Corruption constitutes one of the most significant obstacles to positive police-public relations in today’s society. Police corruption includes acts of brutality, excessive force, inefficiency, and, among others, the use of public office for private gain (Grant, 2002). Some scholars believe that corruption may start off small such as by accepting gratuity for officers and then eventually leading to bigger corruption. Slippery slope and its relationship with gratuity is a basic hypothesis. It’s a hypothesis that claims officers who start off taking favors or looking the other way with minor incidents then they are likely to progress later into more major corruption. “O. W. Wilson, Patrick V. Murphy, and many other experienced officials have
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These three theories are society at large, structural or affiliation and the rotten apple hypothesis. The first theory to be discussed is the society at large hypothesis of public corruption. The Society at large hypothesis is basically tied to the slippery slope theory. It’s when shopkeepers, storeowners, etc. do favors of gratuity for police officers and then police officers start to expect it in return. It doesn’t have to just be police officers involved but politicians and judges also. Basically those playing a part in all the criminal justice system from the top politician all the way down to the rookie …show more content…
Rotten apples are basically those individuals who fell through the system from a lack of proper vetting or those who were allowed to be corrupt due to lack of departmental standards. The text uses an example of police officers hired in Miami during the height of the cocaine wars in the 1980’s. The text states that “the crimes included robberies, burglaries, millions of dollars in profits, and conspiracy to murder a drug dealer who became a state’s witness. According to a former chief, “The rush to expand seems to have led to a willingness to overlook past behavior in background checks that at other times would have been judged unacceptable” (Delattre, 2011). In other words, the rush to increase the size of the police force during that time didn’t allow for proper vetting and a few rotten apples got through the system, eventually making it bad for the departments and the city as a
These three theories are society at large, structural or affiliation and the rotten apple hypothesis. The first theory to be discussed is the society at large hypothesis of public corruption. The Society at large hypothesis is basically tied to the slippery slope theory. It’s when shopkeepers, storeowners, etc. do favors of gratuity for police officers and then police officers start to expect it in return. It doesn’t have to just be police officers involved but politicians and judges also. Basically those playing a part in all the criminal justice system from the top politician all the way down to the rookie …show more content…
Rotten apples are basically those individuals who fell through the system from a lack of proper vetting or those who were allowed to be corrupt due to lack of departmental standards. The text uses an example of police officers hired in Miami during the height of the cocaine wars in the 1980’s. The text states that “the crimes included robberies, burglaries, millions of dollars in profits, and conspiracy to murder a drug dealer who became a state’s witness. According to a former chief, “The rush to expand seems to have led to a willingness to overlook past behavior in background checks that at other times would have been judged unacceptable” (Delattre, 2011). In other words, the rush to increase the size of the police force during that time didn’t allow for proper vetting and a few rotten apples got through the system, eventually making it bad for the departments and the city as a