A Theory That Builds Upon Conflict Theory

This special bond between fellow police officers is what is often coined as the police subculture. The police subculture is “a distinctive set of beliefs, values, attitudes and behaviors that are shared amongst the majority of officers working in police organizations”. (Reference.com). Since a police officer’s job is to combat criminal activity, often times they see civilians as irresponsible and possible threats, which is partially true considering both the innocent and criminals are civilians. Therefore, the only other individuals police officers can trust fully are other police officers. From this connection, aspects of friendship, cooperation, and reliability arise which supports the idea of police officers against civilians, or “us versus them”.

Kappeler, Sluder, & Alpert (1998) explain that through the police subculture deviance enters into law enforcement. The police character that is developed can be attributed to several paradigms such as psychological, sociological, and anthropological. The individual personalities of an officer and the authoritarian personality, characterized by cynicism, aggression, and conservatism, is that the psychological paradigm analyzes (p. 85). The socialization process which officers experience when they go through the academy, training, and field experience, contrast that dispositional model of the police personality, and this is the focus of the sociological paradigm. When officers internalize these norms and values that are learned, this professionalization occurs. The occupational culture of policing and the -beliefs, attitudes, and values that make up the subculture is seen as the anthropological paradigm or the culturalization perspective (Kappeler, Sluder, & Alpert, 1998, p. 87-88).

Police agencies across the United States have adopted the motto “To Protect and to Serve.” However, there is serious tension in the relationship police share with the communities surrounding them. There are many factors influencing this relationship. The strained relationship between police officers and citizens goes back as far as the time of segregation and probably even farther.

Kappeler, Sluder, & Alpert (1998) explain that through the police subculture deviance enters into law enforcement. The police character that is developed can be attributed to several paradigms such as psychological, sociological, and anthropological. The individual personalities of an officer and the authoritarian personality, characterized by cynicism, aggression, and conservatism, is that the psychological paradigm analyzes (p. 85). The socialization process which officers experience when they go through the academy, training, and field experience, contrast that dispositional model of the police personality, and this is the focus of the sociological paradigm. When officers internalize these norms and values that are learned, this professionalization occurs. The occupational culture of policing and the -beliefs, attitudes, and values that make up the subculture is seen as the anthropological paradigm or the culturalization perspective (Kappeler, Sluder, & Alpert, 1998, p. 87-88).

Police are the front-line agents of formal social control.” Meaning that the job description of an officer is to be legit by conforming to all rules, to be efficient by achieving maximum productivity with minimum wasted effort or expense and to be fair by just treatment or behavior without favoritism or discrimination. This cannot truly happen without the communication with citizens, but as the introduction section points out “neighborhoods with high levels of disadvantage have poorer attitudes towards the criminal justice system, with race being a strong predictor of attitudes towards police.” For example, in a district with a higher workload and higher crime rate (and high incivilities) police may treat citizens differently, ignoring minor offenses, and focusing more on serious offending in an effort to direct limited departmental resources more efficiently. Having that negative response from officers then present why people have that negative feeling towards

The criminal justice field has numerous underlying problems that can be identified which can affect the system as a whole. In my previous research police brutality is one of the largest affected areas in the criminal justice system. Within those problems there is one that stands out far among the rest in today’s society. Police brutality in America is a problem that has been present for decades. Police brutality has been a common topic of discussion amongst individuals who have interactions with individuals within the criminal justice system for the past decade. Everyone has their own opinion of the definition and reasoning behind the brutal acts that some police officers display. According to the encyclopedia the definition of police brutality is the use of any force exceeding that reasonably necessary to accomplish a lawful police purpose. Though there is no official record on the first encounter of police brutality it is to be understood that it has been apparent for some time now. There have been numerous accounts that have occurred during the past three years that have brought this problem back to the forefront. With this problem being so contemporary in today’s society one is to believe that there is a possibility of it being one of the most significant issues that agencies have to deal with when facing the community. Within the face of the problem lie other issues that leadership has to control inside and outside of the agencies such as the political,

Relations between the community and the police have always been a major public issue. (Cockerham & Forslund). In 1961 a report of the Civil Rights Commission insisted that “Police Brutality … is a serious problem in the United States.” (Silver)  The latest events of police killing of civilians have become central topic of  started a nationwide debate of whether police use of force is ever justified. Police`s use of force or police brutality is a major issue in America and there are many theories that ties police use of unjust force on the victim`s demographic determinators. This study seeks to explore how social determinators, specifically race, class, gender, highest education completed, and how often one reads the news, affects one 's opinion on whether police striking civilians is ever justified. There are many attributes to attitudes towards police use of force. Interpersonal violence, supports for capital punishment, political orientation, racial status, and experiment of criminal victimization are among these demographic determinators . It is important to study demographic determinants of attitudes towards police behaviour because the police are supposed to serve the society as a whole. If certain groups within the society are unhappy about their treatment by the police then some changes have to made by policy makers. We are also studying the the number of times

