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WebPolice corruption is the misuse of police authority for personal gain. Examples include extortion (for example, demanding money for not writing traffic tickets) and bribery (for WebCorruption was also witnessed during the time of civil movements in which police corruption was manly demonstrated through violation of human rights and racial WebEssay on Police Corruption. The primary objectives of police are to honor and safeguard property and life, protect the rights and freedoms of every person in the jurisdiction of the WebPolice Corruption Essay. Words4 Pages. Corruption is a type of misconduct and offense in which the police break their contract and oath by abusing their power for WebHistorically, police corruption has been a persisting, serious, and in some cases pervasive feature of police services. Corruption can be seen as a kind of occupational hazard for ... read more
Even when complaints are made, they are difficult to substantiate, often involving the word of the complainant against that of the police officer they are complaining about, and police complaints systems themselves are often less than ideal. For reasons such as these, it is impossible to know exactly how common police corruption actually is. Moreover, the extent of corruption clearly varies considerably across different settings. In some Indian police services, for example, corruption appears to be virtually universal, with bribery a precondition for police attention; in totalitarian states the police are part of the repressive structure that keeps the regime in power and, using a broad understanding of police corruption, much of their official activity is corrupt in nature.
Even if police corruption does not reach these levels in generally orderly liberal democracies such as the United States, United Kingdom, and Australia, there is good evidence that it is nevertheless disturbingly common. Indications of its prevalence are given in the reports of important inquiries into police behavior, typically prompted by a pubic scandal, such as the Knapp and Mollen Commission inquiries into the New York City Police Department, the Christopher Commission into the Los Angeles Police Department, and the Wood Royal Commission into the New South Wales Police Service. Each report details widespread corruption, ranging from acceptance of small bribes to overlook illegal activity such as bookmaking, to active—and, in some units, widespread—involvement in serious criminal behavior such as drug dealing, assault, and theft.
Other sources of information about police corruption include complaints against police, especially those that are substantiated, and surveys and interviews with police, defendants, and members of the public. While every occupation may have corrupt practitioners, police corruption is particularly damaging. It is a significant factor in miscarriages of justice, leading to conviction of the innocent and acquittal or nonprosecution of criminals. It can directly contribute to criminal activity by enabling criminals to carry out their activities without fear of discovery or prosecution, or even by police themselves engaging in such activities. It contributes to criminal activity indirectly by subverting the trust between community and police, which is a necessary condition for effective policing, and by creating a more disorderly society in which it is harder for police to carry out their function.
It imposes real financial burdens on the community through the cost of increased crime and crime prevention measures, as well as litigation and public inquiries. And, of course, corrupt police themselves, many of whom were morally upright at the start of their careers, can pay a significant price in psychological disturbance and, where their corruption is discovered, social disgrace and legal penalty. Causes of Corruption In order to address police corruption, it is necessary to understand its causes. At the highest level of generality, corruption results from the interaction of a disposition to act corruptly with a tempting opportunity to do so—that is, one where the perceived benefits consequent on a corrupt action are much greater than the perceived potential costs.
Most people are neither moral saints, who will do right come what may, nor moral monsters, who will do wrong whenever they judge it is in their interests to do so. Individuals are, at least up to a point, motivated to follow the dictates of morality but subject to temptations that, if strong enough, can lead them astray. Presumably, police as a group are not radically different in this respect than the rest of people. Indeed, many recruits are motivated to join the service at least in part by a morally admirable desire to serve their community.
The prevalence of police corruption reflects the fact that police are both likely to have many tempting opportunities to act corruptly and subject to a range of factors that undermine their capacity to recognize and resist corrupting temptations. There are a number of reasons why police are likely to face opportunities to act corruptly. Much police work involves a high level of operational autonomy, with a good deal of discretion as to how it is to be carried out, and little direct oversight. This lack of oversight allows police to avoid what people could think of as the costs of police work.
