I work in police training and my colleague and I are developing a cultural competency curriculum but we keep disagreeing about whether to focus on specific cultural practices or broader principles of respectful engagement. She thinks detailed cultural information helps officers avoid mistakes while I worry it leads to stereotyping and assumptions about how people will behave based on their background.
More people experience this than they realize.
Law enforcement educators face the tension between specific cultural knowledge and avoiding cultural stereotyping in training design.
“Where Are You with Policing across cultures?”
If this sounds familiar, the Library can help you find the bigger picture.