# data[].attributes.body
Definition: You gave an excellent definition including both police action AND police inaction, as well as mentioning the abuse of power and violation of special trust placed by the public in the police.

Case Study: You drew out some unique links from the case study to police corruption, including how he exploited the confusion caused by pandemic restrictions and utilised the knowledge of London he gained from his role.

Causes: I was really pleased to see you had included references in your work. The theories you applied to the case study, particularly affiliation motivation theory were unmentioned by other groups and showed a lot of effort was put in to your work.

Solutions: You provided some excellent internal solutions to police corruption. Remember to consider external solutions as well. You began to critically analyse some of your solutions. When doing your concept map, try to analyse as many as possible.

# data[].attributes.body
It is really good to see contributions from so many group members on the padlet. Make sure that you continue to discuss your individual findings as a group; other members might have solutions or ideas for things you are unsure about.
You have come up with a few different theories that could explain Couzens' actions. In particular both the rotten apple and rotten orchard (via police culture) were mentioned. In this case, which do you think was more likely - the offender being a lone actor and an anomaly, or the culture within the police leading to the offender feeling like his actions were acceptable?
You have also mentioned Routine Activity Theory which is an interesting one to identify. You have appropriately linked the key details of the case to the three main elements of this theory. Think about how the social/legal circumstances at the time of the case can also contribute to these.
We had really detailed discussions about potential solutions to police corruption, focusing on prevention. One of these was ensuring police officers received mental health checks. If we did these, how often would they be carried out? What warning signs would you look for? And more importantly, how would you deal with potential issues and ensure the officers were actually fit for duty and not simply 'checking boxes'?
We also discussed reducing the number of lone police officers on duty and potentially paring officers with members of other public services such as paramedics, social workers or volunteers from women's charities. I've included a link to a documentary series which follows the Kent Joint Response Unit, an operation involving police & paramedics working together. Could such an approach work in reducing police corruption not just in our case study, but in others? https://www.channel5.com/show/999-emergency-call-out-132e8959-f6c3-4080-b369-24137947aaa5

# data[].attributes.body
While increasing salaries may reduce petty corruption among junior officials it likely does not eliminate grand corruption among senior civil servants and politicians. raising salaries alone is ineffective in solving the problem of corruption if the government lacks the political will to do so, if the anti-corruption agency is ineffective, if corrupt officials are not punished and if opportunities for corruption are not reduced (Quah 2007).

-       Menocal (2015) notes that “there is very little credible evidence regarding the effectiveness of citizen oversight agencies” and there is no evidence to determine whether external accountability mechanisms are more or less effective than internal ones.

External accountability mechanisms – human rights commissions, citizen complaint and review boards, and police auditors – are widely heralded as important instruments of police accountability (Transparency International 2012).

# data[].attributes.body
-       Government created the ‘UK anti-corruption plan’ in 2014, highlighting a 4 P’s method (pursue, prevent, protect and prepare) which aims to disrupt and prosecute people involved in corruption, prevent people engaging in it, increase general protection against it and reduce the impact of corruption

- -       economic affluence means that their civil servants are adequately paid to discourage them from accepting bribes (Quah 2017).

-       Political will is only a necessary, not a sufficient, condition; without sufficient state capacity to support political will, the latter will make little impression in the struggle to improve police behaviour (DCAF 2012)

-       The role of civil society to find more effective ways of contributing to, stimulating and monitoring police anti-corruption efforts” (Transparency International 2012).

# data[].attributes.body
- promoting professional standards of ethical integrity, human resource management, administration and accountability across the institution.
- it is important to establish a robust and transparent merit-based promotion system, based on fairness, openness, ability and performance. Policies should also be implemented to ensure regular staff rotation in high risk positions.

# data[].attributes.headline
Causes of police corruption (Singh, 2022)

# data[].attributes.subject
Causes of police corruption (Singh, 2022)

# data[].attributes.body
* Weak accountability - if officers are investigated and punished accordingly for misconduct then corruption can be reduced
* Bribery
* Pay dissatisfaction
* Nepotism

ref: Singh, D. (2022) The Causes of Police Corruption and Working towards Prevention in Conflict-Stricken States. Laws, 11(5)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Previous Article in Journal

All articles published by MDPI are made immediately available worldwide under an open access license. No special permission is required to reuse all or part of the article published by MDPI, including figures and tables. For articles published under an open access Creative Common CC BY license, any part of the article may be reused without permission provided that the original article is clearly cited.

Feature Papers represent the most advanced research with significant potential for high impact in the field. Feature Papers are submitted upon individual invitation or recommendation by the scientific editors and undergo peer review prior to publication.

The Feature Paper can be either an original research article, a substantial novel research study that often involves several techniques or approaches, or a comprehensive review paper with concise and precise updates on the latest progress in the field that systematically reviews the most exciting advances in scientific literature. This type of paper provides an outlook on future directions of research or possible applications.

