Police Corruption and the Slippery Slope Theory - Essay Example

Often, organizations, establish a negative culture of fraud and corruption that is based on this slippery slope theory.  This way of thinking that concentrates on ritual and continuation of graft creates an environment in which anti-graft, embezzlement, fraud, and corruption programs are seen as being radical encroachments on the status quo.  Officers may find examples of their morality and may be more prone to give an accounting of their personal beliefs than what they see to be a proscribed function of weighing behavior by a set standard.  The idea behind the slippery slope is a metaphor—the first step taken on a slippery surface causes problems that tend to snowball, in a relationship that can simply be described as cause and effect.    

#2 The society-at-large hypothesis assumes that the problems which lead to corruption come from an external source.  For example, if a police department is located in a particularly rough city, during a particularly rough period economically, and there is a lack of leadership and corruption even at the highest offices in the country, the police department becomes a microcosm of a corrupt society.  It becomes a reflection of this external corruption.

The rotten apple hypothesis states that the police officers hired by a police department are the cause of corruption.  The society-at-large hypothesis was external; this is an internal consideration.  “The rotten apple hypothesis is that there is a low criterion for the cops hired. This leads to law enforcement not being trustable and being bad-natured sometimes being a side of the police force. To prevent this, one must do a thorough background screening of the officer being hired” (Buckosh, 2010).  The common saying is that “a few rotten apples spoil the whole bunch.”  In other words, a minority of corrupt officers may give the whole department a bad name.   

The affliction hypothesis is also external.  “The structural or affliction hypothesis is a similar factor to the society at large, where it is forced ethics within a city. It is often introduced with the police as something that is forced, and not even something that is just the way the city is run (sic)” (Buckosh, 2010).  From this view, society is afflicted, and the police are simply a product of this affliction; the cause is not traced internally to the police department itself. 

#3  For the society-at-large hypothesis, one can look to the mid to late 1970s in the US.  The economy was slumping, people had lost faith in the office of the president, and cities were dangerous.  Many departments became corrupt during this time as a reflection of external considerations.  An example of the rotten apple hypothesis is seen in the case of Daryl Gates, who was in charge of the LAPD during the 1992 riots.  The LAPD got a very bad name under his leadership, even though many of its officers were not corrupt racial profilers.  An example of the affliction hypothesis could be found also in the late 1970s, in Detroit.  The city was so plagued by problems and corruption that it afflicted the police departments as well.  In any of these cases, “The police administrator determined to engage in an extensive reform and invest resources in corruption control without information about the nature, extent, and organization of corruption in the agency is likely wasting at least part of the resources, lowering the morale, strengthening the code of silence, and raising doubts about his ability to manage the organization”  (Kutnjak, 2003).   Read More