Week 5 Project: Corruption
Supporting Lectures:
- Ethical Systems
- Crime Control
- Discretion and Law Enforcement
- Discretion and Corruption
Managing an ethical police department can be a difficult challenge. As you have seen, the criminal justice field often presents situations that would appear to be governed by competing ethical systems. The very nature of police work presents officers with ethical challenges not found in other occupations.
For this assignment, you have been contracted to assist an urban police department improve its ethical performance. Your task is to provide police leadership with background and guidance on the following topics. Prepare a report in Microsoft Word that addresses each of these points:
- Describe how organizations can become corrupt, using Trautman’s “corruption continuum” as a guide.
- Explain the “continuum of compromise” as it relates to individual police misconduct, including how it might help supervisors recognize warning signs. Include the concept of “means–end” thinking in your review.
- Describe Bandura’s definition of self-regulation and describe how aspects of the law enforcement job can cause one to turn away from self-regulation.
- Last, considering that police agencies are nearly evenly-split on the topic of gratuities, determine whether you would recommend a policy that forbids patrol officers from accepting gratuities. Support your position with reasoning and research.