Conceptual framework for police deviance applied to police crime court cases

Abstract

Purpose -A conceptual framework for police deviance and crime has recently been suggested and presented by other scholars. This research attempts to test the framework empirically based on court cases where police employees were prosecuted and convicted.Design/methodology/approach -The sliding slope in the conceptual framework was separated into two dimensions, motive and damage, respectively. Court cases were coded according to these dimensions.Findings -Empirical results provide support for the framework by linking seriousness to court sentence in terms of imprisonment days to the sliding slope. However, further validation of the framework is needed.Originality/value -It is useful to both academics and practitioners to have an organizing framework when considering police complaints and prosecuting police crime.

Police Criminality: Nature and Extent of Crimes Committed by Female Police Officers

“…In line with prior studies (Gottschalk, 2012b;Hesselink & H€ aefele, 2015;Stinson, Todak et al, 2015), and by using a multilevel modeling strategy, the current study found that on-duty female officers were more likely to commit economic crime and drug-related crime when controlling for both individual characteristics and agency background. Although further studies would be needed to identify the specific reasons behind the slippery slope process associated with serious misconduct, we argue that corrupt police behavior is primarily related to personal gain (Gottschalk, 2012b) or personal changes (Hsieh & McShane, 2021), rather than being compelled by external forces, coercion, or others when on-duty. Although it may be beyond the scope of the current study, the findings here could possibly be explained by Simon's (1975) opportunity thesis, which postulates that as women make inroads into diverse positions, jobs, and occupations, they are presented with more channels and opportunities for deviance, misconduct, corruption, and crime.…”

“…Moreover, this study observed that young female officers were less likely to commit drug crimes compared to older officers, which was inconsistent with Donner and associates' (2016) study that reported that demographic background did not affect police misconduct. Still, the current findings could possibly bolster the rotten apple argument that problematic police behavior stems from individual characteristics rather than systemic corruption (Gottschalk, 2012b).…”

“…Interestingly, the current study concluded that agency-level factors (i.e., type of agency, number of sworn officers) played a significant role in female officers' unlawful behavior, which paralleled Stinson, Liederbach, et al's studies (Stinson, Liederbach, et al, 2015;Stinson, Liederbach, Brewer, & Todak, 2013;Stinson, Liederbach, Brewer, Schmalzried, et al, 2013;Stinson et al, 2018) that found that departmental-level attributes shaped officers' behavior and performance across states. The results also indirectly echoed the "rotten barrels" thesis (Gottschalk, 2012b(Gottschalk, , 2012c for which contextual features are influential over female officers' misconduct and certain macro-level attributes encourage corrupt behavior. In other words, officers did not change intrinsically or become constitutionally different from their colleagues (Boateng et al, 2019); rather, the officers might gradually acquire deviant mindsets through the structure of law enforcement and its working environment.…”

“…While these effects are critical in understanding the etiology of the typical female criminal officer, the current findings are limited to economically motivated and alcohol-related crimes based on preliminary evidence. It would require more explanatory power to go beyond the individualistic and human failure model of police misconduct (Boateng et al, 2019;Gottschalk, 2012bGottschalk, , 2012c). We suggest that future studies further explore the impact of contextual job factors over deviance, corruption, and crime within police organizations.…”

“…In order to understand the nature of police crime as it relates to moral issues in police work, it has been argued that research should explore "rotten apples" to identify individual characteristics and "rotten barrels" for examining organizational contexts (Gottschalk, 2012b(Gottschalk, , 2012cSherman, 1985). The rotten apples theory holds that police misconduct and corruption are the result of individual character defects for only a small number of specific officers (Gottschalk, 2012b). Corrupt officers may possess certain characteristics and background traits such as low self-control that may demonstrate a higher association with problematic and unlawful behaviors (Donner & Jennings, 2014).…”