7'IIIIII'IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII ., r \ MICHIGANS I IIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIIII IIIIIIIIIIIIIII 96535 II This is to certify that the dissertation entitled Race, Gander, Patterns of Interaction, Organizational Co-it-ent and Attitudes Twards Occupational Deviance in the lichest Police Department presented by Rabi n N. Haarr has been accepted towards fulfillment of the requirements for Doctor of Philosophy degree in the College of Social Science Interdisciplinary Doctoral Progru with a Concentration in Crininal Justice and Cri-inology 2147 /’ I€m( M ajor professor / ‘ Date // ,1/ / 51/ 2/ V /’ ’ MS U is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Institution 0-12771 LIBRARY Michigan State University mceunsrunu BOXtomovomi-ehodtomtmmywncord. TO AVOID FINES Mom on or More data due. I DATE‘DUE DATE DUE DATE DUE MSU In An Affirmative ActionlEqual Opportunity Instltuion WM‘ RACE, GENDER, PATTERNS OF INTERACTION, ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT AND ATTITUDES TOWARD OCCUPATIONAL DEVIANCE IN A MIDWEST POLICE DEPARTMENT By Robin N. Haarr A DISSERTATION Submitted to Michigan State University in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY School of Criminal Justice 1 994 ABSTRACT RACE, GENDER, PATTERNS OF INTERACTION, ORGANIZATIONAL COMMITMENT AND ATTITUDES TOWARD OCCUPATIONAL DEVIANCE IN A MIDWEST POLICE DEPARTMENT By Robin N. Haarr Guided by a theory of social organization of policing that advances diversity, variation, and contrast in the police occupational culture (Fielding, 1988; Manning, 1987, 1993) this dissertation examines: (a) how the police occupational culture shapes patterns of interpersonal interaction between patroI officer, and how those interactions vary with the race and gender of the patrol officer; (b) how patterns of interpersonal interaction affect patrol officers’ commitment to the police organization, and how levels of organizational commitment vary with the race and gender of the officer; and (c) how patterns of interpersonal interaction and level of organizational commitment shape patrol officers’ attitudes towards occupational deviance. A final question is whether differences in attitudes towards occupational deviance can be explained by an officer’s race and gender. Based on both qualitative and quantitative data gathered during 580 hours of field observations and from 48 unstructured interviews with a variety of patrol officers in one Midwest police department, the Study demonstrates that the police organization, as it is racially formed and gender organized, is experienced differently by each of the four race- gender groups. Findings reveal that each of the four race-gender groups under study engage in different patterns of interpersonal interaction both on- and off-duty. Also white males continue to exclude each of the other three race-gender groups from primary interactions and access to the white male group solidarity that characterizes the traditional police occupational culture; in addition, black police officers have established a very separate and distinct fraternal organization for black police officers. Data analysis also shows that when each of the four race-gender groups are compared on their relative strength, identification with, and involvement in the police organization, differences emerge across and within each of the four race-gender groups. Employees’ behavioral acts and attitudes of organizational commitment are very closely linked; but ultimately, patrol officers differ on their individual conceptualization of ethics, ’good’ and ’bad’ police work, and patterns of occupational deviance. Copyright by ROBIN NANCY HAARR 1 994 DEDICATION I dedicate this dissertation to my parents, who taught me that you can achieve anything you want out of life with a lot of hard work and a positive attitude. ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS I would like to extend my deep appreciation to Dr. Merry Morash and Dr. Peter K. Manning, who have both been wonderful teachers and mentors to me for my six years at Michigan State University. Both Merry and Peter provided me with endless support and guidance throughout my entire doctoral program. I would especially like to thank Dr. Merry Morash for always being there whenever I questioned my abilities. She always told me, "don’t worry, you can do it. " I cannot thank the two of them enough. I would also like to extend my thanks to Dr. Maxine Baca-Zinn, another dissertation committee member and one of my teachers. She taught me to appreciate and understand from a theoretical perspective the unique experiences of different race-gender groups. I would also like to extend my thanks to Dr. David L. Carter for serving on my dissertation committee. I am deeply indebted to the patrol officers of the Midwest Police Department for their cooperation in this research endeavor. Not only did they make this research project possible, but enjoyable as well. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS LIST OF TABLES ................................... LIST OF FIGURES ................................... INTRODUCTION .................................... CHAPTER I. THE PROBLEM OF POLICE OCCUPATIONAL DEVIANCE ................................. What is Police Occupational Deviance? ....................... The "Academic" Construction of Police Occupational Deviance . . . . The "Social" Construction of Police Occupational Deviance ...... Extent and Nature of Police Occupational Deviance ........... Alternate Explanations of Police OccupationaI Deviance ............. Opportunity Structure ............................. The Occupational Culture ........................... Occupational Socialization ........................... Individual Characteristics ........................... Gender ...................................... Race ........................................ Interactive Model: Intersections of Gender and Race .............. Conclusion ........................................ CHAPTER 11. REVIEW OF THE THEORY OF POLICE ORGANIZATION LITERATURE ................... Toward a Theory of the Social Organization of Police .............. Theory of the Social Organization of the Police .............. Patterns of Interpersonal Interaction ......................... Organizational Commitment .............................. Patterns of Interaction, Organizational Commitment, and Police Occupational Deviance ............................. Summary ......................................... vii PAGE xi 10 14 18 2O 22 24 27 28 31 34 35 38 38 39 43 45 51 52 TABLE OF CONTENTS (continued) CHAPTER III. RESEARCH PROPOSITIONS AND METHODOLOGY . . Propositions ........................................ Methodology ....................................... Research Procedures ................................... Site Selection .................................. Field Observations ............................... In-depth Interviews ................................... Confronting Problems in the Field .......................... Gender Issues in the Field ............................... CHAPTER IV. RESEARCH SETTING: MIDWEST CITY POLICE DEPARTMENT .............................. Characteristics of Midwest City ............................ Characteristics of Midwest Police Department ................... Descriptive Analysis of Sample Characteristics ................... Race-Gender Distribution ........................... Age of the Sample ............................... Number of Years in Policing ......................... Why Did You Choose to Enter into Law Enforcement? ......... Level of Education ............................... Previous Employment With Other Police Agencies ............ Residency: Are You Originally From the Local Area? .......... CHAPTER V. SPATIAL PARAMETERS AND PATTERNS OF INTERPERSONAL INTERACTION .................. The Dynamics of the Organization of the Midwest Police Department ..... Duties Performed Since Hired ........................ How Officers Get Their Assignments ..................... How Far in the Department Do You Think You Can Go? ........ Division of Space within the Police Organization ................. Women and Racial Minorities: Mediators of Space in the Police Organization ........................ On-Duty Patterns of Interpersonal Interaction ................... On-Duty Interactions: The Main Groups .................. Different Types of Interactions On-Duty .................. Frequency of Interactions On-Duty ..................... Segmentation of Race and Gender in On-Duty Patterns of Interaction .............................. viii PAGE 54 54 58 62 62 63 67 7 1 77 80 80 85 96 96 97 98 99 100 102 104 105 107 109 114 126 128 129 139 142 TABLE OF CONTENTS (continued) TITLE CHAPTER V. (Continued) Off-Duty Patterns of Interpersonal Interaction ................... Off-Duty Interactions: The Main Groups .................. Different Types of Off—Duty Interactions .................. Frequency of Interactions Off-Duty ..................... Segmentation of Race and Gender Groups in Off-Duty Patterns of Interaction ......................... Divisions of Race and Gender in Police Departments ............... The Reality of the Racial Division ...................... The Racial Division: Some Implications .................. The Reality of the Gender Division ..................... Summary ......................................... CHAPTER VI. OFFICER COMMITMENT TO THE ORGANIZATION . . The Effect of Interactions on Organizational Commitment ............ A Descriptive Interpretation of Organizational Commitment ........... Policing: A Job or a Career .......................... Committed or Not Committed? ........................ Strong Belief In and Acceptance of the Organization’s Goals and Values ............................ A Willingness to Exert Considerable Effort on Behalf of the Organization ............................ A Definite Desire to Maintain Organizational Membership ....... Summary ......................................... CHAPTER VII. POLICE OCCUPATIONAL DEVIANCE: CONDUCT UNBECOMING ...................... A Descriptive Interpretation of Ethics in Police Work .............. ”Good" Police Work versus "Bad" Police Work ............. A Descriptive Interpretation of the Patterns of Police Occupational Deviance in the Midwest Police Department ................ Occupational Deviance in the Midwest Police Department ....... Officers’ Responses to Deviant Activities by Fellow Patrol Officers ............................. Linkages Between Patterns of Interpersonal Interaction, Organizational Commitment and Attitudes Towards Occupational Deviance .............................. PAGE 155 163 167 169 175 176 184 187 194 195 196 198 198 202 218 225 233 242 245 246 260 260 294 TABLE OF CONTENTS (continued) TITLE CHAPTER VII. (Continued) Race and Gender: Do They Explain the Differences in Patrol Officers Attitudes Toward and Possible Propensity to Participate in Occupational Deviance ................ Model of the Linkages: How are the Variables Connected? ........... CHAPTER VIII. DISCUSSION AND POLICE IMPLICATIONS ...... Discussion ......................................... How to Promotes Cooperative Relations Between the Races and Genders ........................... How to Promotes Organizational Commitment .............. Police Occupational Deviance: Everything But Temptations ...... APPENDIX A: Interview Questions ........................ APPENDIX B. Letters ................................ LIST OF REFERENCES ................................ PAGE 306 308 311 311 316 TITLE 3-1. 4—2. 4-3. 4-4. 4-6. 4—7. 4-8. 4-9. 4-10. 4-11. LIST OF TABLES Midwest Police Department’s Total Patrol Bureau (Population) .................................. Midwest Police Department’s Total Patrol Bureau (Population) and Sample of Patrol Bureau ................ Midwest City Census Information: Income and Poverty ....... Annual Average Unemployment Rate for Midwest City (1989-1993) .................................. PAGE 63 65 83 84 Midwest Police Department Sworn Personnel for 1994: Raw Numbers and Percentages for Gender and Race by Rank ............... Midwest Police Department’s Total Sworn Personnel (1980-1994) . Assignments of Midwest Police Department’s Patrol Officers, 1993 Operational Expenditures for the Midwest Police Department and Total Expenditures by the Midwest City (Fiscal Year 1989 to 1993) ................................ Patrol Operations Costs (1989-1993) ................... Calls Dispatched and Calls Screened by the Midwest Police Department (1988-1993) .......................... Total Number of Part I Crimes for Midwest City (1988-1993) Total for Types of Part I Offenses (1988-1993) ............ Race-Gender Distribution of the Sample of Patrol Officers ..... Age Range for Four Race-Gender Groups of Patrol Officers Level of Seniority for Four Race-Gender Groups of Patrol Officers Why Did You Choose Law Enforcement? ................ Level of Education for Each Race-Gender Group ........... xi 87 88 90 91 91 93 94 95 96 97 98 100 101 LIST OF TABLES (continued) TITLE 5-1. How Far Do You Want to Go in Regard to Rank? .......... 5-2. Who Do You Interact With On-duty? Are They Mostly Men or Women? ............................... 5-3. Who Do You Interact With On-duty? Are They of a Particular Race or Culture? ........................ 5-4. Who Do You Interact With Off-duty? Are They Mostly Men or Women? ............................... 5-5. Who Do You Interact With Off-duty? Are They of a Particular Race or Culture? ........................ 