rather than a joined up account of changing models of masculinity within policing across time and space. Yet, the material presented here is a valuable contribution that may help others to develop this overview.
David Garrioch sets the pace with a useful discussion of the ways in which models of paternalism informed understandings of both 18th-century French pre-revolutionary government and the Parisian police. The police reinforced the authority of the patriarchal household, stepping in when it failed to function properly in its exercise of discipline over servants, apprentices, children, etc. Moreover, the rhetoric of policing reflected changing ideals of fatherhood itself, with a discernible shift from the language of the despotic autocrat to the benevolent model of ‘public service’. Whilst the focus here is on the period before 1789, it would be useful to see republican France subject to similar gendered scrutiny. At present the most significant work on this aspect is Geneviève Pruvost’s De la “sergote” à la femme flic (2008), which offers an expertly theorised account of women’s appointment to national and municipal police forces in France, but which has only been published in French to date.
Matthew McCormack reflects on the Gordon Riots of the 1780s in London to take on the standard account of English policing as ‘civilian’ in model (in contrast to the military models used in France and elsewhere). Rather McCormack reminds us that in the 18th century, ‘the military were routinely involved in police duties and … civilians were routinely involved in the military’ (p. 56). The volunteer ‘civilian soldier’ was an idealised reference point in debates about the enforcement of order in the wake of the Gordon riots, feeding indirectly into the setting up of the Dublin Police and even influencing Peel’s later model for the metropolis. Moreover, the 19th-century English policemen continued to be armed, albeit with a sabre rather than a musket.
The relationship between models of martial masculinity and policing is picked up in other essays, most obviously Francis Dodsworth’s discussion of Victorian police memoirs. Drawing on Emsley’s work, he emphasises the continued need for officers to be physically tough and able to hold their own in a ‘fair fight’. This idea of physical prowess was very apparent in the process of recruitment, which continued to specify minimum height and fitness; coupled with the use of drill, formal uniform and the emphasis on deportment and smartness, this ensured that desirable masculine attributes and qualities were embodied, performed and enacted. Haia Shpayer-Makov’s contribution acts as a useful counterpart to Dodsworth’s piece, as she focuses in on the plain-clothed Victorian (and Edwardian) detective; in the absence of uniform the detective’s gait and physique was nevertheless a recognisable ‘badge’ of the policeman. In the English detective’s memoir, innate cognitive skills (rather than learned science) are emphasised.
As the editors of the collection remind us in their useful ‘Introduction’, there have been ‘multiple understandings and expressions of masculinity operating through policing’ (p. 4). Whilst the concept of the ‘father’ can be identified in the 18th-century France and that of the ‘civilian soldier’ in the 18th-century England, Simona Mori’s contribution points to a different set of references in the newly united Italy of the 1860s. Here the policeman could be viewed as a missionary or ‘Christ-like’ figure engaged in a ‘priestly function’ of service and self-sacrifice, effectively combining masculine with feminine attributes (p. 110). By the 1890s, however, other models were emphasised in Italy, most obviously that of the ‘technical professional’, informed by Lombrosian criminology, in which the policeman was associated with the masculine scientific gaze. This is suggestive of a slightly different role, identity and set of attributes to those of the English detectives studied by Shpayer-Makov.
Dean Wilson’s chapter on the police in gold-rush Melbourne, like others, views the idealised uniformed officer as the embodiment of hegemonic masculinity, this time within the colonial context. He emphasises, however, that the ideal was challenged when policemen broke the rigorous disciplinary codes to which they were subject, most obviously through heavy drinking on duty, which became ‘an accepted facet of life for many constables on the beat’ (p. 174). Thus rank-and-file offers did not necessarily buy into the model of the policeman as ‘moral exemplar’ promoted by their superiors. Joanne Klein’s work on English police officers in the first half of the 20th century suggests that here the disciplinary regime was rather more successful at weeding out drunkenness.
The relationship between gender, ‘race’ and ethnicity remains underdeveloped in most of the chapters but is thrown into relief in Gerda Ray’s discussion of the development of the New York State Police (NYSP, founded 1917). In contrast to New York City Police, which had been dominated by ‘Irish-surnamed men’ (p. 221) and had gained a reputation for coercive tactics against strike-breakers that included ‘third-degree’ methods, the first superintendent of the NYSP, George Fletcher Chandler, sought to develop an ‘Anglo-Saxon model’ of being a ‘gentleman, courteous, kind, gentle, fair … clean and neat’ (p. 222). Both forces, however, viewed themselves in terms of ‘whiteness’. In the late 19th-century city, the Irish had claimed ‘whiteness’ in opposition to those of Jewish, Italian and Southern European background whom they policed. By the 1930s, the descendants of these latter groups were being absorbed in the State police as ‘white’ as the NYSP bought into ‘the “scientific” fact of disproportionate black criminality’, effectively becoming part of the ‘white patriarchy’ (p. 224). These racial tensions were exposed from the 1940s as the NYSP pursued civil rights activists who were seen to embody ‘the twin threats of black criminality and communist subversion’ (p. 225). Further reflection on the ethnic and religious make-up of English, Scottish and Australian police forces, on the hegemony of whiteness, and on imperial/colonial policing generally, would have enhanced the collection further.
A final contribution from Marisa Silvestri focuses on contemporary policing and the effects of equality initiatives, performance management principles and the new emphasis on ‘customers’ (with consumer rights) rather than ‘citizens’ (with their own duties and obligations). Despite formal notions of equality, Silverstri shows that the new managerialism has enabled the development of a ‘smart macho’ culture, based on a competitive office setting, albeit distanced from an earlier ‘cult of masculinity’ within policing that was linked to toughness on the beat. Silvestri reminds us that (in 2012) men constituted 74% of the police workforce in England and Wales and 86% of ranks above Chief Inspector.
As Silvestri and a number of other contributors also demonstrate, it is important to consider police constructions of femininity, as well as the roles that policing have permitted women to occupy, alongside changing ideals of masculinity. Gender, after all, is relational. In this regard, more on the policing of those associated with ‘deviant’ masculinities, such as ‘homosexual’ communities where same-sex practices have been criminalised, would be have been a useful area for inclusion. Overall, this collection is a useful addition to the historiography and, it is hoped, will open up further study of the relationship between policing, masculinity and other aspects of social identity including ‘race’, ethnicity, religion and sexuality.