BEHAVIOR AND MISCONDUCT CHAPTER NINE

Perspectives of Police Behavior A number of unique perspectives exist to explain police behavior Universalistic perspective Sociological perspective Psychological perspective Organizational perspective What differentiates these perspectives?

Perspectives of Police Behavior Particularistic perspectives also focus on police decision-making Worden (1989) identified five ways in which officers differ 1) their view of human nature 2) their role orientations 3) their attitudes toward legal and departmental restrictions 4) their beliefs/behavior based on clientele 5) their relationship between management and peer group support

Perspectives of Police Behavior Two additional theoretical perspectives have been offered to explain differences in police behavior Socialization theory Pre-dispositional theory How do these theories differ?

Classic Studies of Police Behavior A host of early efforts aimed to explain police behavior Violence and Police (1970) Justice Without Trial (1966) Varieties of Police Behavior (1968) City Police (1973) Working the Street: Police Discretion (1981) Understanding Police Culture (1998)

Decision-Making and Police Discretion Police decision making and discretion have received a wealth of research attention Findings in this area point to four areas of importance Organizational variables Neighborhood variables Situational variables Individual variables

Police Deviance Not all police behavior is legal or proper Deviance is behavior that does not conform to norms/expectations Ethical standards Organizational standard Legal standards

Types of Deviance Kane and White (2009) have classified misconduct as follows: Profit-motivated crimes Off-duty crimes against persons Off-duty public order crimes Drugs On-duty abuse Obstruction of justice Administrative/failure to perform Conduct-related probationary failures

Types of Deviance Four kinds of deviance according to Kappeler, Sluder, and Alpert: Police crime Occupational deviance Police corruption Abuse of authority In what ways are each of these unique?

The Prevalence of Police Deviance Measuring the incidence of police deviance has proved a difficult task Several surveys of deviance in police departments suggest that deviance is widespread Strong peer support exists to cover up deviance Kane and White (2009) found that: 1,543 NYPD officers terminated between1975–1996

Deviant Officers There is great variation in the extent to which deviant officers are in fact deviant Knapp Commission offered one of most important insights into the nature of police corruption Grass eaters Meat eaters What is the difference?

Deviant Officers Barker (1996) expanded Knapp Commission’s typology of deviant officers to the following: White knights Straight-shooters Grass eaters Meat eaters Rogues

Persistence of Corruption There are a # of reasons why police corruption persists Police are very powerful Community and political environments are influential Widespread tolerance among citizens for some kind of deviance Patterns of deviance can become standards of behavior

Persistence of Corruption Two theories offer competing insights into the continuation of police corruption Systemic theory of corruption Rotten-apples theory of corruption What does each of these theories maintain?

Are Gratuities a Type of Misconduct? Arguably the most perplexing matter of police deviance concerns the acceptance of gratuities What are examples of gratuities? What are officers’ views on gratuities? Why are gratuities such a difficult issue to address?

Police Sexual Misconduct Police sexual conduct is defined as: Behavior by an officer who takes advantage of their authority and power to commit sexual violence or initiate a sexually motivated cue for the purpose of sexual gratification This is a poorly understood area of police behavior Due in part to the fact that it is rarely reported Maher (2003) found that police sexual misconduct is common What are the types of sexual misconduct he identified?

Drug War and Police Deviance The Drug War has posed unique challenges for police departments and officers Kappeler et al. (1994) identified 4 types of corruption Use corruption Economic corruption Police violence Subjugation of a defendant’s rights Noble-cause corruption appears particularly common What is noble-cause corruption?

Summary Universalistic perspectives of police behavior are sociological, psychological, and organizational Predisposition and socialization are two particularistic theories Predisposition focused on the type of individual employed Socialization focuses on what happens to an officer after employment Various other factors are known to affect police behavior Organizational, neighborhood, situational, and officer Police deviance comes in various forms