LAW- CRIMINOLOGY

Law- Criminology



Law- Criminology

Introduction

The role of police in the welfare and functioning of a society has always remained critical. There is an ongoing effort to make the police user friendly by the decentralization of the police department. The Police is also adapting to the changing nature of crime. Beside other areas, they have a greater responsibility to handle terrorism. Despite all the responsibilities, there are certain unethical practices still prevalent within this area. This essay discusses those ethical and unethical aspects related to the law enforcement procedures. The personality impact of the police officers on the use of force is also discussed.

Questions

Why does unethical police behavior receive more attention and is easier to measure than the good or ethical behavior or at least that is the way it appears from examining the media and literature, particularly the scholarly literature?

The unethical behavior of police gets noticed more easily than the ethical behavior because of the positive perception people have about the attitude of a police officer. Generally, people believe that a police officer is supposed to abide by laws in handling issues. Any misconduct or unethical behavior will be taken seriously by the public since the police's job is considered free from any corrupt practice. Any dishonesty conducted by police is counted as the abuse of their authority. This fact is positioned in people that enforcement officers' behavior is guided by principled decision making; therefore, people do not tolerate unethical behavior on police account. The people have confidence in police officers; this is the reason why they cannot accept misconduct and injustice in their behavior (Hennessy, 1998).

On the other hand, the ethical behavior of police usually goes unnoticed because; it is already expected from them. Honesty, justice, and assistance is what already perceived by people from the police officer, therefore ethical practices are considered to be their job responsibility and receive less appreciation.

What is the relationship between the relaxed hiring standards and corruptions?

The relaxed hiring standards are critical to the potential corruption cases. Corrupt behavior is usually the result of careless hiring. Gross misconduct may arise due to faulty background check or inappropriate psychological examination during the hiring process. The relaxed hiring standards levy some of the recruitment procedures, which can eventually lead to corruption. Often, prior to hiring the background check is not appropriate. Sometimes, the officers are already engaged into corruptions, but the relaxed hiring standards do not take these facts into account. Some of the relaxed standards that can lead to possible corruption are minimum educational standards, standard screening, ignoring a comprehensive background check and minimum probationary period. For instance, according to the report published in USA about the recruitment practices by the name, Board of inquiry into the rampant area corruption incident, the police department came across the officer who was arrested for theft prior to being hired and another had been arrested three times before becoming an officer. Now, what do these examples portray? They are the result of relaxed hiring ...