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This is to certify that the
thesis entitled

A Study of Police Officers’ Perceptions of Police Deviance
~From an Occupational Socialization Perspective-

presented by

llhong Yun

has been accepted towards fulfillment
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MS. degree in Criminal Justice

 

 

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A STUDY OF POLICE OFFICERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF POLICE DEVIANCE:
FROM AN OCCUPATIONAL SOCIALIZATION PERSPECTIVE

By

llhong Yun

A THESIS

Submitted to
Michigan State University
in partial fulﬁllment of the requirements
for the degree of

MASTER OF SCIENCE
School of Criminal Justice

2003

ABSTRACT

A STUDY OF POLICE OFFICERS’ PERCEPTIONS OF POLICE DEVIANCE:
FROM AN OCCUPATIONAL SOCIALIZATION PERSPECTIVE

By

llhong Yun

During the past several decades, the focus of the research on police deviance has
shifted from the individual perspective to organizational perspective focusing on
occupational socialization. This study also aims to reveal the impact of police
occupational socialization on their perceptions of police deviance. Speciﬁcally, this study
is to examine dissimilarities in police ofﬁcers' perceptions of police deviance based on
four criteria: 1) length of service, 2) rank, 3) placement, and 4) community. To do that, a
survey of a convenience sample of two South Korea police stations (N=321) has been
conducted. Overall, this study reveals only a partial support for the hypotheses. Yet a
significant relationship appears between ofﬁcers' perceptions of police deviance and
their placement. Since there is no research that has revealed such a relationship, this study

is the ﬁrst step toward such an unexplored area.

To Korean 130,000 Police Ofﬁcers

iii

ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS

I would like to thank my committee members for their guidance, time, and patience:
Professor Bruce L. Benson, Professor Frank S. Horvath, Professor Sheila Royo Maxwell
& Professor Dennis M. Payne.

iv

TABLE OF CONTENTS

LIST OF TABLES ................................................................................ viii
LIST OF FIGURES ................................................................................. ix
CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION ........................................................................................................... 1
I. MAGNITUDEOF THE PROBLEM .......................................................... 1
11. INTRODUCTION TO THE RESEARCH QUESTIONS ................................ 3
III. THE PRESENT STUDY ..................................................................... 6
CHPATER 2
LITEATURE REVIEW ............................................................................ 9
I. TRADITIONAL VIEWS OF POLICE DEVIANCE ........................................ 9
II. POLICE OCCUPATIONAL SOCIALIZATION ............................................. 12
III. OCCUPATIONAL SOCIALIZATION OF POLICE DEVIANCE ..................... 15
Occupational Structure ........................................................................ 15
1) Low visibility ............................................................................ 15
2) Placements ............................................................................... 16
3) Management structure .................................................................. 17
Peer Group Support ........................................................................... 18
1) Police subculture and police solidarity ................................................. 18
2) Approved deviance ....................................................................... 19
3) The code of silence ....................................................................... 21
Community ...................................................................................... 22

CHAPTER 3

METHODOLOGY ................................................................................. 25
1. KEY OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS IN THE STUDY ................................. 25
Developing Operational Deﬁnition of Police Deviance ................................... 25
Enforcement Sections .......................................................................... 26
Non-enforcement Sections .................................................................... 27
Supervisory and Non-supervisory Ranks ................................................... 27
II. RESEARCH HYPOTHESES ................................................................. 28
Hypothesis 1 .................................................................................... 28
Hypothesis 2 ..................................................................................... 29
Hypothesis 3 .................................................................................... 29
Hypothesis 4 .................................................................................... 31
III. OPERATIONALIZING THE VARIABLES ............................................... 33
Measure of Independent Variables ........................................................... 33
Measure of Dependent Variables .............................................................. 34
IV. SAMPLING PROCEDURE AND DATA COLLECTION .............................. 37
Korean Police System ......................................................................... 37
The Sample ..................................................................................... 37
Data Collection ................................................................................. 39
CHAPTER 4
DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS ............................................................ 41
Method of Analysis ................................................................................. 41
1. Demographic Characteristics of the Sample ................................................. 44

v i

11. Overall Ratings of Perceptions of Scenario Seriousness .................................. 46
III. Test of the Hypotheses .......................................................................... 48
Bivariate Analysis .............................................................................. 48

