The Category of ‘Culture’ in Vice Squad Policing in Germany

Abstract This article makes a twofold claim. First, the notion of ‘culture’ is inherently interwoven with the classification system that organises the daily work of police officers. In their understanding, culture is a one-size-fits-all category to produce boundaries in terms of gender, ethnicity, class, and the willingness of a population to submit to police authority. The second claim is that ‘culture’ has a particular functionality in the field of policing practices. For police officers, ‘culture’ solves complex problems. It breaks down the complexities of the social world that the officers face, as it operates both as a meaning-making and complexity-reducing mechanism that ultimately counters particular dilemmas. In this regard, ethnographic research of a vice squad conducted in a mid-sized German city in 2015 revealed the kind of dilemma that exemplifies the argument of this contribution: the dilemma of the absent victim and its counterpart, the irritated police officer. Keywords: Policing, culture, bureaucracy, human trafficking, stat