5-6. Is There a Racial Division in the Midwest Police Department? . . . 5-7. Is There a Gender Division in the Midwest Police Department? 6-1. For You, is Policing anb or a Career? ................. 6-2. Do You Feel You Are Committed to the Department? ........ 6—3. Policing as a Job or a Career by Commitment to the Department . . 6-4. Do You Think Your Commitment to the Department Has Increased, Decreased, or Remained the Same Since You First Came to the Department? ...................... 6-5. Do You Find That Your Values and the Department’s Values are Similar? .................................. 6-6. Do You Find That Your Goals and the Department’s Goals are Similar? .................................. 6—7. Relationship Between Commitment and Whether Officers Share the Same Values or Goals as the Department .............. 6—8. Level of Effort Patrol Officers Exert to Make the Police Department Successful ........................... xii PAGE 116 149 150 171 172 I77 188 199 203 204 206 219 219 220 LIST OF TABLES (continued) TITLE 6-9. Does the Department Inspire the Very Best in You in the Way of Job Performance? ............................ 6-10. Do You Feel This is the Best of All Possible Departments to Work For? .................................. 6-11. Is There Much to be Gained by Sticking With the Department Indefinitely? ................................. 6—12. Would You Accept Almost Any Type of Job Assignment in Order to Keep Working for this Department? ................. 6-13. Whether Officers Will Take Any Job Assignment In Order to Continue Working for the Department by Whether an Officer Sees Policing as a Job or a Career ....................... 6-14. Are You Glad that You Choose This Department to Work for Over Others You Were Considering at the Time You Joined? . . . . 6-15. Do You Feel Your Decision to Work for this Department was a Mistake on Your Part? .......................... 6-16. Could You Just as Well be Working For a Different Police Department? ................................. 7-1. Tell Me What You do to Help Yourself Respond to Conduct by Coworkers That You See as Deviant? .................. xiii 239 LIST OF FIGURES FIGURE PAGE 5-1. The Roll Call Room ............................. 126 5-2. On-Duty: Primary and Secondary Patterns of Interpersonal Interaction ................................... 153 5-3. Off-Duty: Primary and Secondary Patterns of Interpersonal Interaction ................................... 173 7-1. Level of Organizational Commitment and the Types of Deviant Activities Patrol Officers Engage In ......................... 301 8-1. Model of the Linkages between the Variables ............. 309 xiv INTRODUCTION The purpose of this dissertation is threefold. First, it examines how the police occupational culture shapes patterns of interpersonal interaction between patrol officers, and how those interactions vary with the gender and race of the officer. Second, it examines how patterns of interpersonal interaction affect patrol officers’ commitment to the police organization, and how levels of organizational commitment vary with the race and gender of the officer. Third, it demonstrates how patterns of interpersonal interaction and level of organizational commitment shape patrol officers’ attitudes toward occupational deviance, and how race and gender of the officer affects their attitudes toward and propensity to participate in occupational deviant activities (e.g., police misconduct and corruption). Other potential independent variables that are examined (which may be predictive of officers attitudes toward police occupational deviance) include the various background characteristics of officers that research suggests may be relevant to the determination of work-related attitudes and deviance. The literature on police deviance is diverse. Studies conducted within different police organizations have considered not only the various factors that influence police occupational deviance, but also the extent and support for various forms of occupational deviance within the police organization. Despite the generally 2 abundant literature on police attitudes and behavior (discussed in the literature section), there are no studies that examine how the police organizational culture shapes patrol officers’ patterns of interpersonal interaction and organizational commitment, and how both patterns of interpersonal interaction and organizational commitment shape officers’ attitudes toward occupational deviance. Also, prior research does not put race and gender at the center of study. This study is unique in that it places race and gender at the center of study and analyses, to examine how race and gender affect both patterns of interpersonal interaction, organizational commitment, and attitudes toward and propensity to participate in occupational deviance. This study is being undertaken because of the theoretical and practical importance of conducting a specialized study of police occupational deviance, including a comparison between gender and raciaI groupings of officers. The dissertation is based upon the premise that there will be a substantial variance between the different gender and racial groupings in their participation in the police culture(s), patterns of interpersonal interaction, level of commitment to the organization, and attitudes toward various forms of police occupational deviance. The tasks are to determine how much of a variance exists between the different race and gender groupings on each of the variables, and to what extent attitudes toward and propensity to participate in occupational deviant activities can be explained by patterns of interaction and level of organizatiOnal commitment. The qualitative research methods utilized in this research project include field observations and on-site interviews. Such methods allowed me to observe how 3 officers of different races and genders experience the police organization and culture, how patterns of interpersonal interaction develop and vary Within the police occupational culture, what commitment to the organization and policing means to patrol officers, and officer’s attitudes toward and propensity to participate in various forms and degrees of occupational deviance (i.e., police misconduct and corruption). Because it is possible that the concept of police occupational deviance and the factors causing it might vary by race and gender, observations and data were compared between and across the different gender and race groupings. To determine which factors are the best predictors of variations of officers’ attitudes towards occupational deviance, varying measurements that contrast the importance of subjective impression with objective factors (officer background and inclusion and participation in the occupational culture) were developed. In sum, I undertake a socio-structural analysis of the police organizational and occupational cultures in order to contribute both to the sociological understanding of organizations and to theories of the social organization of policing. I examine patrol officers constructions of images and facts about their patterns of interpersonal interaction, organizational commitment and occupational deviance. In Chapter I, "The Problem of Occupational Deviance", I define police occupational deviance, identify the extent and nature of police occupational deviance, and explain why the causes of police occupational deviance are worthy of study. In Chapter II, I introduce a theory of social organization of policing that recognizes diversity and variation in the police occupational culture; diversity and variation that exists in patrol officers’ patterns of interpersonal interaction, level of organizational 4 commitment, and attitudes toward police occupational deviance. In chapter III, "Research Propositions and Methodology", I describe the research propositions, and the research design and procedures. Chapter IV considers the external environment (i.e., Midwest City) and the internal occupational environment of patrol work. I provide descriptive data of sample patrol officer’s demographic and attitudinal characteristics. In subsequent chapters, I examine Specific attitudes of patrol officers and explore the influences and accounts which form these attitudes. Chapter V focuses on the division of space and patterns of interpersonal interaction in the police occupational culture, as they develop along race-gender lines; chapter VI includes an analysis of the variation in patrol officer’s levels of organizational commitment; and in chapter VII, I study the variation and diversity in patrol officers attitudes toward occupational deviance. In chapter VIII, I return to the general issues discussed in the previous chapters. I examine, in light of previously discussed empirical findings, the relationship between each of the variables and advance the development of a theory of social organization of police that promotes diversity and variation in the police occupational culture. I also examine several policy implications of the research findings. CHAPTER I THE PROBLEM OF POLICE OCCUPATIONAL DEVIANCE What is Police Occupational Deviance? An inquiry into "police occupational deviance" appropriately begins with a search for a working definition of police occupational deviance. Much of the controversy in the literature on police occupational deviance is centered on how to define police corruption and misconduct. On the one hand, researchers such as Barker and Carter (1986, 1990), Lynch and Diamond (1983), and Plitt (1983) have applied an "academic" construction of police deviance that coincides very closely with the formal definitions of misconduct and corruption that are outlined within the formal rules and regulations of police organizations. On the other hand, scholars and researchers such as Manning (1977) and Punch (1985) contend that police occupational deviance is "socially" constructed within the police organization’s occupational culture. According to Manning (1994), police occupational deviance remains to be a "Slippery concept," difficult to define and measure, because it exists alongside legitimate organizational activities, and frequently functions to advance organizational goals. The debate between scholars that adopt an "academic” construction and those that adopt a "social" construction definition of police deviance is played out in the following sections in the effort to develop a working definition of police occupational deviance. 6 The "Academic" Construction of Police Occupational Deviance In Barker and Carter’s first (1986) and second editions (1990) of Police Deviance the editors grapple with the diversity of deviant police behavior, including developing an understanding of both the functional and causal dynamics of corruption, misconduct, use of force, and lying and deception. They conceptualized these behaviors into a concise, comprehensible typology, and evaluated the ramifications of these behaviors on the police organization. Barker and Carter (1990, p. 4) contend that "police deviance is simply a generic description of police officer activities which are inconsistent with the officers’ official authority, organizational authority, values, and standards of ethical conduct (which are usually implied, rather than stated)" Plitt (1983) cited additional behaviors that he considered to be different possible types of police deviant behavior: abuse of sick leave, failure to complete reports, failure to obey a direct order, failure to enforce traffic laws, perjury, recommending an attorney to an accident victim, lying about the drug use of a friend, failure to investigate a crime when off-duty, misuse of firearms, commission of a crime, accepting gratuities, unauthorized release of police records, threatening another police officer, unexcused absences from work, falsifying overtime records, use of excessive force, failure to report misconduct of fellow officers, unacceptable job performance, failure to inventory confiscated property, use of offensive language, Sleeping on duty, cheating on a promotional examination, sexual improprieties with co-workers or citizens, off-duty drunkenness, excessive parking tickets, patronizing a bar while on sick leave, leaving duty to conduct personal business, refusing to take a polygraph exam, inappropriate use of firearm off-duty. 7 Barker and Carter (1986, 1990) divided police deviance into two categories: occupational deviance and abuse of authority (see Figure 1-1). As mentioned above, this study focuses exclusively on occupational deviance; therefore, abuse of authority will not be discussed here. Drawing on Barker’s (1977) earlier work, Barker and Carter (1990) define police occupational deviance as "the deviant behavior--criminal and non-criminal--committed during the course of normal work activities or committed under the guise of the police officer’s authority (p. 6)." According to Barker and Carter (1990, p. 6) there are two subcategories of occupational deviance, police misconduct and police corruption, both specifically apply to the officer’s role as an employee rather than to the practice of policing, per se. Barker and Carter (1990) defined police misconduct as behavior which is related to the violation of organizational standards, policies, procedures, rules and regulations. Likewise, Lynch and Diamond (1983) define police misconduct as police officers’ violations of (a) formally written normative rules, (b) traditional operating procedures, (c) regulations and procedures of both the police and other public service agencies, and (d) the criminal and civil laws. Geller (1984) classified police misconduct in a broader context, including brutality, harassment, corruption, violation of constitutional rights, and the failure to take required or appropriate action. There are many examples of police misconduct-~for example, sleeping on duty, failing to complete reports, and misuse of firearms (Barker & Carter, 1990). One of the most common and controversial forms of police misconduct is the acceptance of gratuities. A gratuity is accepting something of value, such as coffee, meals, discount buying privileges, free admission to athletic or recreational events or movies, gifts, small 8 rewards, or any item of value (Roberg & Kuykendall, 1993, p. 187). The acceptance of gratuities is a common practice in many police departments across the United States despite the explicit policies police departments have that preclude accepting gratuities. Roberg and Kuykendall (1993) contend that such policies are frequently ignored by officers because police managers, if they consider it to be a problem at all, think it is minor. However, the International Association of Chiefs of Police considers this practice to be professionally unethical. Some police experts go so far as to believe that accepting gratuities is the first step on a developmental ladder that may lead to more serious forms of abuse of police authority, which creates an organizational climate that may result in the development of more serious problems with police corruption (Sherman, 1985, p. 259). Experts debate: if an officer accepts free meals and then gives the restaurant owner or employee a warning instead of a traffic violation, is that equivalent to accepting a payment of money to allow a sale of illegal drugs to take place? While both are abuses of police authority, only one is illegal--accepting money to allow the drug sale to take place (Barker & Carter, 1990). The fact is that many police officers are given gratuities, and regardless of the motivation of the person who provides the gratuity, the very act sets the police apart from the rest of the community. Even more so, if enough officers Share the view that accepting gratuities is the norm, the organizational culture can easily become tolerant of other minor deviant acts, and even more serious types of problems will develop. Thus, the problem is not the gratuity itself, rather it is the attitude about what is and is not appropriate police behavior (Roberg & Kuykendall, 1993). 9 The second subcategory of occupational deviance that Barker and Carter (1990) identify is police corruption. Within the writing on police corruption, a wide variety of definitions and conceptualizations have been used. Barker and Carter (1990, p. 5) maintained that the definitions of corruption are influenced by the values and orientations of the researcher, the reactive measures of officers in their research projects, police department policy definitions, and criminal statutes dealing with corruption as an offense. Barker (1977) identified police corruption as but one form of police occupational deviance--a particularly unique and serious form of misconduct that is committed during the course of normal work activities or under the guise of the police officer’s authority. Likewise, Goldtsein (1977, p. 188) viewed police corruption as "the misuse of authority by a police officer in a manner designed to produce personal gain for the officer or for others". The broadest definition of police corruption is any forbidden act which involves the misuse of the officer’s official position for actual or expected material reward or gain (Barker & Roebuck, 1973). Much of the controversy in the literature on police corruption is centered on how to define police corruption and where to draw the line which divides corrupt behavior from non-corrupt behavior (Barker & Roebuck, 1973; Barker & Carter, 1986, 1990). Is accepting a free cup of coffee or a free meal corruption? If not, does the expectation of reciprocity by the business person who provides that free cup of coffee or free meal to the officer make it corruption? Is it corrupt for an officer to give the money taken off a street drug dealer to an unknown kid passing by on the street? These questions have long been debated and are not easily resolved. 10 According to Carter and Stephens (1990, p. 102), police corruption is usually a series of minor acts of misconduct which may be tacitly condoned and grow into a pervasive pattern of actions for personal gain. Barker and Carter (1990, p. 6) contend that no matter what variations in the wording are used to define corruption, corrupt acts contain three elements: (a) they are forbidden by law, regulation, or ethical standard; (b) they involve the misuse of the officer’s position, in circumstances which are or are not drug-related; and (c) they involve some actual or expected material reward or gain that can be in the form of money, goods, drugs, services, and/or discounts. The "Social" Construction of Police Deviance Scholars and researchers such as Manning (1977), Punch (1985) and Sherman (1974) explore the values, beliefs, and norms of the police organization and its occupational culture to demonstrate that deviance is constructed within the police organization’s occupational culture. Day-in and day-out police officers negotiate and violate internal rules and regulations of the organization in order to manage the police job or to perform specific police duties (Manning, 1977; Punch, 1985; Skolnick, 1966). Even more important, Punch (1985) indicated that the demands made on the police are so ambiguous and conflicting, based on a set of legal laws and rules and regulations that are laid out in training but that often do not work in practice. Under such circumstances, police officers are expected to negotiate and violate internal rules and regulations in order to manage the police job or to perform specific police duties (Manning, 1977; Punch, 1985; Skolnick, 1966). This leads to an atmOsphere of deception and dishonesty and the use of methods bordering on 11 "trickery and stealth" (Punch, 1985). Both Ditton (1977) and Henry (1978) analyzed how people engage in "part- time crime" (i.e. occupational crime at work which is tolerated and legitimated within certain limits), but manage to maintain an image of themselves as non-deviant. This often takes place through processes of defining, rationalizing, and justifying certain forms of deviance as a part of the normal, everyday conduct which is acceptable and/or harmless. In a systematic study of patrolmen in three American cities, Reiss (1971) came to the conclusion that, "During any year a substantial minority of all police officers violate the criminal law, a majority misbehave towards citizens in an encounter, and most engage in serious violations of the rules and regulations of the department" (Punch, 1985). The work of Reiss (1971), as well as Punch (1985) revealed the extent to which rule-breaking is commonly accepted in police organizations. Punch’s basic proposition was that there is not one but many analytical types of police deviance, and some types of occupationally deviant activities are designed to enhance the effectiveness of the organization and law enforcement. In an effort to overcome some of the difficulties of defining police deviance, Punch (1985) and Manning (1977) advanced a closer examination of the intentions of deviant practices. When the focus is Shifted to the intentions, researchers encounter an extremely wide range of activities that may be carried out for a multiplicity of motives. This approach assists in categorizing or developing the spectrum to include ’ordinary,’ ’normal,’ and ’day-to-day’ deviance--which may also involve lying, deception, violence, and management of appearances--to the criminal 12 activities which tend to dominate the literature (Punch, 1985, p. 11)." Using this approach, Punch (1985, pp. 11-12) identified four types of general deviance in police organizations. These included: 1. Work avoidance and work manipulation. These include "skiving" (e.g., overlooking a crime that occurs at the end of the shift in order to avoid extra paper work and overtime, turning off the personal radio while out of the car, extending lunch/dinner time beyond 45 minutes in an 8 hour shift, or reporting in as sick when not), "cooping" (sleeping on the job), "gimmicks" (ways of obtaining legitimate days off with pay, getting time off to attend court or training, or to participate in a special function), and "easing" (a job that allows them to take it easy, to be out of sight, to enjoy the comfort of the station--especially on rainy or cold days) (Manning, 1977, pp. 151-55). These are relatively routine practices--activities that are designed to make work or working conditions more comfortable and acceptable. In police circles they may even be seen as partially accepted ways of avoiding the rigors of patrol work or of keeping up the officers’ morale (Punch, 1985, p. 11). 2. Employee deviance--against the organization. This includes pilfering, sabotage (refusing to write tickets), absenteeism (the "blue flue"), and neglect (Rubenstien, 1973). These are ways that employees undermine the goals of the organization or strike back at the organization for numerous reasons. These forms of deviance are often, but not exclusively, confined to the lower levels of the organization, and are seen as negative and damaging by administration (Punch, 1985). 3. Employee deviance--for the organization. This includes bending rules to achieve quotas, cutting administrative corners, ’flaking’ and ’padding’ (e.g., lying, 13 planting of, or adding to, evidence--particularly in drug cases), and making informal deals to bypass formal obstacles. These activities consist of the ways in which people try to get their jobs done, frequently with the intention of promoting organizational ends and effectiveness, but which deviate from the formal rules and regulations. Often these deviations are seen as minor and unavoidable, but they may involve the development of an informal system that promotes neglect, inefficiency, incompetence, conspiracy, and even crime (Punch, 1985). 4. Informal reward. On a day-to-day basis, police officers also seek a number of compensations which have traditionally been an integral aspect of the job. These compensation include perks, fiddling, private telephone calls, tipping, discounts, services, and presents (Punch, 1985; Manning, 1977; Rubenstien, 1973). Some organizations provide for or condone informal rewards which may increase as one moves up the organization’s hierarchical structure. These rewards may be widespread, but are rarely acknowledged (Punch, 1985). These four general types of police deviance reveal that there are many deviant police practices that occur in the daily organizational and occupational life of policing, and successful achievement of organizational goals through unlawful conduct tends to reinforce the occurrence of so-labeled deviant behavior. In the continual achievement of organizational goals, unlawful behavior may receive structural and normative support, and officers may face minimal risk of detection and sanction‘. 1 The degree to which an organization experiences pressures to act unlawfully, and the ability and willingness of members to act illegally in the organization’s behalf may vary by subunit, by position in the information system, time, and the weighing of rewards and punishments (Manning, 1977; Punch, 1985). 14 So what society defines as illegal may actually come to be defined within the organization and the occupation as acceptable practice, normative and nondeviant (Manning, 1977; Punch, 1985; Vaughan, 1983). However, these same factors create a realm in which individuals may engage in misconduct and corruption that is in their own interest, separate and distinct from the interests of the organization. Too often, "academic" constructions of police deviance do not give close consideration to the intentions of deviant practices, or to the fact that in the course of a day a police officers will pass through innumerable setting where the rules of one will not be the rules of another (Downes & Rock, 1988, p. 176; Punch, 1985). Thus, thinking about police occupational deviance from a "social" constructionist perspective, thinking in terms of the social, structural and political pressures to engage in unlawful behavior to achieve success or to meet organizational goals explains a great deal about the phenomenon of police deviance (Vaughan, 1983, p. 68). In keeping with the objectives of the research, which includes focusing on the social organization of the police occupational culture, I agree with Manning and Punch that researchers need to explore the way in which police occupational deviance is "socially" constructed within the police occupational culture. _E_xtent and Nature of Police Occupational Deviance A review of the literature related to police deviance, including literature and research that relies on "academic constructions" and "social constructions" of police deviance, reveals that the main problem with determining the extent (frequency) and 15 nature of police engagement in occupational deviance is that deviant behavior is difficult to study. Rarely are people willing to admit to or even reveal the inappropriate behavior in which they engage. In 1973, the Knapp Commission, through the use of undercover surveillance, uncovered widespread corruption in the New York City Police Department. The corruption took various forms (including accepting gratuities and payoffs) depending upon the activity involved (i.e., gambling, drugs, prostitution), appearing at its most sophisticated among plainclothesmen assigned to enforcing gambling laws. Corruption in the narcotics area was less organized but also extensive; many of the payments came from "shakedowns" of narcotic dealers. Uniformed patrol officers participated in small gambling "pads" and often collected money from construction sites, bars, grocery stores, parking lots, and other business establishments. Patrol officers could also get money from traffic violators, tow truck drivers, prostitutes, and defendants who wanted court cases "fixed." Ranking officers, sergeants, lieutenants and others above this level also participated in corrupt activities, but the evidence concerning these officers was more difficult to obtain (Knapp Commission, 1973). What the Knapp Commission did was divide corrupt police officers into two types: "grass-eaters" and "meat-eaters." The "meat-eater" is the officer who aggressively seeks out the corruption opportunities, while the "grass-eater" is less aggressive but will accept payoffs if they come his or her way. The Commission investigated so many grass-eaters that it made the acceptance of payoffs seem respectable. The Commission noted that it was easier for a new officer to become corrupt than to remain honest because corrupt behavior was so widely practiced that 16 dishonesty was a "norm" of the department. In one of the early empirical studies of patterns of police deviance (defined in this study as rule or norm violating behavior, i.e., perjury, brutality, sex on duty, sleeping on duty, drinking on duty) Barker (1977) measured the perceived extent and peer support for five patterns of police deviance. Perceived peer support for each pattern of police deviance was measured in two ways: on the basis of "wrongness" and on the basis of how often police officers in the department would report another police officer for engaging in the various forms of behavior. What Barker uncovered in one southern police organization was that the extent of each deviant pattern was almost a direct function of how "wrong" the police peer group perceived the act to be and the perception of how often the men thought it would be reported. In a later study, Barker and Wells (1982) surveyed 115 police administrators in a southern state to determine their attitudes toward the definition and control of two forms of police occupational deviance, police corruption and misconduct. The researcher found that a significant number of police agencies had no formal departmental rules and regulations, and those who had rules and regulations did not specifically mention the patterns of police deviance. Also, the manner in which chiefs reported they would react to police corruption and misconduct was through in- house or departmental action, in efforts to keep the activities secret or to keep the "lid on" a serious problem. Barker and Wells associate such reactions to the scandal- reform-scandal syndrome observed in many police organizations. Much of the recent research on police occupational deviance has shifted toward an examination of police drug corruption. The drug problem that began in 17 the 1960s has significantly increased the opportunities for drug-related police occupational deviance (Carter and Stephens, 1990; Dombrink, 1988; Haarr, 1993; Langer, 1986a, 1986b). The contemporary illicit drug market--characterized by widespread availability of illicit drugs, abundant cocaine and crack consumption, and large amounts of money--has changed the nature of police con'uption. Police corruption has taken on more "nontraditional" forms as police have been exposed to increased opportunities and temptations (Carter, 1990; Dombrink, 1988; Haarr, 1993). "Drugs-for-money" transactions, drug usage and drug dealing, and excessive use of violence by police officers are primary examples of corrupt practices occurring in United States police departments (including New York City PD, Flint, Michigan PD, Detroit, Michigan PD, MI, and Miami, Florida PD, as well as the lesser known cases in a number of other cities). The most recent phenomenon police departments have witnessed is abuse of illicit drugs by police officers. Recreational drug use (i.e., drug use that does not involve corruption, and where use is initially a product of the desire to experience exhilaration, psychoactive effects, and/or mood changes associated with drug use) is a significant issue because of the greater numbers of officers apparently involved in this form of use (Carter & Stephens, 1990). In a one Shot case study, Kraska and Kappeler (1987), through the use of unstructured self-report interviews, departmental records, and research observations, found that in one southwestern police department of about 50 officers, 20% of the officers in the department used marijuana twice a month or more while on-duty. Another 4% had used marijuana at least once while on-duty, and 10% of the officers reported they had used non-prescribed controlled 18 substances (defined as including hallucinogens, stimulants, or barbiturates) while on- duty. Despite some methodological limitations of the study discussed by Kraska and Kappeler, Carter and Stephens (1990) maintained that the implications of drug abuse by police officers (both on-duty and off-duty) are such that a serious problem exists. While no published research exists to specifically document the extent of substance abuse by police officers, it does appear that only a small portion of the problem is actually visible. New forms of police occupational deviance associated with the illicit international drug trade are emerging. Covert trafficking of drugs by police officers is just one example of this new form of police occupational deviance, as indicated by the publicized investigations in New York City, New York and Miami, Florida (Carter & Stephens, 1990; Dombrink, 1988; Haarr, 1993). Other growing symptoms of this form of "nontraditional" police corruption are increased violence by officers, including murder, extortion, and brutal assaults. Currently, very little is known about these more recent "nontraditional" forms of police corruption; however, it is evident that these forms of occupational deviance exist and are widespread. Despite the fact that police occupational deviance is not simply defined or studied, given the pervasiveness of police occupational deviance I want to study the social context of police occupational deviance as it exists and is defined within the patrol occupational culture. Alternate Explanations of Police Occupational Deviance This section identifies the various types of causative factors to police occupational deviance, including those factors that have been examined in previous 19 studies and those that remain unexamined. Four elements important to understanding the etiology of occupational deviance include: (a) The opportunity structure and its accompanying techniques of rule violations; (b) the occupational culture (i.e., participation in, commitment to and reinforcement and encouragement from the occupational peer group); (c) socialization of police officers; and ((1) characteristics of the individual officer (pertaining primarily to the race, gender, and rank of officers and the effects upon overall level of commitment to the organization and attitudes toward occupational deviance). It should initially be noted that no research was found that studied how race and gender as independent variables affect employee’s attitudes toward occupational deviance. Therefore, literature in other areas has been used to illustrate the importance of race and gender as predictor variables. Police occupational deviance has been studied in efforts to identify the factors that influence police corruption and misconduct (Dombrink, 1988; Haarr, 1993; Knapp Commission, 1973; Langer, 1986a, 1986b; Sherman, 1974), to develop a typology of police occupational deviance (Barker & Roebuck, 1973; Barker & Carter, 1986, 1990), and to examine the extent and support for police occupational deviance (Barker, 1977). Many theoretical perspectives have been examined and developed, including: (a) The occupational setting and its opportunity structure provide the police officer with ample opportunity for participation in a wide range of deviant activities; and (b) the peer group indoctrinates and socializes the rookie into the occupational culture in which patterns of acceptable corrupt activities are engaged. The practical reason for making the connection between the occupational culture, 20 occupational socialization, and occupational deviance has been to enable police administrators to move toward controlling occupational deviance. It was not until the late 19605 and early 1970s that researchers such as F ogelson (1977), Rubenstien (1972), Smith (1965) and Westley (1970) began to make a systematic study of the phenomenon of police occupational deviance--specifically police corruption. One reason for neglect of the phenomenon prior to the late 19603 is that criminologists were indifferent to the study of law enforcement agencies, and sociologists who investigated law enforcement agencies concentrated their efforts in areas of occupational performance of the police role, police systems organization, and police community relations (Gunether, 1970). Opportunity Structure Structural theories of police occupational deviance advanced by Clinard and Quinney (1967), the Knapp Commission (1973), Sherman (1974), Manning and Redlinger (1977), and Barker (1977) related the occupational setting and its accompanying opportunity structure to the occurrence of police occupational deviance. One thesis set forth was that the occupational structure provides the police officer with more than ample opportunity to engage in a wide range of deviant activities. Barker (1977) observed that the opportunity structure provides the police with many situations to observe and/or participate in a wide range of activities. During the normal work routine, under conditions of little or no supervision, the police come in contact with a variety of deviant actors, many of whom are willing to pay considerable sums of money to avoid arrest (Knapp Commission, 1973). 21 The Knapp Commission (1973) found that the police officers’ position as regulators of vice activities presents them with the opportunity to collect systematic and regular payoffs from illegal operators. Even during routine investigative duties, officers have the opportunity to take items from burglary scenes and unsecured businesses on the pretext of looking for a name and number to call and notify of a disturbance at the business. Sherman (1974) identified the various aspects of the police role that make corruption and police deviance possible. These aspects include: the extraordinary discretion inherent in police work, the code of secrecy inherent in the police subculture, police managers’ membership in the police subculture (sharing in the code of secrecy and loyalty), and the perceived low status (low pay) of the police occupation. All of these factors inherent to policing combine to create an opportunity structure that is favorable to corruption and deviance. In the area of "victimless crimes," Manning and Redlinger (1977) used the term "grey area" of law enforcement to describe the position of narcotic officers, who possess significant amount of discretionary power in what are primarily police- invoked actions (i.e., whatever action is taken comes about through his or her own initiative). Manning and Redlinger concluded that many forms of police corruption come about through vice enforcement as a result of the significant amount of discretionary power, the internally and externally generated pressures on police to produce visible evidence of their activity and achievements, and the conflicts of organizational strategies and tactics. Increasingly, studies have arrived at consistent findings that the concepts of police occupational deviance and the occupational opportunity structure are linked (Carter and Stephens, 1990; Dombrink, 1988; Haarr, 22 1993; Langer 1986a, 1986b). The Occgtgrtional Culture A second approach to the explanation of occupational deviance is based on the occupational culture. Manning (1987) defined occupational culture as: "that is shaped by and shapes the socially relevant worlds of the occupation. Occupational cultures contain accepted practices, rules, and principles of conduct that are situationally applied, and generalized rationales and beliefs...(such) cultures highlight selectively the contours of an environment, granting meaning to some facts and not others, and linking modes of seeing, doing, and believing (p. 360)." According to Manning (1993), the occupational culture is a product of both social structure and the evolution of the police organization; it shapes how people think, feel, and act within an occupational field. It also produces a set of attitudes and an explanatory structure of belief or ideology. Westley (1953, 1970), in the first American social science study of the police, relied on the police culture as a primary explanatory concept. Westley found that because the police perceive the public as violent, nonsupportive, and not to be trusted, the occupational culture emphasizes themes of self-protection in the forms of secrecy, in-group solidarity, violence, and maintenance of respect for officers (Manning, 1987). Rubenstein (1972) and Skolnick (1966) echoed Westley’s themes of violence, secrecy, distrust, and dependency among American urban police. In a detailed ethnography, Rubenstein identified the tactics of the urban police--the lies, the violence, the deception, and self-deception--and the importance of the organizational culture in shaping police behavior (see Manning, 1987). Skolnick posed a 23 contradiction between features of the occupational culture and the resultant ’working personality.’ Manning’s (1977, 1987) view of the police occupational culture rests on the proposition that life is uncertain. For Manning, it is the uncertainty of police work, as well as the need to control information to sustain public fronts, that increases police teamwork and in turn creates unity, in-group solidarity, and secrecy. In m 91mg (1980), Manning illustrated the occupational culture and exposed the degree to which it can be in conflict with the organization’s strategies and tactics for narcotics enforcement. Manning’s (1987, p. 362) work presented the occupational culture as it stands in a dialectical relationship to the law, the organization, and other aspects of the social structure (i.e., race, class, sex, age). On the one hand, the occupational culture mediates the environment; and on the other, it mediates actions. To Manning, the occupational culture becomes a kind of symbolic mediator. In his most recent work, Manning (1993, p. 9) drew upon Erickson’s (1976) work to argue that diversity, variation, and contrast is built into the police occupational culture. Unfortunately, virtually no other work on the police occupational culture reflects this notion of diversity or variation in values (Fielding, 1988); rather, research on the police occupational culture and its subcultures is disproportionately influenced by only a few dozen studies of American or English patrol officers in large urban areas (Manning, 1993). Even more important, to date no systematic study has been carried out on the actual cultural continuum that exists within policing. 24 Occupational Socialization A third approach to the explanation of occupational deviance involves an inquiry into the socialization of police officers through common occupational experiences. This concept should be recognized as being connected to the occupational culture. It has been proposed that a typical police organization represents a form of social organization in which a continuing collectivity of individuals share a significant activity (police duties); the individuals have a history of continuing interaction based on that activity; they acquire a major portion of their identity from the closeness of this interaction (police solidarity); and they Share special norms and values (Barker, 1977; Bennett, 1984; Fielding, 1988; Van Maanen, 1977). In short, Skolnick (1966), Strecher (1967), and Barker (1977) maintain that most police organizations possess the qualities of a subculture, with subcultural mechanisms of informal control through occupational socialization. A number of authors have conducted studies which support the theory of occupational socialization of police officers (i.e., that officers learn on the job from other officers about what is important and what is not, and how to respond). Westley (1953, 1970) was the first to identify the importance of socialization as a significant factor in police behavior (i.e., that "old timers" indoctrinated "rookies" into policing). Westley’s research and analysis underscores the importance of in-group solidarity, or closeness among officers, which results from a perception that the public cannot be trusted. This in-group solidarity can result in the development of a "code of silence" in which officers will not even discuss inappropriate police behavior, and may actually lie about such behavior in order to protect another officer. 25 Skolnick (1966) and Rubenstein (1972) echoed Westley’s themes of social isolation of the police from the community and in-group solidarity. Skolnick found it is because of the social isolation and withdrawal into their own group for support and approval that police officers become subject to intense subcultural, peer group mechanisms of influence and informal control. Rubenstein’s ethnography detailed the importance of an officer’s environment as a critical factor in police behavior, including how officers learn from other officers what is important and what is not, the types of situations and people that are potentially dangerous and, more importantly, what to do in responding to these types of situations and people. Rubenstein provided support for the socialization theory of police behavior. Since the writings of Westley (1953) and Skolnick (1966), researchers have continually documented the existence of an occupationally located police "working personality"--a unique set of attitudinal and behavioral expectations or working norms that are learned through a pattern of organizational and subcultural influence or socialization process. One socialization hypothesis focuses upon both the structure of the occupation and the process by which recruits are drawn from the general public and become experienced officers with a police "personality" (Balch, 1972; Skolnick, 1966; Van Maanen, 1975; Westley, 1970). In a longitudinal study of police recruits, Van Maanen (1975) documented changes in the attitudes of police recruits moving through the series of experiences associated with their early careers. The analysis concentrated on the motivation, commitment, and need satisfaction of patrol officers. Findings indicated that recruits entered the department highly motivated and committed to their newly-adopted organization; however, over time their 26 motivational and commitment attitudes tended to decline. Although the particulars of these findings varied somewhat from department to department, the general findings were most useful to begin a general theory of organizational socialization. Neiderhoffer (1967), on the other hand, attempted to determine how police officers’ "working personality" changed as a result of their police experiences through four stages of development--commitment, frustration, disenchantment, and cynicism. Neiderhoffer’s research has been controversial since it was first published because of criticism regarding the validity of the questionnaire he used to measure cynicism (Roberg & Kuykendall, 1993); nevertheless, this research remains important because it contributed to the development of the socialization theory of police behavior, and it underscored the importance of the changes that take place in the attitudes and values of individuals in law enforcement (Roberg & Kuykendall, 1993). In a 1971 study, Savitz applied the theory of occupational socialization in a longitudinal analysis of recruits permissiveness toward police corruption at three different time periods. Findings revealed that the more the recruits progressed in the work group the more permissive toward corrupt police conduct they became. Savitz concluded that once patterns of corrupt conduct become entrenched in a police organization, they may be passed from one generation of officers to the next through occupational socialization (Barker, 1977). On the one hand, Skolnick (1966), Neiderhoffer (1967), and others argued that the organization’s demands and the nature of the occupation lead to the uniqueness that has been observed by researchers; and on the other hand, Van Maanen (1975) maintained that motivation, commitment, and need satisfaction 27 determine an individual officer’s attitudinal orientation. These theories of organizational socialization basically relate processes by which an organizational mem ber learns the required behaviors and supportive attitudes necessary to participate as a member of an organization and applies them to the wide range of large 1' organizationally relevant attitudes and behaviors (Manning, 1970; Schein, 1968; Van Maanen, 1975, 1976, 1977). While previous studies have found support for a theory of occupational socialization in the development of a police "working personality" and occupational deviance, other researchers have suggested the limited influence of occupational socialization to officers. Fielding (1988) and Manning (1993) identified a cultural continuum of diversity and contrast within the police occupational and organizational culture (i.e. differential group organization and association), which provided varying SOCialization experiences in which varying police subgroups can emerge. Individual Charactcfl'stics The final element of importance to an understanding of occupational deviance is the individual differences between officers (e.g., officer’s race and/or gender, the rank of the officer, and the number of years the officer has been on the force). Fielding (1988) maintained that the formal and informal models of socialization into occupations remain only partial unless account is taken of the individual differences between recruits (demographic and biographical variations), individuals’ mediation 0f SOCializing influences, and individuals’ attempts to make their own sense of their experience and make adaptations to construct an organizational reality special to 28 themselves from these various sources of influence. "Research data reveals the flexibility of recruits and their ability to resist as well as embrace the influences arising from formal and informal sources" (Fielding, 1988, p. 9; Reuss-Ianni, 1983). "Although all officers are members of the ’police fraternity,’ the occupation is increasingly composed of a small percentage of minority, female and ethnically diverse people . . . (whose) life styles and ambitions differ significantly across and within the three segments" (Manning, 1993, p. 15). Both Manning (1993) and Fielding (1988) agree that individual officers remain the mediator of socializing influences, they make their own adaptations, and construct an organizational reality. Two mediating variables-race and gender-~have been proposed and analyzed in subsequent literature. The hypothesized influence of gender and race as mediating Variables rests in the existing predictions about gender and race and attitudes derived from theory about gender and race differences and occupational socialization. W Pressure to hire female police officers in the 19708 encouraged considerable inte rest in the study of gender differences; however, much of the research focused on behavior rather than on attitudes. Despite the fact that study after study has reve aled no consistent differences in the quality of men’s and women’s performance on the street (Bloch & Anderson, 1974; Morash & Green, 1986; Price, 1974; ShelThan, 1975, Townsey, 1982), many police officers, supervisors, and scholars, “eVe-rtheless, believe that men and women bring to the job differences in attitudes, val“es, and perceptions that influence the way they do their work. Unfortunately, the 29 attitudinal differences attributed to gender remain only partially specified in the literature (e.g., in officers’ definition of the police role, their perceptions of citizens, and their attitudes toward their work and colleagues). Martin’s (1980) pioneering study on the first large cohort of policewomen in Washington, DC. is an in-depth account of the variation in both men’s and women’s adaptation to sexual integration in police patrol. Martin traced women’s job dissatisfaction and in some cases lack of commitment to sex-related issues, most of which she found revolved around male officers’ day-to-day treatment of female officers. In fact, overt ridiculing of female officers by male officers and negative attitudes of policemen towards policewomen has been well-documented in training academies (Johns, 1979; Martin, 1990; Pike, 1985), on the street (Martin, 1980), and in surveys of police officers (Morash ’& Haarr, 1993; Worden, 1993). This study cOntributed significantly to the development of a research agenda on gender and POIiCing; however, Worden (1993) contended that there have been few rigorous attempts to test the hypotheses Martin generated. Instead, a considerable amount 0f the research on gender in policing has been atheoretical, developing not from the()I‘ies of gender difference or similarity, but rather from a narrow empirical focus on finding out whether women resemble men (Heidensohn, 1993; Worden, 1993). Apart from empirical evidence suggesting both differences and Similarities in attitlldes, some sociologists maintain that individual differences have diminishing eflects on work-related attitudes as people are similarly socialized into their tasks and organizational environments. One skeptical author stated "the theoretical work on gender and on police attitudes does not clearly lead one to expect men and women 30 to exhibit the differences that some have presumed" (Worden, 1993, p. 204). Worden (1993) used the 1977 Police Services Study to examine the conflicting predictions about gender and attitudes derived from theory about gender differences and sociological theory about occupational socialization. Her results suggested that although women and men may not be equally integrated into their jobs as police officers, there are few differences in the ways men and women see their role, their clientele, or their departments. Apart from empirical evidence suggesting this relationship, other authors assumed that women’s views about proper police behavior will differ from men’s if only because traditional role orientations originate in the police subculture, a subculture to which women are often denied access (as are other "outsiders," such as racial and ethnic minorities). Much of the research on female workers in criminal justice settings, as in other professional settings, emphasizes the difficulties that