These early empirical ethnographies challenged the prevailing notion at the time that police forces were “rule-bound, legalistic, bureaucratic organizations”, in which strict discipline enforced top-down government policies.
This study presented a “primarily harmonious view of British society” that neglected problems of police corruption and violence against marginalized communities.
The success of these women’s stations has challenged this approach and prompted debate about the best response to hypermasculinity in police culture.
This was reflected in promulgation of the directives of the Communist Party, which were perceived to set moral and ethical standards.
[6] Latin America has a history of military dictatorships in the latter portion of the 20th century, when police forces participated in human rights abuses.
New democracies emerging from these earlier conditions inherited militarized and abusive police forces that were “sometimes corrupt, and nearly everywhere feared by the population".
In all three cases, Western models of policing were imported, partly due to reliance on foreign aid during the war.
Where rebel groups were successful, as in Uganda and Rwanda, a form of local popular justice was implemented, supplemented by the police.