After all, a lot of conscientious police work is unpleasant—dangerous, or tedious, or time-consuming. The temptation to take shortcuts to avoid these costs, or to seek benefits to offset them, is considerable. Moreover, police are equipped with legal powers, such as powers of arrest on suspicion, surveillance, and so on, and equipment, such as guns and batons, which can be used as means to pursue corrupt ends, such as extortion. A good deal of police work involves contact with people who have interests in inducing police to act corruptly—ranging from speeding drivers who are prepared to offer a bribe to avoid losing their license, to tow truck operators who pay police for information about traffic accidents, to criminals who pay for intelligence that puts them in a better position to plan their activities.
Black markets in goods and services for which there is a large and persisting demand, such as recreational drugs, sex, and alcohol, generate ample opportunities for corrupt behavior, such as stealing the proceeds of crime, or receiving bribes from merchants in such markets. At the same time they face such opportunities to act corruptly, police are also subject to a range of factors that undermine their capacity to resist these opportunities, or even to realize that, in taking them, they are acting corruptly. One such factor or set of factors stems from the collective nature of police work.
Police rely on each other to an unusually large extent to achieve their professional goals. This, together with the socially distinctive nature of police work, tends to generate a high degree of group identification and solidarity. That solidarity is displayed both at the level of the unit, with perceived conflict between the interests of the rank and file, on the one hand, and police management on the other, and at the level of the service as a whole. In many ways such solidarity and loyalty is a good thing; without it effective policing would be impossible. But it can also contribute to police corruption. First, as survey research has indicated, it means that that even morally well motivated new recruits can be corrupted by their induction into a group that is itself partially or wholly corrupt, either by joining in corrupt practices or by tolerating them.
The blue wall exists when even the many police who disapprove of the corrupt practices of colleagues will not make complaints against them, when members close ranks against outside investigation of wrongdoing, and when those who do complain are ostracized or worse. That silence, of course, has the effect of protecting corrupt police from effective action. Moreover, police who refrain from acting against their corrupt colleagues out of a sense of loyalty are often compromised by this failure and ripe for more active involvement in corrupt schemes. The moral character of police can also come under pressure when they are called on to enforce the law in what might be called morally confusing environments, where laws, or their modes of enforcement, conflict with broadly held social norms.
This is a problem particularly with laws against vice—drugs, prostitution, gambling— which are often introduced or retained as a result of pressure from well-organized lobby groups. As noted above, the black markets that arise as a consequence are fertile sources of corruption. Such laws are also often seen by those who are charged with enforcing them as morally unjustified. Consider laws against recreational drugs such as marijuana and amphetamines. Young police in particular are often members of subcultures where the use of such drugs is common and seen as unproblematic—attitudes that may be widespread in the broader community.
Moreover, there is often a de facto toleration of markets in vice by the powers-that-be, provided that they are sufficiently removed from the attention of those who find them offensive. Understandably, police can come to feel that tolerating, or even participating in, illegal behavior is not always wrong and that they are justified in picking and choosing which laws they will respect and enforce, and how. Addressing Police Corruption Given the nature of police work it is utopian to believe that police corruption will ever be completely exterminated. However, it is not utopian to believe that it can be much reduced.
Legislative and other policies directed at offenses and offenders, rather than at police, can play a major role here. For example, where decriminalization of abortion and of homosexuality has occurred, it has significantly reduced the opportunities for police corruption. But policies directed at police, from within and without the service, can also play a significant role. Broadly speaking, such policies should aim to reinforce the desire to act well and reduce temptations to act badly, either by removing the opportunity to do so or increasing the likely costs.
There is now a significant body of research, looking both at organizations generally and police services more specifically, which indicates how both of these things can be done through the development of what is often referred to as an integrity system. An integrity system for police, aiming to promote good behavior and reduce bad, can be seen as having four interacting parts: first, an organization-wide, intelligence-based, ethics risk-assessment audit; second, measures to reduce those risks; third, ways of detecting and deterring corruption; and finally, means to increase ethical awareness. Some of the most salient ethical risks facing police have already been identified, such as the temptations of noble cause corruption, the possibility of excessive use of force and other kinds of abuse of members of the public, and the potential for bribery, or even active involvement in criminality.
