To understand attitudes towards police work and the actions of police officers we can use the Structure-agency debate which has three distinct perspectives; structure, agency and structuration. This essay will discuss which position is best to apply by drawing on sociological theories and concepts. As stated by Abercrombie (in Van Huyssteen, 2003: 228) the structure-agency debate refers to “to what extent individuals are the product of social structures, and to what extent they can act on those social structures”. Social structures are structures within society that influence how we behave, such as education, family, race, and rules. (Kendall, 2013, p. 119) In other words, the structural agency debate is a discussion between three different ideologies that explain and analyze the individual's actions and decisions. Some sociologists believe that humans have the freedom to make their own choices and decide how to behave (agency) while others theorize that human behavior is determined and influenced by society's patterns, dispositions, norms and guidelines (structure) . The third position chooses neither one nor the other but rather states that the two; structure and action equally play a role in shaping human behavior and attitudes; this perspective is known as structuration; developed by Giddens (as located in Huyssteen, 2003). Inspector Solomon Makaye; also known as "Fats" Makaye is a police officer who this essay will focus on (reviewed from A Night on the Town: Chapter Twelve). Inspector Makaye is the oldest man in his unit (located in Ivory Park) as well as the senior leader of his squad (Altbeker 2005, p. 201-202). His general attitude towards his job and his role as a policeman is the… middle of paper… of the police, he should work for a police service” (Altbeker 2005, p.210). Individual choice, interpretation and understanding of one's situation are aspects of action. Evaluating the last two paragraphs it can be said that both the structure and the action together provide a clear understanding and explanation of Inspector Makaye. Structuring is the most effective perspective as it outlines the bigger picture of who one is; its identity as a human identity and its behavior are shaped by individuals and society (Lemert, site in Huyssteen 2003). This essay has understood attitudes towards police officers and their work and concludes that to fully understand the reason for their behavior one should move beyond structural and agency positions and adopt the structuration perspective, which considers that society and individuals influence officers like Inspector Makaye.