Editor's Choice articles are based on recommendations by the scientific editors of MDPI journals from around the world. Editors select a small number of articles recently published in the journal that they believe will be particularly interesting to authors, or important in this field. The aim is to provide a snapshot of some of the most exciting work published in the various research areas of the journal.

You seem to have javascript disabled. Please note that many of the page functionalities won't work as expected without javascript enabled.

by

Department of Humanities and Social Sciences, Teesside University, Middlesbrough TS1 3BX, UK

Academic Editor: Stuart S. Yeh

Received: 14 July 2022 / Revised: 24 August 2022 / Accepted: 26 August 2022 / Published: 30 August 2022

The police are the initial faces of law enforcement and commence the criminal justice process and thus hold significant responsibility for functioning law and order. As key representatives of the state, the integrity of the police in all societies is pivotal to retain public trust in the rule of law and the preservation of internal security. When police corruption is exposed or is perceived by the public to be prevalent, confidence in and communal relations with the police force become disjointed. Poor credibility of the police also negatively impacts on the legitimacy of the government. Negative public perceptions of both the police and government are particularly troublesome in violently divided societies or states undergoing armed conflict. The article focuses on the main causes and consequences of police corruption in hostile environments to introduce a range of prevention strategies to combat it and restore public confidence in policing and governance. The article suggests that a holistic anticorruption strategy, rather than a linear one, has the potential to raise awareness, increase pay to deter petty forms of corruption, install independent anticorruption agencies, and periodically rotate police officers to increase police integrity and loyalty for the host country. It is recommended that these multifaceted prevention strategies are needed within a police force that is faced with a violently divided society to reaffirm public support and deter support for armed anti-governmental oppositional groups. View Full-Text

Singh, D. The Causes of Police Corruption and Working towards Prevention in Conflict-Stricken States. Laws 2022, 11, 69. https://doi.org/10.3390/laws11050069

AMA Style

Singh D. The Causes of Police Corruption and Working towards Prevention in Conflict-Stricken States. Laws. 2022; 11(5):69. https://doi.org/10.3390/laws11050069

Chicago/Turabian Style

Singh, Danny. 2022. "The Causes of Police Corruption and Working towards Prevention in Conflict-Stricken States" Laws 11, no. 5: 69. https://doi.org/10.3390/laws11050069

Note that from the first issue of 2016, MDPI journals use article numbers instead of page numbers. See further details here.

Article Access Map by Country/Region

Back to Top Top

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
The Causes of Police Corruption and Working towards Prevention in Conflict-Stricken States

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The police are the initial faces of law enforcement and commence the criminal justice process and thus hold significant responsibility for functioning law and order. As key representatives of the state, the integrity of the police in all societies is pivotal to retain public trust in the rule of law and the preservation of internal security.

# data[].attributes.headline
Causes of police corruption ( Abramson & Denenberg, 2021)

# data[].attributes.subject
Causes of police corruption ( Abramson & Denenberg, 2021)

# data[].attributes.body
- police departments may fail to provide adequate institutionalized training to avoid police corruption, misconduct, and brutality
- lack of prosecution and accountability;
- the stress of the job and entitlement;
- individuals do not have the right to bring a lawsuit against the government;
- private litigation between police officers

# data[].attributes.body
Theories & causes:

-       Routine activity theory

-       Police culture

-       Differential accociation

Solutions:

-       Vetting of recruits

-       Mental health checks of officers

-       ‘Name and shame’

-       Whistle-blower resources

# data[].attributes.body
-       Extensive and thorough research into the backgrounds of recruits

-       Recruits are required to admit previous cautions and arrests, but this doesn’t always mean their removal or denial into the force – this must be changed so that no one with previous criminal charges or severe cautions can be accepted into the police

-       ‘Name and shame’ of officers who are corrupt, have abused their powers etc

-       Mandatory mental health checks of police officers, perhaps bi-monthly
-       Better access to Whistle-blower resources

# data[].attributes.body
when the group chat was first discovered the people involved should have been more thoroughly looked into and checked up on regularly and made to go into mandatory therapy sessions to try and change their negative views on women.

# data[].attributes.body
Need of more concise vetting when first hiring a police officer
Need of longer periods of supervision in probationary periods
Need further methods of a police officers to build back trust of civilians by stopping singular police stops and more rigorous methods to prove their identification.

# data[].attributes.headline
Theories to explain police corruption (Albrecht, 2017)

# data[].attributes.subject
Theories to explain police corruption (Albrecht, 2017)

# data[].attributes.body
1. Drift/Neutralisation theory (Matza & Sykes) - Officers will use justifications in order to neutralise their misconduct

2. Rational choice theory (Becker)

3. Social Learning theory

4. Trait theory - individual biological or psychological factors can predispose officers to specific misconduct (e.g. excessive use of force)

ref: Albrecht, J. F. (2017) Criminological Explanations for Police Deviance. Police Brutality, Misconduct and Corruption. 27-34.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
Criminological Explanations for Police Deviance

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Now that a clear typology for categories of police deviance has been identified, criminological evaluation of the sociological explanations for these different forms of misbehavior can be undertaken. Based on the noted patterns and trends in police deviance since the...