1) Length of service and perceptions ofpolice deviance 48

2) Rank and perceptions of police deviance .............................................. 51

3) Placement and perceptions of police deviance ........................................ 53

4) Community and perceptions of police deviance ....................................... 56

Mutivariate Analysis ........................................................................... 58
CHAPTER 5

DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION ........................................................... 61

1. Summary an Discussion ......................................................................... 61

Length of Service and Perceptions of Police Deviance 61
Rank and Perceptions of Police Deviance .................................................. 63
Placement and Perceptions of Police Deviance ............................................ 64

Community and Perceptions ofPolice Deviance 65

II. Recommendations for Future Research and Policy Implications ......................... 67
Limitations and Recommendations for Future Research ................................. 67
Policy Implications ............................................................................ 68

APPENDIX A ....................................................................................... 72

APPENDIX B ........................................................................................ 76

APPENDIX C ........................................................................................ 84

REFERENCES ..................................................................................... 86

LIST OF TABLES

Table 1. Measure of Independent Variables ..................................................... 34
Table 2. Case Scenarios ........................................................................... 35
Table 3. Demographic Characteristics of the Sample for Independent Variables .......... 44
Table 4. Demographic Characteristics of the Sample for Control Variables ............... 45

Table 5. Police Ofﬁcers’ Perceptions of Scenario Seriousness and Other Oﬁicers’
Willingness to Report .................................................................... 46

Table 6. Pearson Correlations between Perceptions of Scenario Seriousness and
Length of service .......................................................................... 48

Table 7. T-test for Perceptions of Scenario Seriousness: Supervisory Group vs. Non-
supervisory Group ........................................................................ 52

Table 8. Totaled Seriousness Scores for Five Rank Categories .............................. 53
Table 9. Analysis of Variance for Perceptions of Scenario Seriousness by Placement. . ..54
Table 10. T-test for Perceptions of Scenario Seriousness: Urban vs. Rural Station ....... 56

Table 11. OLS Regression of Perceptions of Police Deviance ............................... 59

viii

LIST OF FIGURES

Figure 1. Seriousness Ratings by Length of Service .......................................... 50

Figure 2. Totaled Seriousness Scores for Placement .......................................... 55

CHAPTER 1
INTRODUCTION
I. Magnitude of the Problem

Among many problems facing police administrators, few involve as devastating
an effect as police deviance. When a scandal of police brutality, corruption or unethical
behavior is publicly revealed, the potential ability of a police agency to accomplish its
legitimate goals is seriously impaired. Incidents of police deviance may seriously
deteriorate the police-community relationship, diminishing public conﬁdence in the
police. It compromises not only the police-community solidarity, but also the police
organization itself. The morale of personnel in a police agency can be signiﬁcantly
inﬂuenced by the repercussions of a scandal in their agency. Due to an increased access
to media, an eruption of police deviance in a remote police agency can affect police
agencies nationwide.

The police are not the sole institution of the criminal justice system affected by
deviance, but they are regarded as the most symbolic institution by the average citizen.
To a great number of citizens, police are the ﬁrst, as well as the last criminal justice
agency that they encounter throughout their normal lives. As Barker and Carter (1991)
noted, “what the police do and how they do it affects the perceptions of how the public
views the fairness and honesty of the entire criminal justice system” (p. 3).

Police deviance is not a problem limited to happenings of recent years, rather it is
as old as policing itself. Problems with police extortion and other corrupt activities are
documented as early as 1844, when the city of New York created its ﬁrst municipal

police force (Swope, 2001, p. 80). The well- known Wickersham Commission report in

1931 documented corruption and brutality in law enforcement in America. Following the
whistle blowing of Frank Serpico in the 1960s, the Knapp Commission disclosed
prevalent corruption throughout the New York Police Department. The examples are far
more widespread: Miami police ofﬁcers charged with drug dealing and murder; ﬁndings
of the Christopher Commission investigating the Los Angeles Police Department (LAPD)
after the Rodney King beating; and the deep rooted corruption in the Rampart Division in
LAPD in the late 19903.