women encounter in fitting into the well-established cultures that are dominated by traditional masculine values (Hunt, 1990; Martin, 1980, 1990). The stereotypical police culture symbolizes such values insofar as it supports displays of aggression, accepts violence as a means of resolving disputes, and promotes competition to establish formal and informal hierarchies of authority and dominance (Martin, 1980, 1990; Worden, 1993). Acceptance into the police culture often determines how well and how quickly one learns the job, how much one can rely upon partners, and how much confidence and self-esteem one can take onto the street (Bennett, 1984). Exclusion from the informal support network of the police culture and its various subcultures can explain 31 why women may differ from men in their perceptions of their work environment, their place in the occupational culture, their commitment to the organization (Martin, 1980; Poole & Pogrebin, 1988). Worden (1993) argued, "women are likely to differ in their perceptions and attitudes in a variety of contexts because the experiences of exclusion and oppression renders them more critical of dominant group norms and values, specifically when those norms and values appear to protect predominantly male interests . . . This may be especially true in police departments where the formal culture and informal subcultures play an important role in socializing, supporting, and controlling officers’ attitudes and behavior (p. 207)." To the extent that women routinely experience exclusion, discrimination, and hostility from male supervisors and colleagues, their attitudes toward work--their satisfaction, commitment, integration, and aspirations-may be compromised (Flynn, 1982). Although there is no inherent assurance that the chief divisions within the police organization and occupational culture coincide with gender, this remains to be a central question. Rape Very little has been written about the racial formation of police organizations, or the experiences of racial minorities in policing and police organizations. The limited literature on racial minorities in policing focuses on blacks in policing, specifically black males in policing. Recently, Felkenes and Schroedel (1993) and Martin (1994) have examined the work experiences of non-white female police officers. Although the literature is severely restricted, the accounts that are available make it clear that blacks and other racial minority groups have had limited access to the law enforcement field, until the early 19705, until Affirmative Action. In recent 32 years, the number of racial minorities in policing has grown in many cities as a direct result of Affirmative Action and pressure from racial and ethnic minority communities. In 1990, among sworn personnel in local police departments 10.5% were black (non-Hispanic), 5.2% Hispanic, and 1.3% were members of other minority groups (i.e., Asians, Native Americans). Even though racial minorities have been increasingly hired into police organizations, racial minorities still face problems with respect to equal treatment from colleagues and supervisors, equal opportunities for work assignments and promotions, and unprejudiced evaluations (Roberg & Kuykendall, 1993). It is not uncommon to find that black officers are still restricted in the type and location of assignments they receive, and performance ratings and evaluations are negatively manipulated by superior Officers or coworkers. In the general literature, some research has focused on the differences in attitudes and performances between racial minority and white employees; yet such analysis has received relatively little attention in police literature. One reason for the lack of emphasis on race in policing rests in Nicholas Alex’s (1969) pioneering study of black police officers in the early and mid-19605, in which he proclaimed that black officers did not significantly differ in attitudes, working personalities, or role performance from their white cohorts (Buzawa, 1981). This lack of disparity in performance did not encourage further research into differential attitudes. Not until the late 19705 and early 19805 was attention again paid to the attitudes of racial minorities in police organizations. To date, however, in-depth analysis of the racial formation of policing and the police organization, and comparisons between the III II id.- mi 515 I I} 11‘: 33 attitudes and experiences of racial minorities and white males in police organizations remains rare (Buzawa, 1981; Felkenes and Schroedel, 1993). Research that does exist, however, indicates that black males (Buzawa, 1981; Milutinovich, 1977; Weaver, 1975) and black females (Felkenes and Schroedel, 1993) identify differing attitudes, behaviors, and experiences (e.g., officer’s perceptions of citizens, and their attitudes toward their work and colleagues) from white males when working in traditional racially formed organizations and occupations. Buzawa (1991) examined the differences in selected work-related attitudes of black and white patrol officers in Detroit, Michigan and Oakland, California. Buzawa’s results indicated significant differences in work-related attitudes, including feelings of social isolation by black officers, optimistic feelings for career prospects by blacks, yet higher levels of job satisfaction by black officers than white officers. In the general literature, Milutinovich (1977) suggests that job dissatisfaction among blacks is directly related to supervision, performance, and coworkers relations. Milutinovich suggested that racism or lack of common experiences may lead white supervisors to be psychologically or socially more distant from black subordinates, thereby transmitting less encouragement and/or support to blacks. Also white supervisors may not be in tune and/or responsive to the specific needs and goals of black employees, and this in turn is reflected as differential treatment. The discrepancy between the findings in Alex (1969), Buzawa (1981) and Milutinovich (1977) suggests that future research needs to focus upon attitudinal and behavioral differences, and organization experiences of racial minorities, both male and female. Although there is no assurance that the chief divisions within the police 34 organization and occupational culture coincide with race, this is a central question. The Intergtive Model: Intersections of Gender and Race One of the newest and most important trends in research analysis, especially in the study of social inequality, has been to link gender with race. This interactive approach offers new understandings of both race and gender, as well as where the two intersect. What scholars have found in using this approach is that hierarchies of race and gender are simultaneous and interlocking systems that continually operate within and through each other to produce differing experiences and realities (see Eitzen & Baca-Zinn, 1992; Morash & Haarr, 1993). A More recent research of female and racial minority police officers and their experiences in police organizations (Felkenes & Schroedel, 1993; Hunt, 1990; Martin, 1994; Morash & Haarr, 1993) has used the interactive model to reveal not only how it is that race and gender are located separately Within the structure of police organizations, but how race and gender together can account for new forms of attitudinal and behavioral differences. In other words, under certain conditions the forms of racism directed at black men and black women may sometimes differ even if the attitudes, acts, or outcomes are the same, because black men and black women may experience and/or respond to them differently (Smith & Stewart, 1983). Similarly, the forms of sexism vary as a function of a woman’s race, as may her response to the sexism. Black women encounter a combination of both race and sex discrimination that white women never experience. Thus, Smith and Stewart (1983) insisted that racism and sexism must be understood not simply as independent 35 parallel processes, but as processes that stand in a dynamic relation to each other. Smith and Stewart (1983) argued that by applying an interactive model for studying race and gender one need not exclude the possibility of independent effects of racism and sexism. Such a model allows the common experiences or shared effects to be identified and understood; at the same time, an interactive model allows the researcher to look at those aspects of sexism that are experienced only by black women or white women, and those aspects of racism that are experienced only by black males or black females (Smith & Stewart, 1983). The shift in much of the recent research on gender and race‘is towards utilizing this interactive research methodology that examines the experiences of multiple gender-race groups (e.g., black males, black females, white females, white males, Asian females and Asian males) and allows the researcher to identify those aspects of experience that distinctly define each group (Eitzen & Baca-Zinn, I992; Felkenes & Schroedel, 1993; Smith & Stewart, 1983). In this research project, such an interactive model will be used to link race and gender to reveal the experiences of black women, white women, black men and white men in the police organization and police occupational culture. Analysis will be conducted to reveal the differences and similarities across each of the race-gender groups in their patterns of interpersonal interaction, levels of organizational commitment, and attitudes toward police occupational deviance. Conclusion A review of the literature of police occupational deviance and the social 36 organization of policing supports several conclusions. One, the literature on police occupational deviance is divided between those (Barker and Carter, 1986, 1990; Lynch and Diamond, 1983; Plitt, 1983) that define police occupational deviance using a formal "academic" construction of police deviance that coincides very closely with the formal definitions of misconduct and corruption that are outlined within the rules and regulations of police organizations; and those (Manning, 1977; Punch, 1985; Sherman, 1974) that recognize that police deviance is "socially" constructed within the police organization’s occupational culture. Scholars that are guided by a theory of the "social" construction of police deviance criticize scholars that adopt an atheoretical, "academic" construction of police deviance on the grounds that they do not give consideration to the intentions or motives of deviant practices, or to the fact that deviance practices exist alongside legitimate organizational activities and frequently functions to advance organization goals and effectiveness. Two, there are many studies that have examined police occupational deviance and the social organization of police organization. The police literature thus far has examined police occupational deviance as it has traditionally been placed within the structural framework of the police organization--the opportunity structure for participation, the "monolithic" occupational culture and its subculture, and the process of formal occupational socialization into the occupational culture. Several studies have examined separately and interactively the experiences and attitudes of women and racial minorities in policing. However, no study has been devoted to an examination of the different and similar experiences and attitudes of white male, white female, black male, and black female patrol officers in their 37 patterns of interpersonal interaction, organizational commitment, and attitudes towards and possible propensity to participate in police occupational deviance. This study will seek to identify the social organization of the police occupational culture as it is shaped by and shapes the experiences of differing race-gender groups within it. CHAPTER 11 REVIEW OF THE THEORY OF SOCIAL ORGANIZATION OF POLICING LITERATURE In this chapter I examine the literature on the social organization of policing. This research is guided by a theory of social organization of policing that advances diversity and variation in the police occupational culture (Fielding, 1988; Manning, 1993; Reuss-Ianni, 1983). In this chapter I will identify and examine the variables-- patterns of interpersonal interaction, organizational commitment, and attitudes towards occupational deviance--that will be used in this research project to reveal the structure and organization of the police occupational culture. This chapter provides a broad rationale for the examination of these variables, and presents the general questions to which the research will be directed. Toward a Theory of the Social Organization of Policing To understand police occupational deviance, one must first understand the structure of policing and features of its occupational culture (Manning, 1993). Structure is defined as "the position and parts of the organizations and their systematic and relatively enduring relationships to each other (Porter and Lawler, 1965, p.24)" In over 30 years of police research and theorizing on the social organization of police organizations, the initial conception of‘ia single, unified occupational culture and formal socialization is now being replaced by an alternative conception of informal socialization influences and diversity and variation within the occupational culture (Manning, 1993). This alternative conception criticizes the 38 39 characterization of police as people of similar disposition, and embraces Bittner’s (1965, p. 15) acknowledgement that "members will bring different biographical experiences, different levels of technical skill, and different cross-cutting commitments to this task." In other words, this alternative conception proclaims that officers will alter their behavior and adjust their actions in accordance with their reading of social situations, personal interest, and organizational rules (Fielding, 1988; Manning, 1993). Fielding (1988) contends that in order to assess the degree to which officers actually mediate the formal and informal organizational influences, one needs to understand the functions and character of the occupational culturez. Theory of the Social Organization of the Police The police organization provides an operating ideology (occupational culture) of values, beliefs, and norms that guides the discretion of both the organization and its officers (Manning, 1987, 1993; Christopher Commission Report, 1992)3. Manning (1987) defines the "occupational culture" as, " . . . a reduced, selective, and task-based version of culture that is shaped by and shapes the socially relevant worlds of the occupation. Embedded in traditions and a history, occupational cultures contain accepted practices, rules, and principles of conduct that are situationally applied, and generalized rationales and beliefs. Such cultures highlight selectively the contours of an 2 The strength of the occupational culture in policing has been explained as a response to police officers working situation. 