# data[].attributes.body
Extensive research into people's backgrounds & personality tests
Challenge the police stereotype of 'snitches get stitches' as people were too scared to come forward before hand

# data[].attributes.body
differential association (learnt behaviours) due to prolonged exposure to crime and criminals Couzens may have believe these behaviours aren't as horrific as they truly are and caused him to realise he wanted to partake in these behaviours. the group chat he was a part of which continually degraded women may have helped him disassociate that Sarah was an actual person

# data[].attributes.body
Suitable Victim - In his eyes she was a woman who 'deserved' this type of abuse (conversation with his friends)
Likely Offender - Due to his role he thought he would be able to get away with the crime
Absent Guardian - She was walking home alone from her friends house

# data[].attributes.body
Police culture within the met
- Reports of homophobic/racist/misogynistic comments being made by groups of officers - even though not everyone was involved in these group chats no one came forward to report it either
- IOPC investigation found these comments to be justified as ‘jokes’ or ‘misunderstandings’
- Met Police Commissioner doesn’t mention any future reformations within the force after the Sarah Everard case - e.g officers not needing permission to take home equipment and instead it being up to “personal decision”

# data[].attributes.body
Learnt behaviour & what is expect of him partly because of the culture and the social norms between him and his friends.

# data[].attributes.body
·      Used his warrant card and handcuffs to get her into his car

·      This crime has eroded faith in the police

·      Abuse of his position to commit his crime

·      Telling her she breached the restrictions of the pandemic

·      He was responsible for significant mental and physical suffering

·      Police have powers of coercion and control which are in an exceptional category

·      Meant to act in public interest, anything less is risking trust in law and order

# data[].attributes.body
the “few bad apples” are damaging to the reputation of those they work with as well as harmful to the trust that people have in police officers

# data[].attributes.body
-       Police culture: possibly felt empowered by and justified his means through the group chat he had with other officers that it was okay to abuse women – police have a culture of only sharing certain aspects of their lives, mental states, beliefs etc with other officers who ‘will understand what its like’ because they see and think similar things

-       He had previous history of indecent exposure and was know by colleagues to be attracted to ‘violent sexual pornography’ – kidnapping, raping and killing sarah may have been a type of fantasy or fetish for him

-       Self-fulfilling prophecy – ex-colleagues called him ‘the rapist’

# data[].attributes.headline
Sarah Everard case study - mentions of police corruption 

# data[].attributes.subject
Sarah Everard case study - mentions of police corruption 

# data[].attributes.body
-       Couzens used his warrant card and handcuffs to get Sarah into his car

-       Possibly used COVID restrictions for ‘arrest’

-       Most likely that ‘he used his position as a police officer to coerce her on a wholly false pretext’

-       Significant planning and premeditation

-       Couzens was responsible for ‘significant mental and physical suffering’ of sarah before she died

-       ‘he abused his trust’

-       ‘the police have the powers of coercion and control that are in an exceptional category’

# data[].attributes.headline
corruption includes lack of funding, education, accountability and supervision within departments 

# data[].attributes.subject
corruption includes lack of funding, education, accountability and supervision within departments 

# data[].attributes.headline
work with bias for or against certain groups of people eg: bias against black people, favour white people  

# data[].attributes.subject
work with bias for or against certain groups of people eg: bias against black people, favour white people  

# data[].attributes.headline
can mention that the lack of enforcing power is just as corrupt as abusing and overusing powers

# data[].attributes.subject
can mention that the lack of enforcing power is just as corrupt as abusing and overusing powers

# data[].attributes.headline
corruption definition: corruption can be defined as an individual, a group or an institution of people who have the special trust of the public through certain control powers granted to them, who abuse this trust through over or underuse of these powers, have biases for or against certain groups and commit such acts either for material, monetary, personal gain or otherwise 

# data[].attributes.subject
corruption definition: corruption can be defined as an individual, a group or an institution of people who have the special trust of the public through certain control powers granted to them, who abuse this trust through over or underuse of these powers, have biases for or against certain groups and commit such acts either for material, monetary, personal gain or otherwise 

# data[].attributes.headline
abuse of police's power and breach of their role

# data[].attributes.subject
abuse of police's power and breach of their role

# data[].attributes.headline
definition had to mention individual, groups of police or institutional corruption

# data[].attributes.subject
definition had to mention individual, groups of police or institutional corruption

# data[].attributes.headline
no explicit mention of money - it could be reward by other means

# data[].attributes.subject
no explicit mention of money - it could be reward by other means