Police Ethics and Deviance

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Police Ethics and Deviance According to Wadsworth An Introduction to Policing (2005), “ethics can be defined as the practical, normative study of the rightness and wrongness of human conduct.” What this means is that everyone is taught the difference between what is accepted as right and wrong. The nature of ethics is for each individual to be able to look at a situation and make a sound judgment according to what is right and wrong. A police official must pay particular attention to ethics. They must make sure their personal lives, prejudices, political views, goals, personal hostilities or friendships to influence their decisions (White, 2004). Some of the standards police have to follow concerning ethics in their work routine are things like: Officers must enforce the law without compromise for the crime they are preventing and with carrying out the prosecution of criminals. They must enforce the law without showing favoritism, causing intentional harm, never using unnecessary force and never accepting gifts in exchange for overlooking crimes. Police officials are required to recognize their position and badge as a symbol of public faith and trust and never engage in acts of corruption, bribery or condone other police officers doing it. In Stevens' (2005) POLICE DEVIANCE & ETHICS, he defines the terms as follows, “Deviance -- behavior inconsistent with norms, values, or ethics; Corruption - forbidden acts involving misuse of office for gain; Misconduct -- wrongdoing violations of departmental procedures; Favoritism -- unfair "breaks" to friends or relatives (nepotism)” (para. 2). and “Brutality has been defined as excessive force, name calling, sarcasm, ridicule, and disrespect”(para. 16). Corruption can be either inside the department or with the criminals an officer is supposed to be helping convict. Internal
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