3The Christopher Commission (1992), established to examine the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD) after the Rodney King incident, an incident that involved the beating of a black male in the presence of thirteen police officer. According to the Commission, the culture of an organization is an important factor in police behavior. The LAPD had an organizational culture that emphasized abuse of police authority in the form of excessive use of force (i.e., racially motivated beatings and shootings). 40 environment, granting meaning to some facts and not others, and linking modes of seeing, doing, and believing" (p. 360). In other words, the occupational culture shapes how people will think, feel, and act within the occupation (Manning, 1993). Although the concept of police occupational culture has achieved popularity since it was advanced by Westley in 1951 (Westley, 1970), considerable disagreement remains concerning the specific content and function of the culture (Manning, 1993). Oftentimes, the occupational culture has been characterized as being so extraordinarily uniform and powerful as to exercise a monolithic authority over officers and their actions (Fielding, 1988). In fact, much of the analyses of the police culture has centered on the rigidity of the occupational culture and the cohesiveness of the police, as well as on the coherence of organizational socialization--the means by which attitudes about the organization, its system of authority, and its work are imparted on officers-as the method by which uniformity is established (Fielding, 1988; Harris, 1973; Teahan, 1975). Occupational socialization is a complex process of social learning that provides new officers with a set of rules, perspectives, techniques, and tools necessary for their participation in the group or organization (Van Maanen, 1972). Acceptance into the group may determine how well and how quickly an officer learns the job, how much one can rely upon partners, and how much confidence and self-esteem one can take onto the street. Alternatively, exclusion from the culture can affect officers’ perceptions of themselves as police officers (Bennett, 1984). The occupational culture, as it has been presented as preserving a collective set of values, is, however, a resource available more so to some groups 41 within the ranks than to others (Fielding, 1988). Fielding pointed out that powerful socializing influencers of the informal culture do not welcome alternative or diverse groups-women, blacks, Hispanics, A5ians--and their values (Bennett, 1984; Fielding, 1988). Thus, two traditional strategies open to minority groups that enter this formerly closed occupation has been to either seek to transform the organization to better fit their qualities, or to transform themselves to better fit the organization (Fielding, 1988; Martin, 1980). Many of the analyses of police culture have failed to recognize that there could be another reading of the culture, one of diversity and variation. In 1983, Reuss-Ianni provided evidence of several bases for intra-cultural divisions--based on age, sex, length of service, race, ethnicity, specialized expertise, connections and behavior--from which constables may draw upon to support an image of work, an image of the self as it is perceived and constructed in and through the work, or decisions to follow a particular course of action. "Other scholars (Skolnick, 1966; Van Maanen, 1974) have argued that the state of intra-cultural division that Reuss-Ianni identifies eventually subsides into what Becker et al. (1961) has called the ’final perspective’" (Fielding, 1988, p. 203). Manning (1993) and Fielding (1988), like Reuss-Ianni (1983), recognized the diversity and contrast built into the police culture. Manning identified the diversity and contrast as organizational, because it is based in distinctive social spaces or ranks within the organizational hierarchy. Manning (1993) identified three subcultures based on rank--command, middle management, and line officers-that produce different perspectives (nature of the perceived environment) and emphasize different 42 themes in the work (tasks). He drew on Erickson’s (1976) work to begin to identify a continuum of values that include opposing as well as sustaining values within the culture. Fielding (1988), in a 1980 longitudinal study of recruits at England’s Derbyshire Police Training Establishment, provided data to show support for a number of competing value positions in circulation within the occupational culture. For Fielding, the occupational culture is actually many subcultures with variations that arise from regional differences, differences of ambition, conflicting perceptions of the police mission, and varying experiences of the organization. Manning (1987, 1993) insisted that if the occupational culture is to continue to function as an empirically acceptable concept, its internal diversity and variation must be better understood. While the present state of theory of the social organization of policing is just beginning to reflect the notion of diversity and variation in values and culture, no real systematic study has been carried out on the differences that exist within the occupational culture (especially differences based on race and gender), on the differences Within the occupational segments or units, or the relationships between them (Manning, 1993, p. 9-10; Reuss-Ianni, 1983). What is also missing from research and literature are detailed studies and analysis of the informal networks based on race and gender that determine patterns of interpersonal interaction within the organization, degrees of organizational commitment, and attitudes and propensity toward participation in occupational deviance. Although there is no inherent assurance that the chief divisions within the occupational culture coincide with gender and race, this is a central question for social scientists who study police organization and culture (Fielding, 1988). them. Interpe and or item organ. occurs occup; Interpt Organi IOUI C tin Ind Spa}. main in in I . (T J 43 Patterns of Interpersonal Interactions Some aspects of the police occupation divide police officers and some unite them. On one level, the police are internally differentiated by patterns of interpersonal interaction, also referred to as patterns of differential association, inside and outside of the police organization. The principle of differential association asserts that a person’s associations are determined in a general context of social organization, focusing attention on the interaction in which choice of role models occurs (Sutherland & Cressey, 1970). In the course of researching the police occupational culture, however, scholars have overlooked these patterns of interpersonal interactions or differential relationships within and between organizational levels and members to aid in explaining officer behavior. Often, these patterns of interaction have been implied in the police literature under the heading of occupational socialization or peer group support, but have not been developed as a factor to be examined. In the organizational psychology literature, Porter and Lawler (1965) identified four different types of patterns of job-based interpersonal interaction. These four different types of behavior include interactions (Burns, 1954; Dubin & Spray, 1964), functional activities performed on the job by the individual (Burns, 1954; Dubin & Spray, 1964; Shartle, 1956), communications (Davis, 1953), and types of decision making (Martin, 1959). Four major types of interpersonal interaction examined include: (a) the ratio of upward (or superior) contacts to downward (or subordinate) contacts, (b) percentage of peer contacts, (c) percentage of contacts with individuals outside the organizational unit (department, officer, or unit), and (d) percentage of mgr part lfl'f aw IIICI r Ila: 44 direct (fact-to-face) contacts. Porter and Lawler’s (1965) review of the relevant general literature demonstrates that patterns of interpersonal interaction within the organization are strongly related to both attitudes and behavior. Recent research in policing that examines the effects of sex and race on one’s participation and/or acceptance into the police occupational culture has begun to reveal the opportunities, or lack thereof, that minority officers have to participate in a wide range of interactions or activities within the police organization. What researchers (Hunt, 1984; Martin, 1980, 1990; Remmington, 1981; R005 & Reskin, 1986; Reskin & Roos, 1990) have found is that women and racial minorities that enter into policing face various degrees of sexual and racial discrimination and harassment (e.g., sexual and racial jokes, sex- and race-role stereotyping) (Morash & Haarr, 1993; Hunt, 1990), as well as outright exclusion from informal cultures and interactions (Martin, 1980, 1990). These barriers and hurdles affect the patterns of interpersonal interaction in which female and black officers engage. Martin (1980) found that frequent sexual jokes and other forms of harassment may cause many female police officers to avoid interactions with male police officers that might be viewed as having sexual connotations; and in order to maintain their moral standing within the organization, female officers may in fact sacrifice the opportunity to build close interpersonal relationships with other officers. In line with Martin’s findings, Milutinovich (1977) found that blacks, too, feel they are an isolated minority; therefore, they communicate or interact less with the white members. Thus, female and black officers often times may remain outside of the informal network or the police culture. 45 For many white male Officers, while the job of policing and the police culture may become a way of life; for female and black officers who may face ostracism, the silent treatment, and/or outright rejection from white male officers, the occupational peer groups or police cultures may be off limits or unattractive. In fact, the exclusion fiom participation in interactions and informal cultures is more likely to leave female and black officers excluded from participation in occupational deviant activities. The intentions of this study are to examine how the occupational culture Shapes patrol officers’ patterns of interpersonal interaction, both on- and off-duty, i 1:) side and outside of the police organization; and how those patterns of interaction van}! with the race and gender of the officer. Who do white female, white male, bl ack female, and black male patrol officers interact with on-duty? Who do they interact with off-duty? Are those they interact with of a particular race and/or culture? Are they mostly men or women? What do patrol officers do when they inte ract on-duty? What do they do when they interact off-duty? How often do they get together on-duty? How often do they get together off-duty? Organizational Commitment At another level, the police are internally differentiated by the degree of commitment they have to the organization. Previous studies have repeatedly shown colIlmitment to be an important factor in understanding the work behavior--tumover and performance--of employees (Mowday, Porter & Steers, 1982; Porter, Steers, 1\'I<)\=vday & Boulian, 1974). Despite the popularity organizational commitment has received since the 19705, little attention has been directed toward locating the concept within the current theories concerned with individual behavior in the or; II or III II 46 organizational setting (Mowday et al., 1982; Porter et al., 1974; Van Maanen, 1972). Porter et al. (1974) provided a working definition of "organizational commitment" as "the strength of an individual’s identification with and involvement in a particular organization. Such commitment can be characterized by at least three factors: (a) a strong belief in and acceptance of the organization’s goals and values; ([3) a willingness to exert considerable effort on behalf of the organization; and (c) a definite desire to maintain organizational membership (p. 604)." Organizational commitment has been used not only as a descriptive variable to indicate