Police Deviance: Misconduct, Corruption, and Predatory Policing

Police deviance has become a contemporary issue that has received major media attention in recent decades although it has existed since the beginning of policing. There are many aspects of policing such as the role of police, police authority, and police discretion that are quite ambiguous when it comes to defining them. The definitions are often dependent on who is defining them, whether it be a citizen or police officer. These three facets of policing play major roles in whether a police officer is viewed as a “good cop” versus a “bad cop” to their peers as well as to society. When a police officer abuses their authority and/or discretion, it results in police deviance. Police misconduct, police corruption, and police crime (predatory policing) are all types of police deviance, and all have effects on public attitudes towards police. The three types of police deviance identified can be correlated using the “slippery slope” of police deviance. Lastly, research has been done to examine ways to eliminate or avoid these types of behavior and improve ethics in policing. Furthermore, in order to understand police deviance, it is important to first understand how police misconduct, police corruption, and police crime are related, why they happen, how they impact public attitudes towards police, and what can be done to minimize or even eliminate them from policing.

One prominent theory that seeks to provide a conceptual framework for a continuum of police deviance that can ultimately result in police crime is the notion of the ‘slippery slope’ of police deviance (O’Connor, 2005). According to Dunham and Alpert (2010), the slippery slope examination can be explained as follows, “some officers start down the path of deviance with relatively minor transgressions and then proceed to more serious misconduct in a slow but steady progression” (p. 329). The concept is initiated when a police officer engages in some type of minor violation of rules, regulations, or...