Slippery Slope Theory: Police Corruption In The United States
Unit 4 Essay
Cheryl Murphy
CJ340: Applied Criminal Justice Ethics
Kaplan University
November 09, 2013
Ethics in Criminal Justice Ethical questions and acts are done every day. Being in law enforcement though, means everything an officer say’s and does is always under the microscope of the community. The community a police officer is hired to protect and serve, questions every move made to make sure corruption is not taking place. It does not take long for a new recruit to accept that free cup of coffee or half price meal which in turn can lead to bigger things.
Slippery Slope The slippery slope hypothesis is the idea that corruption starts with a tiny gratuity like a free or discounted cup of coffee and then rolls downhill to bigger things and eventually grows into crime for profit. An example of the …show more content…
slippery slope would be accepting a couple of free cups of coffee then a couple of free meals, then maybe the police officer looks the other way when customers double park to run in and pick up something to go. Sometimes a police officer will go down the slippery slope at a fast pace starting with a truck driver who clips a $100.00 bill to his license when getting pulled over for speeding, right down to the owner of the restaurant parking illegally but gets no ticket (K. R. Himes II, Yahoo contributor network). I think that the Yahoo website I used for the slippery slope theory is very accurate.
It details the same thing as our text book.
Society-at-Large Hypothesis The society-at-large hypothesis tells us that everyone is corrupt. The main theory goes that everyone is corrupted by society at large. O.W. Wilson gave voice to the society-at-large in accounting for history of police corruption in Chicago. “This force was corrupted by the people of Chicago. It has been customary to give doormen, chauffer’s, maids, cooks, and delivery men little tokens of gifts and gratuities. It is felt that the level of service depends on these gratuities” (O.W. Wilson, ed, Parker on police). There was no trouble going from servants to public servants with these gratuities. It was easy giving gratuities to police officers who would do little favors in return. It was easy to offer a gratuity to a policeman for a favor that was not legal. Some of the more seasoned police officers would make themselves available for gratuities and business men knew if they wanted a favor done that it would cost them something. Structural or Affiliation
Hypothesis The best example of the structural or affiliation hypothesis is by watching the 2001 movie of Training Day with Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke. Ethan Hawke had to be trained by Denzel Washington. Denzel taught Ethan by smoking weed on duty, and stealing cash and splitting it up with the rest of his crew. Ethan even watched as one of the cops wounded one of their own to make the story more believable. Eventually the rookie cop and his morals win the fight but it almost cost him his life. The easiest way to describe this is by seeing the veteran cops do it, and then it would explain that they have been doing it for a while and have not gotten caught. A rookie cop might be thinking that it is expected of them and if they don’t then peers might look at him or her as not being a team player (K. R. Himes II, Yahoo Contributor Network). Some rookies go from a peccadillo to shakedown and felony. Neiderhoffer, author of Behind the Shield: The Police in Urban Society, appealed to the account of “a Denver police officer involved in the police burglary scandal of 1961,” who learned from senior officers when he was a rookie, to take payoffs. It is viewed that corruption emerges from police because deviant behavior is regarded as appropriate in the police department. Many studies confirm that young rookies are talked to by their senior officers about traditions of corruption within the department and also do not expect any trouble due to their part in police corruption.
Rotten Apple Hypothesis “According to the Knapp Commission, which blew the whistle on the standard police explanation for corruption (he/she 's a rotten apple in an otherwise clean barrel), "rotten apples" are either weak individuals who have slipped through the screening process or succumbed to the temptations inherent in police work or deviant individuals who continue their deviance in an environment that gives them ample opportunity. Police departments tend to use the rotten apple theory or some variation of the "rogue cop" story to minimize the public backlash against policing after every exposed act of corruption” (O’Conner, Nov.11, 2005). The young cop does not know that what he is doing is wrong by what he has seen other, more seasoned cops do. He is bound to make mistakes when not supervised. This will lead to younger cops under his command making bad decisions. One rotten apple spoils the bunch. Unfortunately the bunch usually has no say about anything until it’s too late. An example of the rotten apple would be a fairly new cop going to back up another cop on a call consisting of pulling over a drunk driver. When he gets there and gets out of his vehicle, he sees that it is the mayor. He stands there watching the more seasoned cop put money in his pocket and give the mayor back his license, and issue no ticket. When the young cop trains a new cop on the job he might tell him that it is ok to do things this way because that is how he observed things being done. In conclusion, the slippery slope is a road not to be followed but when you see your commanding officer or supervisor doing something, then a new cop will think it is ok to do the same thing. Everything a police department does is being watched closely by their community. If a citizen sees a cop playing favoritism to a diner by letting the owner park in a no parking space without getting a ticket or you and your fellow officers eat their meal there on a daily basis, then that department will be considered corrupt.
References
Character and Cops Ethics in Policing (6th edition)
Delattre, Edwin J.