Considering the devastating consequences, police deviance is by no means
something to be mildly dealt with. Understanding how they begin and evolve is crucial to
control and minimize them. Yet a review of literature pertaining to the issue of police
deviance, notwithstanding the magnitude of the problem, reveals that much of the extant
literature on police deviance relies upon personal opinions and popular deﬁnitions rather
than empirical studies. One of the reasons for the lack of empirical research in this area
appears to be the shortage of theoretical frameworks that can guide researchers. The
sensitivity of the problem and the subsequent reluctance of police agencies toward open-
minded discussions on this issue could be another reason (Goldstein, 1975). Thus,
compared to other issues in policing, many facets of the problem of police deviance still

remain partially covered.

11. Introduction to Research Questions

Historically, the criminal justice system has been developed as a punitive style,
emphasizing retribution and deterrence. Since the seemingly unquestionable effect of
deterrence based on criminal sanctions has been questioned, however, a variety of non-
punitive alternatives have been suggested and are being tested focusing on new concepts,
such as rehabilitation, healing and restorative justice (Roach, 1999).

In terms of sanctions on deviant police ofﬁcers, on the contrary, it seems that a
majority of police agencies still simply adopt sanction-oriented measures. Police agencies
tend to inﬂict even more rigorous sanctions based on the common ground that the police
are the public defender of law and justice. It has been especially true in Korean police, an
agency in which this researcher has served as a police ofﬁcer for ten years.

A literature review relevant to the theories of police deviance reveals that
researchers who have dealt with this issue classify the theories into two groups—the bad
apple theory and the occupational socialization theory (Klockars et al., 1997; Barker,
1991;Lundman, 1980; O’Brien, 1991). The bad apple theory assumes that police
deviance is committed by either morally defective or inherently deviant individuals.
Accordingly this theory suggests a careful screening of applicants, an aggressive pursuing
and elimination of deviant police ofﬁcers. The conventional sanction-oriented policy
stems from the bad apple theory (Haberfeld, Klockars, Ivkovic, & Pagon, 2000;
Lundman, 1980; O’Brien, 1991). On the contrary, the occupational socialization theory
emphasizes the impact of occupational socialization on police personnel, shifting the
focus from individuals to organization itself. This theory seeks to establish and maintain a

police organization whose culture is highly intolerant of police deviance, emphasizing a

variety of proactive measures to prevent and control police deviance (Haberfeld, et al.,
2000; Klockars et al., 1997).

Bearing in mind the importance of the culture of police integrity, many
contemporary police organizations put in more effort to establish and sustain police
integrity adopting a variety of measures such as ethics classes and training programs
(Hunter, 1999, p. 156 - 157). Notwithstanding such various attempts, the researcher
believes that a number of worthwhile questions has yet to be dealt with or at least yet to
be empirically tested. For example, it is an important issue to decide at whom the
programs should be aimed. Should it embrace all police personnel or should it target
speciﬁc groups? If the programs are to target speciﬁc groups, do they need to be
developed based on the criterion of length of service (neophytes vs. veterans), or perhaps
rank (the rank and ﬁle vs. supervisory groups)? Are ofﬁcers in certain placements more
susceptible to police deviance than ofﬁcers in other placements? Could there be such
differences from ofﬁcers between urban and rural communities?

Likewise, another question is of signiﬁcant importance. Should the contents of
such programs be uniform for all the differing groups of police ofﬁcers or should they be
structured as group-speciﬁc? Are ofﬁcers from speciﬁc groups more vulnerable to
speciﬁc types of police deviance? If it is found that certain groups of police personnel are
more susceptible to police deviance, or speciﬁc groups are more vulnerable to speciﬁc
types of deviance, group-speciﬁc education and training programs are deemed to be
recommendable. Such a model will be more efﬁcient as well as effective given the

limited resources available to most police agencies.

The complete answers to these queries are not to be reached in a simplistic
manner and such an undertaking is beyond the purview of this study. In addition, the
answers obtained in a speciﬁc context may not be generalizable to a different place and
different time. Yet, an initial attempt to explore those areas is laudable, provided that it
stimulates more thoughts and further researches from contemporary researchers. Such
researches will be closely related to the management of police deviance and will hold a

great practical applicability.