Measures to reduce these risks begin at the point of recruitment. Strategies here will aim both to exclude unsuitable applicants and to attract suitable ones. Given the tendency toward corruption in policing, it is crucial that those who are recruited have the highest moral character. If there is a good chance that even those of good character can be corrupted, there is obviously no chance of those of bad character being reformed by undertaking police work. It is also important to recruit those who are capable of becoming competent. The incompetent find it difficult to identify strongly with the ends of the profession, and can easily become disaffected and cynical and therefore susceptible to corruption.
Vetting for potential recruits can make use of psychological tests, personal interviews, and background checks of financial records and personal connections to exclude those who have criminal connections, moral or psychological weaknesses, or who lack the capacity to become competent officers. Adequate pay and conditions are obviously important factors in attracting competent recruits, as well as making some of the possible sources of corruption less tempting. Research also seems to indicate that recruits with higher educational backgrounds are more competent and act with greater integrity. Specific measures to reduce the risks identified above include the following:. As its name implies there are two components to a complaints and discipline system: first, gathering and classifying complaints the complaint element , then assessing and responding to those complaints that are prima facie grounds for sanctioning a member of the occupation the discipline element.
An effective method for gathering complaints is a necessary condition for a fair discipline system; at the same time, complaints are more likely to be forthcoming if it is perceived that they will be taken seriously and responded to appropriately. Historically, there have tended to be major structural problems with both these components of the complaint and discipline system. Complaints can come either from members of the public or from police. As mentioned above, by their nature complaints from members of the public are often difficult to substantiate, involving the word of the complainant against that of the police officer. Moreover, police have often been able to deflect complaints by making the complaint process opaque, time-consuming, and intimidating. Ill-conceived management use of low numbers of complaints as a performance indicator can, perversely, reward units which discourage complaints and penalize those that are open to them.
Aspects of police culture noted above—the blue wall of silence and the persecution of police who do nevertheless complain—mean that complaints from police are relatively rare and, when made, often difficult to substantiate, with police closing ranks to stymie investigation. These problems with the complaint component of the complaint and discipline system reflect, at least to a degree, deficiencies in the discipline component of that system. First, police discipline policies have often been excessively punitive, with relatively minor breaches of professional standards, such as accessing databases for personal inquiries, subject to disproportionate sanctions.
Colleagues of those accused reasonably, or at least understandably, do not want to be complicit in a process that in their view results in such unfair treatment. While this is the case, they are supposed to meet the needs of their families, with limited resources and high cost of living. In the same line of thought, high variations in salaries among different police officers contribute to deviant behaviors within the force. In essence, those who have a lot of work in the field are less recognized as compared to senior officers who are less occupied in offices. Based on the nature of police corruption, there is need to implement preventive measures in order to deal with the problem.
Firstly, corruption within the police emanates from individual personality. As a result, it is important for police agencies to recruit officers with high integrity in order to promote good conduct and performance within the force Chambliss, This can be achieved through the introduction of higher recruitment standards and thorough screening. In other words, there is need for the recruiting agencies to carry out background research to avoid hiring criminals into the force. Candidates with higher education should also be encouraged to join the profession and those in the force should be supported to pursue their studies, to widen their scope of knowledge and nurture professional standards.
Proper training of police should also be encouraged through revision of the police training curriculum. This is necessary to allow trainees to understand the need for moral uprightness in the force. Besides being disciplined, police officers ought to know the existence of corruption in the force, its consequences, and possible ways of dealing with it Chambliss, In line with this, implementation of the police code of ethics should be encouraged as a way of taming deviant behavior among police officers. Improved management of police agencies should also be encouraged to promote positive influence, which is necessary in nurturing good behavior.
Above all, police officers need to be motivated through improved salaries, allowances, and good welfare. This promotes a good working attitude, thus limiting the cases of corruption. Crank, J. Police Ethics: The Corruption of Noble Cause. Amsterdam: Elsevier. Newburn, T. Understanding and preventing police corruption: lessons from the literature. Research, Development and Statistics. Police Corruption: Understanding and Preventing. This paper was written and submitted to our database by a student to assist your with your own studies.
