Forces of Deviance: Understanding the Dark Side of Policing, Second Edition

• NCJ Number: 184041
• Author(s): Victor E. Kappeler; Richard D. Sluder; Geoffrey P. Alpert
• Date Published: 1998
• Length: 332 pages
• Sale Source: Waveland Press, Inc.
• Publication Format: Book (Softbound)
• Publication Type: Overview Text
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This text develops the thesis that police deviance is the product of the organization of the occupation, the expectations of society, and the perceptions and interpretations of the role of the police.

Abstract

The first chapter discusses definitions of police misconduct, public perceptions of it, and public concerns about it. The discussion encompasses the diversity of public perceptions of police misconduct, deviance as a theoretical construct, and variants of police deviance. A history of police deviance is traced in the second chapter, with attention to the historical roots of policing, policing in England, and policing in the United States. In Chapter Three, the police working environment is examined as the context for organizing and structuring police deviance, followed by a chapter that considers the ideology and culture of the police as the breeding ground for police deviance. The motive and justification for police to violate public expectations of their occupation are addressed in the fifth chapter, followed by a chapter that analyzes the police beating of Rodney King as a manifestation of police brutality and abuse of authority. Police prejudice and discrimination is the theme of the seventh chapter, as it examines police failure to act promptly when they had the opportunity in the case of Jeffrey Dahmer. Case studies in two other chapters consider drug-related police deviance and varieties of police deviance in the District of Columbia's Metropolitan Police. The last two chapters discuss internal and external controls designed to prevent and counter police deviance and corruption, as well as the prospects for controlling police deviance. Although these chapters recommend a variety of actions that can reduce the prevalence of police deviance, including appropriate disciplinary procedures and training, they conclude that without substantial social change, the control of police deviance is improbable at best. 483 references and a subject index