How and why does police corruption occur, and what factors within both the community and policing seem to foster and maintain it?

What will be an ideal response?


There are several factors that contribute to police corruption. These include the rapid hiring of personnel, civil service and union protections that make it difficult to fire officers, and frequent temptations from money and sex. There are two theories that attempt to explain why police corruption occurs. The “rotten apple” theory sees corruption as the result of having a few bad apples in the barrel who probably had character defects prior to their employment by the police agency. The “environmental” theory suggests that corruption results from a widespread politically corrupt environment, so that politically corrupt cities create an environment in which police misconduct flourishes.

There are several factors that foster and maintain corruption. One of the main ones is the code of silence within police departments, which refers to the view of officers that they are compelled to keep silent in the face of misconduct by other officers. Within the community, the acceptance of relative ethics in the face of police corruption may encourage it and allow it to continue and flourish.

Criminal Justice

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What ingredients are required to create a low explosive?

What will be an ideal response?

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Intelligence-led policing is based on the classical models of police patrol and deployment

A) True B) False

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Indicate which of the following examples does NOT represent inductive reasoning.

A. Specific data are used to develop a general explanation. B. It starts at bottom of the research cycle. C. Data is explored for patterns. D. Data is created by theory to explain a pattern.

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Which of the following is one of the foundations upon which the professional model of policing is based?

A. aggressive patrol B. community involvement C. no response time D. follow-up investigation

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