NCJ Number
222715
Journal
International Criminal Justice Review Volume: 18 Issue: 1 Dated: March 2008 Pages: 59-82
Date Published
March 2008
Length
24 pages
Annotation
This study examined perceptions of integrity for two police forces in Eastern Europe that have experienced dramatically different democratic transitions: the Czech Republic and Bosnia and Herzegovina.
Abstract
The study found that despite taking different paths to democracy, the Bosnian and Czech officers' views on police integrity were similar in several ways. Regardless of country, the surveyed officers shared an understanding of the severity of various types of police misconduct. The same scenarios were assessed as the least serious in both countries, as was the case the most serious scenarios of misconduct/corruption; however, the code of silence regarding reporting on the misconduct of fellow officers existed in both police forces, as it does in virtually every police agency. There were also numerous differences between the two police forces, particularly regarding the harshness of the discipline warranted by each offense scenario; for example, less than one-half of Bosnian police respondents expected a dismissal of a fellow officer who stole money from a found wallet or accepted a bribe from a motorist stopped for speeding. Although both countries have made progress in their democratic reforms, additional work is needed in developing, promoting, and enforcing standards of police conduct tailored to the expectations of the public and the quality of police service required in a democracy. Surveys were completed by 451 officers in Bosnia and Herzegovina in the fall of 2003 and by 604 officers in the Czech Republic in the summer of 2005. In order to measure views of police integrity, the questionnaire used a modified version of Klockars and Kutnjak Ivkovic's questionnaire, which contains hypothetical scenarios of questionable police practices that range from the acceptance of gratuities and holiday gifts to opportunistic theft and shakedowns. 5 tables, 7 notes, 41 references, and appendix