NCJ Number
90672
Date Published
1979
Length
147 pages
Annotation
Using data drawn from a study of eight police agencies in different areas of the country, this study developed an instrument that can measure the level and vulnerability to corruption of a police agency, with a diagnostic and prescriptive anticorruption package to be applied according to findings.
Abstract
The study found that police recruits may be socialized into corruption as a result of either community socialization influences or organization influences. The individual moral traits of police officers were found to be insignificant under the dominance of peer and organizational influences interacting with community moral attitudes. The relationship between moral maturity in recruits, veteran police officers, and citizens tend to determine the level of pressure on officers to become corrupt. Eight combinations of levels of moral maturity in the community, police recruits, and police veterans are presented as possible outcomes from the measurement of the corruption level or vulnerability of a given agency. Outcomes of the self-administered corruption evaluation indicate agency corruption proneness as either high, high moderate, low moderate, or low. The prescriptive packages proposed according to the evaluation findings indicate the degree to which remedial efforts should focus on the selection and training of officers, community attitudes, and supervisory procedures. The study methodology is detailed, and the sample cities are briefly described.