The Inevitability of Corruption: A Critical Look at Modern Policing

This essay examines the argument that corruption is a necessary and unavoidable aspect of police work. It begins by defining police corruption, highlighting various corrupt practices beyond personal gain, such as corruption by authority, kickbacks, and protection of illegal activities. The essay addresses conflicting views on the prevalence of police deviance and emphasizes the moral dimension of corruption. It critiques the "bad apples" theory, pointing to evidence of institutionalized corruption and discusses how drug operations contribute to police corruption through bribery and information leaks. Furthermore, it identifies constant and variable factors influencing police corruption, such as discretion, low visibility, and organizational control. The essay also considers the "noble-cause corruption" phenomenon, where unethical practices are justified to achieve noble ends, ultimately supporting the view that corruption is an inherent challenge in policing that requires understanding and acknowledgment. Desklib provides access to similar essays and study resources for students.

Corruption is a necessary and unavoidable aspect of police work.
1) “Police corruption can be considered to be an action or omission or a promise of
action or omission that has been undertaken by any police officer or a group of police
officers while on official duty and is tantamount to the misuse of their power and
position for the achievement of personal gain of any kind.” (Kutnjak Ivkovic, 2005)
The above definition provides us with a clear and precise idea about the aspect of police
corruption. Many legal experts consider the definition of police corruption to be narrow
because it emphasises on the aspect of personal gain. However in reality there are various
types of corrupt and unethical practices that are evident within the police and these include
corruption by authority, kickbacks, shakedowns, opportunistic theft, protection of illegal
activities, internal payoffs, flaking (which includes planting of evidences such as drugs to
deliberately frame a person), tipoffs and inappropriate information disclosure, having
secondary source of incomes such as business while serving as a legal servant.
2) “The prevalence of Police deviance is a much debated statistic and one that is often
rife with problems.”
(Punch, 2000) has suggested that corruption is an attribute which is endemic to police forces
around the globe while others like Miller (2003) think otherwise and are of the opinion that
instances of police corruption are extremely rare. According to Son & Rome (2004) the
estimates of corruption invariably depend upon the individual nature and behaviour of the
police personnel who have been assigned the task of maintaining the law and order situation.
3) “Corruption is fundamentally a moral as opposed to a legal phenomenon.”
While corruption is an unlawful activity or is viewed as unlawful but this is not necessarily
the case in reality. Looking back at history, bribery has not been considered to be an unlawful
activity in many jurisdictions. Example can be drawn from the US where before Foreign
Corrupt Practices Act of 1977 came into effect, it was not considered to be unlawful for the
US business corporations to engage in bribing while undertaking their foreign business
dealings.
4) “Uncovering of corruption cases against police personnel are often considered to be a
case of bad apples.”

People always presume that instances of a few rotten apples among a large number of good
apples are a common possibility but the history of policing has provided us with innumerable
evidences of institutionalised corruption that does not offer much credibility or support to
such a belief. Additionally, the notion of bad apples has resulted in a large number of
potentially dangerous consequences and this is why instances of corruption needs to be
scrutinised properly by those in positions of power and authority (Leader, 2002).
5) “The widespread use in contemporary societies of illegal drugs such as heroin,
cocaine and Ecstasy is a significant contributing factor to the increasing instances of
Police corruption.”
During anti-drug operations, the police officers are heavily relied upon to provide accurate
information (intel) about drug mafias and their alleged activities. Drug busting operations
invariably involve a huge amount of money which are paid by the drug dealers to the police
to obtain inside information about ongoing police activities concerning the effective tackling
and control of drug peddling. The drug dealers often bribe police to get credible information
from them regarding any drug busting operation beforehand and this helps them to prevent
getting arrested by the Police.
6) “Constant and variable factors in Police Corruption.”
The aspect of policing considers corruption to be an ever present possibility while
considering the presence of both constant and variable factors in corruption. The constant
factors are discretion, low public visibility, low managerial visibility, peer group secrecy and
managerial secrecy. The variable factors include community and political context,
organisational control and integrity, governance, moral cynicism and opportunities for
corruption.
7) “Corruption in Police is an unavoidable aspect of police work.”
Many experts suggest that corruption is an unavoidable aspect of police work as the police
are often required to undertake those actions and activities which in normal circumstances
would be considered to be morally unacceptable. The police in their line of duty are often
required to make use of coercive forces which includes use of deadly forces (as a last resort
activity) which is considered to be illegal and unethical by many. So, what might be
considered to be morally wrong for a normal individual is not considered to be wrong in case
of a police and this can often create a loss of moral integrity among the police forces. Police

officials might tend to think of themselves as being immune to the law and there is a general
tendency of indulging in corrupt practices which are largely the result of moral degradation
over time.
8) “The nature of policing inherently means that there is a high potential for corruption
within the police forces.”
There are many facets that are inherent in policing which makes the profession extremely
vulnerable to various types of misconducts. This is what makes the process of tackling
corruption in police forces an extremely challenging and complex job. There are a wide range
of factors that needs to be considered and these needs to be combined with wide range oif
preventive and investigative measures. This inherently would give rise to the ‘noble-cause
corruption’ (Independent Police Commission, 2013). The ‘noble-cause corruption’ deals
with the extent to which ‘dirty’ practices could be used to achieve ‘noble’ ends. This is also
widely known as the ‘Dirty Harry’ problem which further vindicates that corruption is a
necessary and unavoidable aspect of police work which needs to be understood and
acknowledged by the general population (Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary, 1999).
References
Her Majesty’s Inspectorate of Constabulary (1999). Police Integrity: securing and
maintaining public confidence, London: HMIC
Independent Police Commission (2013). Policing for a Better Britain, London: Independent
Police Commission
Kutnjak Ivkovic, S. (2005) Fallen Blue Knights: Controlling Police Corruption, New York:
Oxford University Press.
Leader. (2002). Two Bad Apples: Police anti-corruption drive bears bad fruit. The Guardian
Friday June 7th 2002.
Manning, P.K. and Redlinger, L.J. (1977) ‘Invitational edges’ in Klockars, C.B. (ed)
Thinking About Police. New York: McGraw Hill
Miller, J. (2003). Police Corruption in England and Wales: An assessment of current
evidence. Home Office Online Report 11/03. London: Home Office. Available at:
http://www.homeoffice.gov.uk/rds/pdfs2/rdsolr1103.pdf

Newburn, T., & Webb, B. (1999). Understanding and preventing police corruption: lessons
from the literature.
Punch, M. (2000). Police Corruption and Its Prevention. European Journal on Criminal Policy
and Research, 8: 301–324.