III. The Present Study

Among the theories of police deviance, the occupational socialization approach is
the basis for this study. That is, in contrast to the micro-level, individualistic approach,
this study focuses on the social context in which police deviance is said to be developed
and maintained. The main assumption underlying this study is that deviant behaviors by
police ofﬁcers are socially prescribed and patterned through occupational socialization
rather than as a function of individual abnormalities or personal weaknesses.

Exploring police deviance, with regards to situational dimensions and subsequent
occupational socialization, is the central concern of the present study. Police deviance,
however, is not an easy topic to study in a direct, quantitative and empirical way because
the majority of police deviance incidents are not ofﬁcially reported or handled (Klockars
et al., 1997, p. 2; Haberfeld et al., 2000, p. 42). The ofﬁcial data of police deviance in any
police agency by no means represent the actual level of deviance. Therefore, this study
does not attempt any immediate measurement of police deviance; rather, it employs an
indirect way of measuring the perceptions of police ofﬁcers, without arousing the
embarrassment that direct inquiries are likely to cause. In doing so, it will be possible to
access the problem of police deviance indirectly.

Nevertheless, this study does not assert perfect causation between perceptions and
manifestations of actual behavior. Yet, it does presume that perceptions favorable toward
deviant behaviors will increase the likelihood of the involvement in those behaviors.
Sutherland, who proposed “the differential association theory,” argued that “A person
becomes delinquent because of an excess of deﬁnitions favorable to violation of law over

deﬁnitions unfavorable to violation of law” (cited in Vold et al., 2002, p. 160). His theory

 

has been advocated and strengthened by other criminologists such as Akers, Anderson,
Wolfgang and F erracuti. In the same way, some contemporary police researchers
maintain that “to believe that speciﬁc actions are not really serious signiﬁcantly
lowers the threshold at which an individual [police ofﬁcers] will engage in that behavior”
(Huon, Hesketh, Frank, McConkey, and McGrath, 1995). Thus the researcher believes
this study holds its legitimacy in measuring the perceptions of police ofﬁcers as a means
of exploring police deviance.

This research hypothesizes that disparities exist as a result of different
socialization processes in the perceptions of police ofﬁcers towards deviant police
behaviors according to varying situational factors: 1) length of service, 2) rank, 3)
placement and 4) community. More speciﬁcally, this study attempts to test the following
four hypotheses:

1. Police ofﬁcers who have served longer perceive police deviance less seriously.

2. Police ofﬁcers who are lower in rank perceive police deviance less seriously.

3. Police ofﬁcers who serve in the Enforcement Sections perceive police deviance

less seriously than ofﬁcers who serve in the Non-enforcement Sections do.

4. Police ofﬁcers who serve in urban communities perceive police deviance less

seriously than police ofﬁcers who serve in rural communities.

In order to address these questions, a survey instrument containing eight scenarios
of deviant police behaviors was constructed. Police ofﬁcers from two police stations—
one urban station and one rural station— in South Korea were selected to complete the
surveys. The data will be analyzed to determine whether the one group perceives police

deviance more seriously than the other group/groups.

The hypotheses presented herein were derived not only from the related literature
but also from ten years of personal experience as a middle-level police manager in Korea.
Throughout the experience the researcher has surprisingly observed the subtle
transformation of colleague ofﬁcers, not excluding the researcher, from an ideal and
honest neophyte to a veteran ofﬁcer who takes gratuities without feelings of conscience,
or sometimes even expects giﬁs from citizens whom they encounter on a daily basis.

The on-the-job experience and the review of literature of police deviance indicate
a strong relationship between occupational socialization and police deviance. Yet,
research on police deviance is not very numerous. After a review of related literature,
only a few studies were discovered which examined the relationship between the
perceptions of police deviance and the length of service and rank. Furthermore, there was
no previous research which examined the possible dissimilarities of perceptions based on
different placements and different communities for which ofﬁcers serve.

Therefore, this study takes an initiative position in terms of exploring such rarely
trodden areas. Although this explorative study is not completely exempt from blemish,
this study is obviously worthwhile in the sense that it initiates an exploration over the
above-mentioned area and subsequently attempts to ﬁll the existing gaps in the literature
of police deviance. The researcher believes that this study will be able to add to the
minimal amount of existing literature based on empirical research, and help to gain a
better understanding of the relationship between police deviance and the differing
dimensions of police socialization. Hopefully, this study will provide police
administrators and academicians with helpful insights for policymaking, police training,

and further researches in the area of police deviance.

