Informal Code of Police Deviancy: A Group Approach to Blue-Coat Crime (From Police and Society: Touchstone Readings, P 185-206, 1995, Victor E. Kappeler, ed. - See NCJ-151401)

• NCJ Number: 151411
• Author(s): E R Stoddard
• Date Published: 1995
• Length: 22 pages
• Sale Source: Waveland Press, Inc.
• Publication Type: Survey
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: Journal of Criminal Law, Criminology and Police Science, 59 (2) (1968): 201-213. Reprinted with permission of the author.

Annotation

In contrast to the traditional argument that illegal activity committed by a police officer is a sign of individual moral weakness or a lack of professional qualifications, this author contends that so-called blue-coat crime stems from a functioning informal social system whose norms and practices are at variance with the law.

Abstract

This study is based on the hypothesis that illegal practices of police officers are socially prescribed and patterned through an informal code. Data was collected through the traditional ethnographic technique of using an inside informant, a police officer who was tried and convicted on charges of robbery and grand larceny. The informant identified many illegal practices including mooching, chiseling, prejudice, favoritism, shopping, extortion, bribery, shakedowns, perjury, and premeditated theft. The socialization of recruits into the code clique occurs on two levels: the formal, or membership group, and the informal, or reference, group. When a police officer is accused of illegal activity, other clique members work together to preserve the code. The code is often protected by its secrecy, public acceptance of the theory that illegal behavior is an individual problem, and the public's reluctance to become involved in police affairs. 38 references