NCJ Number
128049
Date Published
1991
Length
13 pages
Annotation
A theoretical frame of reference is proposed to guide research and stimulate discussion of the causes and prevention of police corruption based on the view that police corruption results from the nature of the occupation and peer-group factors in individual police agencies.
Abstract
The discussion challenges the common theories that police misconduct either represents the aberrant behavior or individuals or results from society's misguided attempt to enact unenforceable laws regarding "victimless" crimes. It argues that a more appropriate approach is to acknowledge that the police occupation in itself provides its members with many opportunities for corrupt acts and other forms of deviance. In addition, some police departments have a social setting in which this inherent occupational structure is combined with peer group support and tolerance for certain patterns of corruption. Thus, the peer group indoctrinates and socializes the rookie police officer into patterns of acceptable corrupt activities, sanctions deviations outside these boundaries, and sanctions officers who do not engage in any corrupt actions. The peer group can also discipline officers who report or try to report fellow officers. In all these respects police corruption shares common characteristics with other forms and patterns of occupational deviance. Notes, 31 references, and 4 study questions