Some Structural Aspects of Police Deviance in Relations with Minority Groups (From Organizational Police Deviance - Its Structure and Control, P 49-82, 1981)

• NCJ Number: 85565
• Author(s): J A Lee
• Date Published: 1981
• Length: 34 pages
• Sale Source: Butterworth
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This article, concentrating on police deviance in Toronto, Canada, views incidents of deviant behavior in police-minority relations as symptoms of relatively long-lasting and basic (structured) relations between organized groups.

Abstract

Modern police forces emerged out of the need to protect dominant communities from dangerous classes. Police soon learned to distinguish the 'public' they were supposed to serve and protect from the public they were supposed to control and punish (i.e., blacks, women, Indians, and others). Minority members who flaunt their status or become militant along with others who lack power in society's major institutions may become police 'property.' Any holder of property is likely to become bellicose when denied access to or control over the property. Police expect more than the usual deference from low status, minority members, but these citizens are less likely to show deference to the police than a high-status individual. Both minority members and police stereotype each other and confrontation often ensues, causing high-status minority members to become targets and then politicized. The perspective of conflict sociology sugests that community relations programs, minority recruitment campaigns, and other reforms are likely to be merely cosmetic changes in a system of social interactions where police dominance and control continue to struggle with minority group militance. The article suggests a few practical reforms to overcome structural blocks to police reforms. About 70 references are appended.