CHAPTER 2
LITERATURE REVIEW
I. Traditional Views of Police Deviance

As deviant behaviors by human beings are omnipresent in human society, deviant
conduct by police ofﬁcers seems to reside in almost all police organizations. Yet,
compared to the numerous competing theories regarding the cause of human deviance,
theoretical exploration on police deviance is not abundant.

Traditionally, open discussions of police deviance have not occurred actively
among police administrators. Goldstein (1975) reasoned that police ofﬁcials were not
eager for openhearted discussions on this problem, since they believed public disclosure
of such deeds would undermine public conﬁdence in the police (p. 7). Even when a
devastating scandal occurred in a police agency, a police chief tended to proclaim that the
unveiled incident was a rare anomaly in their agency, and the doer of the anomaly or “the
bad apple” should be thrown out of the otherwise clean barrel. This approach of the
traditional explanation on police deviance is generally known as “the bad apple theory.”
According to Barker (1991), the bad apples are “either weak individuals who have
slipped through the elaborate screening process of police departments . . . or deviant
individuals who continue their deviant practices [in the police organization].” (p. 46).

This view, however, has found little support. Murphy (1973) insisted that the
rotten apples are neither natural born criminals nor morally wicked people, but that
corrupt police are made in the barrel—the organization. Thus, the bad apple theory of
police deviance is largely understood as the way of police administrators’ impression

management to evade criticism against the organization itself (See Barker, 1991; Lemert,

 

1967; Goldstein, 1975). By applying the label of bad apple to publicly exposed deviant
ofﬁcers, and by either eliminating them from the organization or imposing harsh
disciplinary sanctions, police administrators managed to save the organization from the
stigma of the “deviant organization.”

There are other explanations about the nature of police deviance. Sutherland and
Cressey (1960) asserted that unqualiﬁed appointments of police ofﬁcials by corrupt
politicians were the origin of police deviance. They stated:

Another consequence of the fact that police departments often are organized for

the welfare of corrupt politicians, rather than of society, is inefﬁcient and

unqualiﬁed personnel. This is unquestionably linked with police dishonesty, since
only police ofﬁcers who are “right” can be employed by those in political control.

(p. 338).

Other scholars viewed police corruption, a serious form of police deviance, as a
natural consequence of societal demands for illegal services (See Korn & McCorkle,
1959; Merton, 195 8). They claimed that when desired illegal services are not provided
through legal structures, the services are attained through illegal means, such as police
corruption. By the same token, others viewed police deviance as necessary, but also as an
illegitimate means to accomplish legitimate police duties (Sutherland& Cressey, 1960;
Westley, 1970). They maintained that while a police officer was responsible to protect
society from criminals, the corresponding powers for carrying out this mandate were not
delegated enough. Therefore, to perform designated duties, police ofﬁcers must violate
the very laws that they are trying to enforce. The use of illegal violence by police ofﬁcers
to catch vicious criminals can serve as an example.

Contrary to traditional views of police deviance as illustrated above, a unifying

feature of contemporary approaches is organizational in nature. These explanations stress

10

 

the process of police occupational socialization as a means of police ofﬁcers acquiring
informal norms and patterns of deviant behaviors. Unlike the bad apple theory, which
mainly seeks for punitive measures, the occupational socialization theory seeks to
establish and maintain police agencies whose culture is highly intolerant of police

deviance and supports integrity.

ll

 

II. Police Occupational Socialization

Many police researchers agree upon the existence of a unique “police working
personality,” which differentiates police ofﬁcers from the public. There exists, however,
some disagreement about the etiology of the police personality. One explanation is that
people who search out the law enforcement profession have a signiﬁcantly different
personality prior to their entry into the occupation (Rokeach, Miller & Snyder, 1971).
That is, people who have unique personality traits that ﬁt the job, become police ofﬁcers.
This hypothesis met much criticism regarding the ﬂawed methodology in the research on
which it was based and credibility (Bennett & Greenstein, 1975; Bayley & Mendelsohn,
1969; Smith, Locke & F enster, 1970). Another theory maintains that recruits drawn from
the general public go through an occupational socialization process, by which they obtain
unique attitudes and values within police subculture (N iederhoffer, 1967; Skolnick, 1966;
Westly, 1970). Contrary to the former explanation, the bulk of supportive literature on
occupational socialization testiﬁes to the persuasiveness of the latter hypothesis.