What is not routinely expressed to police offiders, but rather what they realize rapidly in the city, is that different subjects, not rarely, detest their mediation. What's more, different natives, when treated suspiciously by the police, may respond with antagonistic vibe, disdain, scorn, and sometimes, physical brutality. Nor are cops routinely taught that specific sections of the populace despise them or hold them in scorn essentially on the grounds that they wear the identification and uniform. On the off chance that individuals from these gatherings challenge the power of the police, the police will, taking into account their preparation, frequently depend on dangers of power or the utilization of power to force their power, which regularly

The use of violence by police officers is a widespread concern. Violence swept across the City of Los Angeles after 'not guilty' verdicts were handed down for officers charged with beating Rodney King (Ramos, 1992). While allegations of racially-motivated police brutality are common in this city, the riots were triggered by a video actually showing the officers mercilessly beating the victim. In the aftermath of Hurricane Katrina, five New Orleans police officers were charged with shooting unarmed civilians (Roberston, 2012). Although other New Orleans police officers were involved in the shooting and the subsequent cover-up, federal prosecutors were finally able to get convictions because they negotiated plea deals with the other officers. A common thread that runs through both events is the influence of police culture, both in terms of a code of silence and the sanctioning of violence to maintain authority (reviewed by Conti, 2009).

In determining the rationale of police use of force against individuals, it is also important to discuss factors such as the environment in which police officers in have in explaining police use of force during routine patrols. Terill et al. (2003) aimed to determine the effect of neighborhood context on the severity of force exercise by patrol officers (p. 292). Utilizing the findings of Black (1976), the authors reviewed that, "police will be more punitive toward suspects with lower economic or marginal cultural status, such as the poor, minorities, and the young" (p. 292). To test these explanations, the Terill et al. (2003) analyzed four sets of data collected by the Project on Policing Neighborhoods (POPN): systematic social observations,

Understanding the distinctive values and perceptions that are shared by the police subculture is central to understanding police violence, its breadth, and its persistence (Brandl et al., 2001, Herzog, 2000 and Skolnick & Fyfe, 1993, p. 7). The police possess a “working personality” (Skolnick, 1994) as a result of their socialization into the police subculture. Police develop shared values that influence their view of human behavior and their role in society. The police subculture is characterized by suspiciousness, cynicism, clannishness, secrecy, and isolation from others in society (Brown, 1981, p. 82; Crank, 1998, Niederhoffer, 1967, Regoli et al., 1990, Rubinstein, 1973 and Sherman, 1974, p. 196; Sparrow et al., 1992 and Waddington,

In recent years relationships between law enforcement agencies and their citizens have become tremulous and sometimes dangerous. Whether you are under the impression that Officers selflessly stand the front lines ready to protect their community with their lives or even you believe all police are corrupt and evil their profession is a necessary evil. In police culture they often refer to a preverbal thin blue line as the barrier in which they hold between good and evil. Unfortunately that thin blue line has become a line drawn between Officers, citizens and criminals. Those persons that stand on their own side of this line have very different perspectives and

Marvin Carlson’s article argues about whether plays are better experienced purely through text or through performance. He discusses the conflict theorists dealt with when they wanted to perform Shakespeare’s plays. Some theorists believed that Shakespeare’s texts were a magnificent work on their own and that any performance needed to be as close to the text as possible. This caused theorists to regard performance as unnecessary since it had the potential to ruin the text. This type of theory carried on past the romantic period and some theorist continue to believe that plays should keep to the original script as much as possible. Carlson cites Charles Lamb commenting on how performances of Hamlet diminish the quality of Shakespeare’s work. Marvin then explains how

Have you ever noticed a divide in society between the privileged and who's who are not? Such as someone who is rich versus someone who is poor. This is what we call Conflict theory. How conflict theory is applied to our everyday lives can be seen through many different ideas brought about by these conflict theorists. Whether or not I agree or disagree with this theory, will be determined by the factors and situations that conflict theory has to show.

The conflict theory approach emphasizes issues of inequality and change in relation to social class, money, race ethnicity and gender. The conflict theory pinpoints the belief that these social classifications are parasitic: only benefiting one group while negatively affecting another. In particular, the social conflict approach focuses on the struggles that lower-class people face in a world where the rich and powerful benefits at their expense. Persons of the lower-class are often disadvantaged, since they are not given a chance to move ahead and are always stuck at the bottom of the social ladder. Upper-class individuals are able to fully educate their children, and hence, their generation will always be rich and powerful. However, a weakness