Police Corruption - Research Paper Example

ainly due to what is known as the “blue code of silence.” This code of silence is the unwritten code by which police believe that it is better to not report unethical and criminal conduct by ones’ police brethren for a variety of reasons. Some of the reasons are that the police feel a sense of solidarity with one another, a sense of kinship and brotherhood, and this makes it difficult to report a fellow officer. Other reasons are that the culture of individual police forces encourages this silence by tacitly instilling, from the first day of training, the importance of developing this code of silence.

Another reason is that police see one another as all dealing with the same level of corrupt citizenry, with breeds sympathy with one another and distrust of the citizens, which also makes it less likely to report misbehavior – the citizen probably “had it coming.” Still another reason is that there is a sense of fear that is instilled into the officers, as officers see whistle-blowers suffering social, psychological and career consequences from their willingness to report, and these officers do not want the same to happen to them.

Consequently, it is difficult to measure the level of corruption, because police are not likely to report each other. It is further difficult to measure the level of corruption, due to the fact that individual police forces are reluctant to report corruption within their ranks, because the citizens put pressure on corrupt forces, which makes it more difficult to do their jobs. That said, corruption has been investigated and there has been successful policing of the police by independent agencies that gather knowledge about the forces and are able to use this knowledge to obtain convictions against police who engage in criminal behavior.

Police corruption can run the gamut, from accepting gifts and gratuities, to using excessive force or drinking on the job. Wright (2010) has classified the types of corruptions that can