Through socialization of the police subculture, ofﬁcers develop a unique
personality. Burbeck and Fumham (1985) found that the experience of becoming part of
the police subculture inﬂuences individuals to become more authoritarian, prejudiced,
close-minded and conservative than they were before joining the force. Skolnick (1966)
also notes:

The police, as a result of combined features of their social situation, tend to

develop ways of looking at the world distinctive to themselves, cognitive lenses

through which to see situations and events. The strength of the lenses may be

weaker or stronger depending on certain conditions, but they are ground on a
similar axis (p. 42).

12

Occupational socialization is deﬁned as the process by which a person learns the
formal and informal norms, values and expected behaviors which characterize members
of the particular organization (Van Maanen, 1977). Each occupation has a socialization
process in which the new employees are taught the unique norms of the occupational
setting. Since socialization implies an “on-going process” over time, the process of police
occupational socialization is theoretically divided into three stages by scholars (See
Wheeler, 1966; Thornton & Nardi, 1975).

The ﬁrst step in occupational socialization is known as the anticipatory
socialization. This phase begins prior to the entry of the occupation. The prospective
candidate starts to anticipate the job duties, expectations, requirements in the role and
attempts to identify himself/herself with the future role. The sources transmitting the
impression of the occupation could be the media, friends, relatives or members of the
police organization. Although the socialization of the applicants can be oﬁen tangential,
this process begins to inﬂuence their attitudes and values.

The second phase is identiﬁed as the formal stage. This is the type of training that
recruits go through in the police academy. This stage supplies the recruits with sets of
norms of the occupation. The recruits become to be immersed into organizational
guidelines and formal expectations. In this stage, experienced police ofﬁcers, as staff or
visiting lecturers, play the role of reference group to the recruits.

The third step in the occupational socialization process involves the informal
stage. Police rookies learn what they are really expected to do by their peers within every
day work settings. The knowledge provided is often quite different from the knowledge

gained during the formal training. During the third stage, reference group afﬁliation and

13

inﬂuence by police peer group would increase, and previous formal training at the police
academies may be regarded even useless or irrelevant at the street level. Leonard and
More’s (1974) research reported that 85 percent of American police ofﬁcers have
received the major portion of their occupational training through on-the-job training by
fellow ofﬁcers.

In sum, due to the socialization process, police recruits and ofﬁcers acquire the
norms, attitudes and behaviors unique in police subculture, and go through value changes
which lead to different perspectives than those of citizens. One thing that merits an
attention is that the socialization process disseminates not only meritorious aspects of
police culture, but also detrimental ones. Police deviance is considered to be one of them.
With regard to the socialization of police deviance, researchers emphasize the importance

of occupational structure, peer group supports and the inﬂuence of community.

14

III. Occupational Socialization of Police Deviance.

Occupational structure

1) Low visibility

One could assume that the police organization is a paramilitary bureaucracy with
high levels of command and control, but it is rather characterized, in reality, by a
considerable discretion for the lower ranks, the alienation of street work from senior staff
and low visibility from the public (Barker, 1991, p. 48; Lundman, 1980, p. 172). Theories
based on occupational socialization assert that the police occupational structure provides
the police ofﬁcer with more than ample opportunity for a wide range of deviant
behaviors.

For example, police ofﬁcers who investigate burglary scenes may have the
opportunity to take items while nobody is around. They are supposed to have the right to
enter unsecured buildings, crime victim’s residences and unlocked doors during routine
security checks or investigative duties. On the pretext of investigating victimized scenes,
they may have a chance to look for hidden money or valuable items under no suspicion
from others.

