SOC 3750 Lecture Notes - Lecture 16: Rodney King, Hypermasculinity, Anomie
3 Nov 2016
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Lecture 16 (26/10/16) — Police Misconduct Cont’d
Noble Cause Corruption: Why?
-Organizational causes
•budgets, effectiveness and pressure to perform
-provide some sort of numerical metric — demonstrating effectiveness is crucial
-increased pressure on departments to generate those numbers…leads to pressure on officers to fill
their quotas
•performance and promotion
-take unnecessary risks or break protocol in order to get their numbers up for when it comes to
performance reviews
-“dog eat dog” world in terms of promotions
-Structural/functionalist view
•Merton’s original thesis on social structure & anomie
-deviance & anomic social systems
-the social system continues to put emphasis on monetary success, which is disproportionate to the
means to achieve to success
-deviance is a form of adaptation
•innovation, retreatism, ritualism, rebellion
-can take Merton’s view and modify it to understand noble cause corruption
•switch the cultural definition of success?
•emphasis on crime fighting as definition of police success — disproportionate to means
•distribution of crime fighting means is out of sync with the widespread emphasis on crime
fighting as success
•on one side the culture (media, politicians, justice systems and popular culture) is making the
argument for crime fighting…but on the other we are not providing the means for police to
achieve this success (organizational capacity, institutional support, community support)
-the system is therefore anomic
-noble cause corruption as ‘innovation’ as described by Merton.
Noble Cause Corruption: Prevalence?
-difficult to measure
•officers work alone often
•credibility gap (officer vs. offender)
•code of silence among officers
-widespread
•qualitative/ethnographic research (Goldschmidt, Moskos, Fassin)
•none of them can generate numbers
-often speaking of a relative minority (we hope)
Excessive Force
-research challenges
•our definition: “more than necessary to apprehend/subdue an offender or suspect”
-interpretations vary: police vs. courts vs. citizens
-interpretations vary by race
-Rodney King beating
•92% of African Americans said force was excessive
•only 72% of white Americans voiced similar opinion
•different interpretations of what constitutes excessive force…can vary by race as indicated above
Excessive Force: Research Challenges
-Under reporting
find more resources at oneclass.com
find more resources at oneclass.com
Document Summary
Organizational causes: budgets, effectiveness and pressure to perform. Provide some sort of numerical metric demonstrating effectiveness is crucial. Increased pressure on departments to generate those numbers leads to pressure on officers to fill their quotas: performance and promotion. Take unnecessary risks or break protocol in order to get their numbers up for when it comes to performance reviews. Dog eat dog world in terms of promotions. Structural/functionalist view: merton"s original thesis on social structure & anomie. The social system continues to put emphasis on monetary success, which is disproportionate to the means to achieve to success. Deviance is a form of adaptation: innovation, retreatism, ritualism, rebellion. Noble cause corruption as innovation" as described by merton. Difficult to measure: officers work alone often, credibility gap (officer vs. offender, code of silence among officers. Widespread: qualitative/ethnographic research (goldschmidt, moskos, fassin, none of them can generate numbers. Often speaking of a relative minority (we hope)