a form of behavior, but as an independent variable to account for certain kinds of individual or group behavior, and as a dependent variable resulting from v arious structural or independent characteristics (Mowday et al., 1982). In this study, the term organizational commitment is used to describe both an attitudinal state, a IIlixld set, a process by which people come to think about their relationship with the Organization (i.e., the extent to which their own values and goals are congruent with those of the organization); and a behavioral state, a process by which individuals become locked into a certain organization, and how they define and deal with this e3'“.l3>¢erience (Mowday, Porter & Steers, 1982, p. 26). Undoubtedly, the theory underlying commitment suggests that attitudinal and behavioral commitment are ck)Sely related (i.e., officer commitment should be a reliable predictor of behavior); at times it is difficult to separate the two. In this study, both attitudinal and behavioral commitment, as they relate to each other and to the broader issue of Org anizational behavior, are examined to further advance the understanding of officer commitment to the police organization (Mowday, Porter & Steer, 1982). OlEaI Ilia] can act I: alter lilo alga ODEH (19’. Exam Slillé Idtn 47 Very broadly, commitment "implies that a person gives something extra to the organization--above and beyond that which is required for participation" (Van Maanen, 1972, p. 26). It is a process by which individual interests become linked to carrying out patterns of work-related behavior (Mowday et al., 1982). Simon et al. (1950) noted that commitment to the organization may be based upon policies, values, goals, or interpersonal attachments. As such, those persons who are committed to the organization will share the goals and values of the organization and act in a consistent fashion to work towards goal attainment--rejecting behavioral a1 ternatives that do not correspond to the norms and expectations of the organization ( Mowday et al., 1982; Van Maanen, 1972). Individuals committed to the o rganization are also inclined to express feelings of loyalty, dedication, devotion, or oneness with the organization (Van Maanen, 1972). In Van Maanen’s longitudinal study of the socialization of police recruits ( 1 9’75), he emphasized that commitment to the organization is a process, and he ethrlanined the process by which organizational commitment revolves around the Situ rational adjustment of individuals to their organizational setting. Van Maanen ide IJtified a three-stage process new police recruits go through upon entrance into the police organization. First, the recruit is emersed in an environment or police colthlmunity where various groups compete for his or her loyalty. Next, it is up to the individual to select a reference group (which serves as a role model or behavioral gllitie) from among the available alternatives. Third, the individual embraces the definitions and interpretations of his or her specific organizational role as set forth by the reference group. Within this process, a recruit may choose a reference group 48 which either does or does not adopt the values of the employing organization. Van Maanen concluded that an individual’s selection of a reference group (or several reference groups) is important to the development of organizational commitment. As conceptualized in this manner, it is apparent that organizational commitment is closely related to the patterns of interpersonal interaction discussed previously. Two issues being debated in more recent literature is whether women or men I) ave higher rates of job commitment, and what factors affect the differences in levels of commitment. Research findings consistently reveal that gender is related to commitment. In studies by Angle and Perry (1982), Gould (1975), Grusky (1966), and Hrebiniak and Alutto (1972), women as a group were found to have higher rates 0f job commitment than men. Grusky (1966) explained this relationship by arguing th at women generally had to overcome more barriers to attain their positions within the organization, thereby making organizational membership more important to th e m. Three other studies (Lauer, 1982; Massenberg, 1982; Rosenthal, 1982) me asured potential gender differences, but the results were mixed. Massenberg (1982) found no significant variation in job commitment among male and female professionals in scientific disciplines, and Lauer (1982) reported that gender was not a reliable predictor of job involvement when various other factors were statistically cohtrolled. The results of Rosenthal’s (1982) study indicated that male workers were n"lore committed to the job than female workers. Martin (1980) traced women’s job dissatisfaction, weak commitment, and weak identification with the job of policing to male officers’ day-to-day treatment and/or W0} the let C011 5161 par WI 49 rejection of them, blocked opportunities, constant pressure to prove oneself, and competing commitments to family and external social networks (see also, Worden, 1993; POole & Pogrebin, 1988). Martin (1980) argued that "women are likely to differ in their perceptions and attitudes in a variety of contexts because the experiences of exclusion and even oppression (from the occupational culture and subcultures) renders them more critical of dominant group norms and values, particularly when those norms and values appear to protect predominantly male interests (p. 87)." Race may also condition workers’ perceptions of their jobs. Mulutinovich’s ( 1 977) examination of black and white, blue-collar and white-collar, male and female workers in three organizations reveals that minority group members may approach their jobs with different frames of reference, especially with respect to specific d eterminants of job satisfaction and group cohesiveness. Milutinovich revealed a very complex relationship between race and job attitudes, from which he claims no broad Stereotypical assumptions can be made for all blacks, since differences may be Partially attributed to the interacting effects of gender and race (i.e., because members of minority groups may be socialized into sex and work roles somewhat differently than are whites). Nevertheless, some existing evidence does suggest that organizational commitment should not always be viewed as a necessary condition for one’s effective participation in an organization (Mowday et al., 1982; Van Maanen, 1972). A person Can work at a career or job without ever being committed to the employing organization. For example, Dubin (1956) concluded that for three out of four lllclustrial workers, the workplace was not a central life interest. He argued that for many workers, appropriate social behaviors occur in the workplace because it is 50 required. For the purpose of this study, the term occupational commitment (i.e., to police work) is a large element of organizational commitment (i.e., to the department), because one must first join an organization in order to be located vvithin the police community. Without organizational membership, 3 person is not even part of the police occupation. Van Maanen maintained that "to some degree then, one would expect any police officer to exhibit some commitment to the occupation regardless of their commitment to the specific police department he or she works for" (1972, p. 234). For this reason, in policing, occupational commitment probably represents a measurement or comparison for the development of organizational commitment. In other words, Van Maanen (1972) declared "if an officer does not exhibit some degree of attachment to the occupation (i.e., the desire to continue in his or her role and a basic belief in the occupational values), the term organizational commitment is meaningless in the context of the police organization since police work is essentially the same task regardless of one’s department-— especially at the patrol level (p. 34)." While the dividing line between the two is ambiguous in this case, the use of the term organizational commitment presumes that an officer may or may not convey positive feelings toward his or her employing organization, independently of his or he r feelings toward the police role (Van Maanen, 1972). One of the purposes of this study is to examine how patterns of interpersonal interaction affect officers’ commitment to the organization, and how levels of organizational commitment vary with the race and gender of the patrol officer. How do those one interacts with off-duty affect an officer’s level of organizational c0llimitment? Do white female, black female, white male and black male patrol 51 officers express similar levels of organizational commitment? If not, why? Patterns of Interaction, Organizational Commitment, and Police Occupational Deviance There is a lack of consensus as to what factors influence the occurrence of occupationally deviant activities in police organizations. Although many researchers rely on single indicators, such as the opportunity structure, the police culture, or occupational socialization and peer group support, there seems to be a general agreement that the interaction of multiple internal and external factors or forces need to be examined for a more comprehensive evaluation of police occupational deviance (Manning, 1977; Manning and Redlinger, 1977; Punch, 1985; Sherman, 1 974). In this study, the social organization of the police occupational culture(s) as revealed through patterns of interpersonal interaction, organizational commitment, and attitudes towards occupational deviance is predicted to substantially influence Police methods, behavior, and attitudes (i.e., attitudes toward and/or participation in Police occupational deviance, attitudes of organizational commitment, patterns of interaction, and attitudes of sexism and racism that are directed toward minority individuals working within the police organization). Based on the work of organizational theorists (Mowday et al., 1982; Porter & Lawler, 1965; Porter et al., 19"74) and social organizational theorists (Manning, 1987, 1993; Punch, 1986; Van 1Vlaanen, 1972), I propose that diversity and variation will emerge in patrol officers attitudes towards occupational deviance, some patrol officers will be willing to participate in occupational deviant activities while others will not. I also propose that 52 patterns of interpersonal interaction and levels of organizational commitment will shape patrol officers attitudes towards occupational deviance. I assume that those persons who are committed to the organization will share the same goals and values of the organization, and will seek out interactions with other officers that share the same goals and values; and together those officers will act in a consistent fashion to work towards goal attainment--rejecting behavioral alternatives that do not correspond to the norms and expectations of the organization. Ultimately, I assume as Manning (1987, 1993) and Fielding (1988) have .i dentified, that a continuum of values, beliefs, norms, and ambitions will emerge; thus, revealing that the occupational culture is actually multiple cultures with v ariations that arise from differences in patterns of interpersonal interactions, levels of organizational commitment, and attitudes towards occupational deviance. Summary Fielding (1985), Manning (1993) and Reuss-Ianni (1983) contend that to 1111 clerstand the police occupational culture one must understand the social organization of policing; and to understand the social organization of policing one IIlllst examine variation in values, beliefs, norms and ambitions within the 0ceupational culture that arise from assignment and race differences, differences of aIllbition and commitment, conflicting perceptions of the police mission, and varying e)KIJeriences within the organization. In the general organization literature, scholars have examined various aspects 0f employee attitudes and behavior. Several studies have, in fact examined factors Which impact officers’ commitment to the organization and occupational socialization. 53 However, no study has devoted itself to an overall examination of the relationship between gender and race, patterns of interpersonal interaction, organizational commitment, and police occupational deviance. As I outlined above, this study seeks to analyze both the separate and combined of these variables in efforts to furthering the theory of social organization of policing. CHAPTER III RESEARCH PROPOSITIONS AND METHODOLOGY It is the intention of this chapter is to advance six propositions that were developed apriori based on the logical interrelationship among the concepts, and to outline the methodology for research. Propositions Proposition 1: Because police organizations are gendered organizations, female patrol officers’, both black and white, will engage in different patterns of interpersonal interaction, both on- and off-duty, in comparison to white male patrol offi cers. Proposition II: Because police organizations are racially formed organizations, black patrol officers’, both male and female, will engage in different patterns of interpersonal interaction, both on- and off-duty, in comparison to white male patrol 0‘53 cers. Propositions I and II advance that patterns of interpersonal interaction are assOciated with an officer’s race and gender. Race and gender are examined in this diSSertation since the literature suggests that policing is gendered work and police organizations are both racially formed and gendered organizations (Hunt, 1990; IE]:ei