NCJ Number
86186
Journal
Criminal Justice Ethics Volume: 1 Issue: 1 Dated: (Winter/Spring 1982) Pages: 10-19
Date Published
1982
Length
10 pages
Annotation
New police officers develop their values from their experiences on the street and from interactions with more experienced police officers.
Abstract
They learn what kind of moral principles they can afford to have and still survive. These traditional police values include such ideas as due process is only a means of protecting criminals at the expense of the law-abiding and that lying and deception are an essential part of the police job. Others are that disrespect for police authority is a serious offense that should always be punished with an arrest or use of force, police officers should never hesitate to use physical or deadly force against people who deserve it, and officers' paramount duty is to protect their fellow officers at all costs. However, increasing external pressures to conform to legal and societal values have generated increasing conflict among police officers themselves. Major aspects of the moral career of police officers include the contingencies they confront and the moral experiences undergone in relation to these contingencies, the apologia (the explanation officers develop for changing their ethical principles), and the stages of moral change they go through. The apologia allows officers to live with a certain standard of behavior and to become comfortable with it. This creates the potential for further apologias. The progression from one apologia to the next makes up the stages of moral change. A total of 12 notes are provided.