You are free to use it to write your own assignment, however you must reference it properly. If you are the original creator of this paper and no longer wish to have it published on StudyCorgi, request the removal. Learn more. On-Time Delivery! Use discount. Malawi Public Program's Outcome-Focused Evaluation. The Central Intelligence Agency in Asia. Cite this paper Select style. Select citation styles APA-6 APA-7 MLA-9 Chicago N-B Chicago A-D Harvard. Reference StudyCorgi. Work Cited "Police Corruption: Understanding and Preventing.
between a police department and the community is an ideal that has become very prominent in recent years. Cultivating trust between the two sides is not something that comes easily, and its something that can be broken in one negative interaction. For police to effectively and adequately do their job, the public must believe that they will police in a respectful and fair manner. The aim of this paper is to examine the detrimental actions taken by the police officers of the New York Police Department. been around for as long as the police have, is corruption. Police corruption has been defined as the abuse of police authority for personal gain "Police Corruption and Misconduct. The Gale Group 4 Dec. Corruption can be as limited as one officer, or can be group of officers as well.
There is the rotten apple theory, which attempts to explain police corruption and where it comes from. While all corruption fits under abuse of authority. Corruption in the justice system can take place at any time beginning with a criminal investigation or when a lawsuit is filed down to the courts decisions. Corruption often occurs at stages where the public cannot see it. Much of the corruption in the justice system is not easy to expose or prove Pepys, Police corruption can and has caused much of the public to lose confidence. In recent years a light has been shawn down on the obvious corruption and prejudice of some government officials.
In places specifically like America, the media has taken the story of corruption and made everyone rethink who government officials are actually protecting. For the following reasons. Police corruption has been an issue that has left a lasting blemish on communities and society. Police corruption usually derives a lack of respect officer s feel that either the city does not care about them or they are not paid enough for their duties. With corruption this affects. concerning police officers, police corruption has become a major topic. Police officers seem to be making more questionable and unethical decisions according to the media. With these questionable actions, the idea that police officers are corrupt has been a steadily growing opinion.
Relative to other opportunities, legitimate or illegitimate, the financial temptations are enormous. Many police officers are demoralized by the scope of drug trafficking. No matter how diligent an officer may be eradication programs and millions of arrests have done little to stop drugs which are now. Police corruption and misconduct affects all of us because it is a major problem in the police department. Majority of the time police misconduct goes unnoticed because police officers keep their business private from society. Burns is trying to say that police corruption occurs when officers misuse their powers by over stepping their boundaries.
is no reason to presume that police officers as individuals are any less fallible than other members of society. There is a natural human inclination for power that is maximized today by the materialistic society we live in that fuels greed and seduces those with authority into reaping the personal and financial benefits of evading the law. The art of corruption has existed in American society since the early days of policing to modern day. Corruption applied to a police force entails the robbing of.
What exactly is police corruption you may ask? It is the misuse of power by the police for their own personal gain some examples of it can be bribery which is one of the least common believe it or not, most of police. definition of Police corruption is a specific form of police misconduct designed to obtain financial gain, other personal gain, or career advancement for a police officer or officers in exchange for not pursuing, or selectively pursuing, an investigation or arrest. One common form of police corruption is taking bribes in exchange for not reporting organized drug or prostitution rings or other illegal activities. Another example is police officers misusing the police code of conduct. Police Corruption Second Essay for AJ Krystal Lamas Victor Valley Community College Author Note This paper was prepared for AJ for Mr.
Ronald M. Abstract Police corruption is a complex issue. Police corruption or the abuse of authority by a police officer, acting officially to fulfill personal needs or wants, is a growing problem in the United States today. Things such as an Internal Affairs department, a strong leadership organization, and community support are just. Police corruption is a complex issue. Things such as an Internal Affairs department, a strong leadership organization, and community support are just a few considerations in the prevention of police corruption. An examination of a local newspaper or any police-related publication in an urban city during any given week would most likely.
and discretion in police work produces great potential for abuse. Police corruption has been a problem in American society since the early days of policing. An ancient natural tendency of human beings is to attempt to placate or win over those in positions of authority over them. The temptations toward illegality offered to police range from free. recording of police officers in public places is something that has recently been under speculation. Many people have differing opinions on the legality of this. For the most part, recording police officers in public places is legal, and nothing has been done to make it illegal.
