Forensic - Police Flashcards
Lecture summary:
To encourage police officers to act ethically, the _______ must support this behaviour. There is often _______ involved in police work - when to enforce and when to not enforce. Police work involves a lot of _______, and these have physical and psychological consequences.
system
discretion
stressors
Why do police engage in unethical behaviour?
Is it “bad apples” or a “rotten barrel” (systems issue)
There has been a shift away from “bad apples” view. System supports corruption by:
- on-the-job socialisation of recruits
- peer-group reinforcement and encouragement of rule violations
- police force as a “brotherhood” - blue wall of silence - lie to defend other cops and turn a blind eye to bad behaviour
The job in itself is corrupting
- victimless crimes do not attract complaints (eg: drugs)
- demands of law and order are all about “results” which can compromise the process (eg: cases with high media attention)
- justice system has loopholes and people get off - very frustrating
- low risk of being detected - police work is unsupervised and discretionary
Australian research 1992 - Perceptions of ethical dilemmas and breaches in ethics
Read 20 scenarios describing unethical behaviour and rated how serious each violation was (0-10) for:
- typical officer
- instructor
- department
- personal view
- Typical officers rated as viewing situations as least serious, then personal views, then instructor, then department
- In most cases, recruits were rating situations as more serious, snr sergeants and commissioned officers as midway, and sergeants/constables as least serious
- females gave more serious judgements - felt that typical offer and instructor cared a lot less about doing the right thing than themselves
Australian research 1992 - Individual perspectives on police ethics - to investigate officer’s understanding of ethics
Detailed, semi-structured interviews
- junior officers received ethics training, but not viewed as practical or relevant
- rules not written in ways that are easy to understand
- temptations are everywhere - emotional/peer pressure for juniors, and financial/career opportunity for seniors
- resisting temptation - based on personal integrity for junior officers and fear of getting caught/punished for senior officers
- getting caught - not smart enough (as usually you’re unsupervised), usually by outside bodies - not your mates “blue wall of silence”
- improve ethical bx - relevant training, organisational change, supervision
Australian research 1992 - Practical ethics in the police service - investigating individual and organisational influences on unethical behaviour
Up to ___% of police acts involve ethics breaches. Important to have BOTH ________ and _________ change
Recommendations from this survey were:
- improve work _______ (reduce ______ and increase _____)
- improve _______ (but recruits are more ethical)
- Make ethics training more _____
- Increase _______
- _______ ethical behaviour (don’t always focus on punishment)
- more __________ for small errors
28%
individual
organisational
conditions stress pay selection practical supervision reward tolerance
Australian research 1992 - Public perceptions of professional ethics
Interestingly, police are complaining about each other _____ and society’s attitude towards police has ______, but this may have changed over the years (based on old data)
more
improved
Police discretion involves ______ when to _____ the law, and when to ______ for some latitude.
The system may be ________ if they had to enforce the law all the time, and smaller crimes would _______ most of their time and they would not be able to focus on more ______ crimes. Full enforcement would _______ the public
knowing
enforce
allow
overloaded
occupy
serious
alienate
What are the four areas police discretion is used for?
- Youth crime
- 30-40% cases handled informally, general belief that formal charges not an effective response)
- responses involve community, referrals, resolution conferences, etc - Offenders with mental illness
- 70% informal, 12% hospitalisation, 16% arrest
- emergency hospitalisation - very difficult - issues with commitment to treatment, so instead they go to jail. - Domestic Violence
- historically ignored, but new policies encourage arrest/charges
- BUT discretion is still important - can involve separation, community referrals, etc - Use of force
- not common, only used if necessary
Factors influencing discretion and arrest decisions:
- ________ of crime
- _______ of the evidence
- victim’s _______ of the arrest
- victim and offender ________ (more likely if they are strangers)
- degree of offender _______
- race, gender, neighbourhood
seriousness strength support relationship resistance
Policing involves high levels of stress for both the officers (discretion, traumatic situations) and their families (fear of death of loved ones).
Sources of police stress are:
1, _________ stressors (brutalities, conflict)
2. _________ stressors (this was found to be the most stressful - bureaucracy, peer relationships, lack of career development)
3. ______ _______ stressors (court system)
4. _______ stressors (uncooperative witnesses, etc)
occupational
organisational
criminal justice
public
Consequences of police stressors can be:
- Physical (increased risk of developing _______ disease, ______ disorders, high ____ ______, ulcers, weight gain). But it can be hard to tell if these are related to ______ or _______.
- Psychological and Personal (drinking and _______ abuse, ______, anxiety, ______, violence, _______ problems)
- Job-Related (poor ______, absenteeism, reduced _________, high _______ and early ________)
cardiovascular digestive blood pressure stress lifestyle
substance
depression
suicide
martial problems
morale
effectiveness
turnover
retirement
What kind of programs are in place to prevent/manage police stress?
- physical fitness
- professional counselling
- family assistance
- adaptive coping
- critical incident debriefs
What do adaptive coping strategies do?
- attempt to change maladaptive coping behaviours (such as substance abuse) by teaching adaptive coping skills
- shown to result in general health improvements and increased performance at work
What is a critical incident stress debriefing (CISD)? List advantages and disadvantages.
- it is v commonly used - groups get together and discus the traumatic even in a controlled and rational environment
Advantages
- feels good to talk about it
Disadvantages
- no effects on PTSD levels
- could have negative effect on well-being
- similar to eye-witness, could lead to misinformation effec
Contradiction that witnesses are separated from each other, but police are able to discuss it - in fact, it’s encouraged!
What stages of the CISD are particularly problematic?
Facts stage - each describes their version of the event leads to memory conformity
Reaction stage - others are ok but you are not (and you think you should be) or visa versa OR emotional contagion - others feel bad so you do too.
