NCJ Number
115262
Journal
Criminal Justice Ethics Volume: 7 Issue: 2 Dated: (Summer-Fall 1988) Pages: 37-48
Date Published
1988
Length
12 pages
Annotation
The ethical impropriety of police accepting minor gratuities has been treated as an established fact, with only the degree of impropriety involved being subject to debate.
Abstract
What consideration of this issue there has been has emphasized the relative seriousness of the ethical violation, the criminal justice system's response to this pattern of misconduct, and the consequences that the acceptance of minor gratuities will have more serious types of police corruption. It is argued that the police especially, and sometimes other justice officials, should be encouraged to accept freely offered minor gratuities. Such gratuities, rather than being perceived as incipient corruptors, should be viewed as the building blocks of positive social relationships between the police and the public. In general, such gratuities are offered for police services already rendered, and police need not assume that they are intended to generate subsequent indebtedness to the giver. The receipt of a gift by police has cohesive value and permits the give to satisfy a sense of obligation. However, not all gratuities are expressions of gratitude, and the motivations of both giver and receiver must be evaluated to determine the moral character of the exchange. 1 table and 33 notes.