Police Crimes.com O’Conner, T.R. (November 11, 2005) www.Policecrimes.com/police_deviance.html Parker on Police O.W. Wilson.ed
Springfield, Ill.: Charles C. Thomas (1957)
The Tarnished Badge Ralph Lee Smith
New York: Arno Press, 1974 pp. 191 & 192
Yahoo Contributor Network Himes, K. R. II
www.voices.com/slippery-slope-general-theories-police-corruption-10876837.html
Cheryl Murphy
CJ340: Applied Criminal Justice Ethics
Kaplan University
November 09, 2013
Ethics in Criminal Justice Ethical questions and acts are done every day. Being in law enforcement though, means everything an officer say’s and does is always under the microscope of the community. The community a police officer is hired to protect and serve, questions every move made to make sure corruption is not taking place. It does not take long for a new recruit to accept that free cup of coffee or half price meal which in turn can lead to bigger things.
Slippery Slope The slippery slope hypothesis is the idea that corruption starts with a tiny gratuity like a free or discounted cup of coffee and then rolls downhill to bigger things and eventually grows into crime for profit. An example of the …show more content…
slippery slope would be accepting a couple of free cups of coffee then a couple of free meals, then maybe the police officer looks the other way when customers double park to run in and pick up something to go. Sometimes a police officer will go down the slippery slope at a fast pace starting with a truck driver who clips a $100.00 bill to his license when getting pulled over for speeding, right down to the owner of the restaurant parking illegally but gets no ticket (K. R. Himes II, Yahoo contributor network). I think that the Yahoo website I used for the slippery slope theory is very accurate.
It details the same thing as our text book.
Society-at-Large Hypothesis The society-at-large hypothesis tells us that everyone is corrupt. The main theory goes that everyone is corrupted by society at large. O.W. Wilson gave voice to the society-at-large in accounting for history of police corruption in Chicago. “This force was corrupted by the people of Chicago. It has been customary to give doormen, chauffer’s, maids, cooks, and delivery men little tokens of gifts and gratuities. It is felt that the level of service depends on these gratuities” (O.W. Wilson, ed, Parker on police). There was no trouble going from servants to public servants with these gratuities. It was easy giving gratuities to police officers who would do little favors in return. It was easy to offer a gratuity to a policeman for a favor that was not legal. Some of the more seasoned police officers would make themselves available for gratuities and business men knew if they wanted a favor done that it would cost them something. Structural or Affiliation
Hypothesis The best example of the structural or affiliation hypothesis is by watching the 2001 movie of Training Day with Denzel Washington and Ethan Hawke. Ethan Hawke had to be trained by Denzel Washington. Denzel taught Ethan by smoking weed on duty, and stealing cash and splitting it up with the rest of his crew. Ethan even watched as one of the cops wounded one of their own to make the story more believable. Eventually the rookie cop and his morals win the fight but it almost cost him his life. The easiest way to describe this is by seeing the veteran cops do it, and then it would explain that they have been doing it for a while and have not gotten caught. A rookie cop might be thinking that it is expected of them and if they don’t then peers might look at him or her as not being a team player (K. R. Himes II, Yahoo Contributor Network). Some rookies go from a peccadillo to shakedown and felony. Neiderhoffer, author of Behind the Shield: The Police in Urban Society, appealed to the account of “a Denver police officer involved in the police burglary scandal of 1961,” who learned from senior officers when he was a rookie, to take payoffs. It is viewed that corruption emerges from police because deviant behavior is regarded as appropriate in the police department. Many studies confirm that young rookies are talked to by their senior officers about traditions of corruption within the department and also do not expect any trouble due to their part in police corruption.
Rotten Apple Hypothesis “According to the Knapp Commission, which blew the whistle on the standard police explanation for corruption (he/she 's a rotten apple in an otherwise clean barrel), "rotten apples" are either weak individuals who have slipped through the screening process or succumbed to the temptations inherent in police work or deviant individuals who continue their deviance in an environment that gives them ample opportunity. Police departments tend to use the rotten apple theory or some variation of the "rogue cop" story to minimize the public backlash against policing after every exposed act of corruption” (O’Conner, Nov.11, 2005). The young cop does not know that what he is doing is wrong by what he has seen other, more seasoned cops do. He is bound to make mistakes when not supervised. This will lead to younger cops under his command making bad decisions. One rotten apple spoils the bunch. Unfortunately the bunch usually has no say about anything until it’s too late. An example of the rotten apple would be a fairly new cop going to back up another cop on a call consisting of pulling over a drunk driver. When he gets there and gets out of his vehicle, he sees that it is the mayor. He stands there watching the more seasoned cop put money in his pocket and give the mayor back his license, and issue no ticket. When the young cop trains a new cop on the job he might tell him that it is ok to do things this way because that is how he observed things being done. In conclusion, the slippery slope is a road not to be followed but when you see your commanding officer or supervisor doing something, then a new cop will think it is ok to do the same thing. Everything a police department does is being watched closely by their community. If a citizen sees a cop playing favoritism to a diner by letting the owner park in a no parking space without getting a ticket or you and your fellow officers eat their meal there on a daily basis, then that department will be considered corrupt.
References
Character and Cops Ethics in Policing (6th edition)
Delattre, Edwin J.
Police Crimes.com O’Conner, T.R. (November 11, 2005) www.Policecrimes.com/police_deviance.html Parker on Police O.W. Wilson.ed
Springfield, Ill.: Charles C. Thomas (1957)
The Tarnished Badge Ralph Lee Smith
New York: Arno Press, 1974 pp. 191 & 192
Yahoo Contributor Network Himes, K. R. II
www.voices.com/slippery-slope-general-theories-police-corruption-10876837.html