Chapter Ten "Issues in Law Enforcement & Police Behavior" Vocabulary
1. racial profiling - alleged practice whereby police stop and search minority for minor violations significantly more often than whites.
2. police stress - emotional pressure that is produced by the nature of police work such as public apathy, exposure to criminals and injury to fellow officers.
3. cynicism - a belief that human conduct is motivated entirely by self interest. A cynical person attributes all actions to selfish motives and has a pessimistic outlook on human behavior.
4. anomie- a "normlessness" or lack of attachment felt by some people toward their society.
5. socialization method - the view that holds that police officers learn their attitudes and values from socializing experiences such as experience on the job and education.
6. predispositional model - the view that the attitudes and values of police officers are developed prior to entry into the law enforcement profession.
7. authoritarianism - a tendency to favor blind obedience to authority
8. dogmatism - an attitude characterized by tenacious adherence to ones opinions even though they may be unwarranted, and based on insufficiency examined premises.
9. police discretion - the ability to choose between arrest and nonarrest solely on the basis of the officers judgement.
10. selective enforcement - an unwritten policy in which police are not required to fully enforce all laws as written.
11. policy pursuits - police chases of suspects immediately after a crime has been committed.
12. clearance rate - the proportion of open crime cases that are solved through the arrest of a suspect by police.
13. police corruption - illegal acts or omissions of acts by police officers who, by virtue of their official position, receive (or intend to receive) any gain for themselves or others.
14. nonfeasance - a form of police corruption involving failure to perform a legal duty.
15. misfeasance - a form of police corruption involving failure to perform a legal duty in a proper manner.
16. malfeasance - a form of police corruption involving commission of an illegal act.
17. deviant police subculture hypothesis - the view that some police departments have groups of officers who place loyalty to each other above obedience to the law.
18. deadly force - the use of lethal force by police against a suspect
19. fleeing felon rule - the now obsolete common law rule that police can use deadly force against any felon who flees the scene of a crime.
20. police brutality - use of excessive physical force by police in carrying out their duties.
Outline
Is There Such a Thing As A Police Personality?
`Many myths and stereotypes about police develop because most people have comparatively little contact with police and tend to generalize from media images of incidents that are not typical.
`There are three styles of policing: the watchman, legalistic, and service styles.
`Current research on police attitudes toward their jobs show that police develop these attitudes through job experiences rather than through preexisting personality traits.
`Authoritarian attitudes are more likely to be found in officers without a college education who have been on the job a long times. Officers with less education have also been found to be more dogmatic than those with higher levels of education.
`Current research on police attitudes toward the public indicates that police are affected by citizens by citizens negative sentiment toward them but that they remain dedicated to the job.
How Should Police Performance Be Evaluated?
`Various measures of police response to crime have been used, but most have problems stemming from the fact that the police are primarily reactive and cannot spend unlimited time on unsolved cases.
`The number of arrests resulting in prosecutions is, however, a useful indicator of police performance.
`Police spend a great deal of time on noncriminal matters, and their community service function should be taken into account in evaluations of their performance.
What Are Some Forms of Police Corruption?
`Police corruption takes three forms:
nonfeasance (failure to perform a legal duty), misfeasance (failure to perform a legal duty in a proper manner), and malfeasance (commission of an illegal act).
`Some explanations of police corruption focus on individual "rotten apples," whereas others focus on the "barrel" - the whole department. Most experts reject individual explanations and suggest that there is a deviant police subculture or that corruption results from secrecy within departments.
`Still other explanations look to external factors such as laws that are difficult to enforce or a weak local government.
`Prevention of corruption depends on careful identification of its causes.
What is Legitimate Use of Deadly Force?
`Research on civilian fatalities due to police shootings has found that such incidents are underreported.
`The Supreme Court has ruled that police may use deadly force to stop a suspect only if the suspect threatens the officer with a weapon or there is probable cause to believe that the suspect is dangerous.
`Police brutality occurs when police use excessive physical force in carrying out their duties.
`Police officers may be held liable under the Fourth Amendment when they use excessive force.
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