However, many states differ in whether the video recordings can be used to go against a police officer and show that they are not fulfilling their police duties. Many states have differing opinions on the recording of police officers. It is a problem that has and will continue to affect us all, whether we are civilians or law enforcement officers. Since its beginnings, may aspects of policing have changed; however, one aspect that has remained relatively unchanged is the existence of corruption. An examination of a local newspaper or any police-related publication on any given day will have an article.
In Edwin J. Deltarres' book Character and Cops he explores three hypotheses for police corruption in the United States. Some are somewhat historical, but they are still relevant to the problem of corruption today. The first hypothesis is called "the society at-large" theory by former Chicago Police Superintendent O. Wilson was superintendent of the Chicago Police Department during the early nineteen sixties. The second hypothesis is called the "structural" theory. The third is called. The police department attempts to hire the most ethical individuals they can. When a person decides to become an officer, they become the protector of the community. Police officers are known as Gate keepers of the criminal justice system.
Police officer are value-based decision makers so every decision they make can determine how the community sees them. An officer duty is to make sure there is public order maintained, deal with people who negligent the law and enforce the law. Officer are challenged. Stanford Encyclopedia of Philosophy corruption is defined as the abuse of power by a public official for private gain. Police corruption is the abuse of power by a police officer for their own personal gain. Police officers become corrupt mainly for monetary gain because most feel that police officers do not make enough money and they want to make more. Police corruption can be costly to society and it can even violate the rights of society.
Police corruption can show favoritism to some and unfairness. Essay Topics Writing. Home Page Research Police Corruption Essays. Police Corruption Essays. Sort By: Most Relevant Highest Grade. Decent Essays. Police Corruption Words 4 Pages. Police Corruption. Better Essays. Police Corruption And Corruption Words 7 Pages. Police Corruption And Corruption. Good Essays. Police And Police Corruption Words 5 Pages. Police And Police Corruption. Police Corruption Report Words 4 Pages. Police Corruption Report.
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WebPolice Corruption Essay. Words4 Pages. Corruption is a type of misconduct and offense in which the police break their contract and oath by abusing their power for WebPolice corruption is the misuse of police authority for personal gain. Examples include extortion (for example, demanding money for not writing traffic tickets) and bribery (for WebPolice corruption conflicts with what a public servant is. There are constantly two decisions in every moral situation. The good and bad decision however an individual should WebInnocent people suffer each day because of police corruption. In the case of Russia, women are forced into sexual slavery each day because of police corruption. Causes WebPolice corruption has been the largest ongoing problem in the United States criminal justice system. In the documentary, “The Seven Five” directed by Tiller Russell, he sheds light WebHistorically, police corruption has been a persisting, serious, and in some cases pervasive feature of police services. Corruption can be seen as a kind of occupational hazard for ... read more
Community policing has the problem-solving approach but seeks to create specific techniques for implementing these approaches into the communities. Retrieved from McGraw-Hill. Police are this category of public servants, and therefore, they are expected to report to the corresponding authority or superiors any information regarding lawbreakers. Even so-called random testing may in fact target subsets of police, in particular those working in high-risk areas, but it does not involve singling out particular individuals. Ivkovic, S. ibliography Jared. Cite this paper Select style.
The due process will have been disrupted, and faulty judgment will be made in favor of the guilty. Criminal Police corruption essay Sharing: A national plan for intelligence-led policing at the local, state and federal levels Nalle, D. By carrying out specialized roles, police corruption essay, individuals are more likely to assist the community as a whole in achieving positive results. Known initially as watchmen and later as constables, the officers did not enjoy the same level of responsibility or the same role in society as modern…. Police corruption Words 4 Pages.
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