Police ofﬁcers also have opportunities to engage in a number of forms of
occupational deviance, which are not directly related to material gain. Police deviance
can be conducted to achieve occupational goals, that is, “to get the job done.” Police
ofﬁcers are required to testify in court as part of their duties, and they may lie or distort
the truth in order to ensure a conviction (see Barker, 1991). Some may falsify documents
or plant evidence to make a case “solid.” Failure to observe due process in arresting

suspects could be another example. These types of occupational deviance may be more

15

clearly understood by adopting Merton’s anomie theory (cited in Vold, Bernard &
Snipes, 2002, p. 135-141). Merton maintains that deviance occurs when there is a
disjunction between socially valued goals and legitimate means by which to attain these
goals. Individuals respond to this disjunction between goals and means in ﬁve different
ways. One of them, through which to cover the gap, is “innovation.” Police deviance such
as perjury, falsiﬁcation, planting evidence to make a case ‘solid,’ or using illegitimate
means to arrest suspects could be understood as “innovation.”

The intrinsic nature of the police profession provides the police ofﬁcer, usually
working beyond supervision, with various types of other occupation-related deviance,
such as lying to cover up colleagues’ deviance, sleeping on duty, drinking on duty, illicit
sex on duty and brutality (see Barker, 1991, p. 49). In essence, the fact that a great part of
police operations occur where the scope of supervision is low or cannot reach far enough

fosters or at least makes police deviance occur more easily.

2) Placements

 

Another consideration should be given to the fact that the characteristic of
opportunity structure varies by different placement in the police organization (see Barker,
1991, p. 49). Patrol ofﬁcers may have a different range of opportunities for deviance than
detectives, such as trafﬁc offenders, business burglaries or security checks. Detectives
may encounter more lucrative chances under different levels of supervision. Police
ofﬁcers whose main tasks are related to internal administration may have rare

opportunities concerning monetary gains, but have different types of deviant behaviors.

16

As an illustration, police ofﬁcers in the area of vice crimes such as prostitution,
gambling and narcotics, may be placed in a more vulnerable situation. Vice ofﬁcers
assume more discretionary power than other units. Under such circumstances, police
ofﬁcers may form a deviant relationship with those who are policed. In recent years, in
South Korea, it was publicly revealed that a number of ofﬁcers in vice areas in one police
station have been paid money systematically by the owners of prostitution operations for
quite a long period of time (Lee, 2000)

Thus, different culture of police deviance can be reasonably assumed among
different placements in a police agency. Especially in a large agency, the culture of police
deviance may vary among precincts, divisions, ethical groups and work groups (Klockars
et al., 1997; Lundman, 1980). Yet, no researcher has attempted to empirically examine

such areas so far.

3) Management structure

Another concern of the opportunity structure is related to the police management
structure. Police managers in the United States as well as in many other countries usually
step up to high positions through the ladder of ranks within the organization. While
reaching these high ranks, they may have been socialized into the system to such an
extent that they were unable to, or unwilling to, vigorously deal with the problem of
police deviance. Police managers have already experienced the great part of what
subordinates come across on a daily basis. They are well known to the formal as well as
informal subculture, and further, they are part of the police subculture itself. This

sometimes makes it hard for them to say “not anymore” to subordinates. If, in this case,

17

deviant conduct committed by a subordinate is not publicly revealed yet, and if there is
any chance to hide it from the public and the media, they may conceal it through a
“cover-up” rather than fully unwrap it and use it as an impetus for reform activities. In
this regard, Haberfeld et al. argued that one of the factors that contribute to the
difﬁculties of controlling police deviance is the reluctance of police managers to admit

the existence of such problems (2000, p. 42).

Peer Group Support

1) Police subculture and police solidarity

To better understand the development of peer group support with regard to police
deviance, one needs to consider police subculture in the ﬁrst place. The conduit through
which police peer group support is formed and maintained is police subculture. Also,
police subculture describes the setting in which police ofﬁcers learn the norms and
supports that lead to police deviance. In this regard, Lundman states that the police
subculture provides ofﬁcers with reasons and rationalizations for engaging in deviant
activities (1980, P. 173).

Subculture is deﬁned by Carter (2002) as “the meanings, values and behavior
patterns that are unique to a particular group in society” (p. 191). Alpert and Dunham
(1988) further stated:

Police develop traditions and survival skills that are unique to their vocational

group because of their duties and responsibilities. These distinct differences in

culture qualify them as members of police subculture (p. 80).

The police sometimes view the community as demanding too much from them. In

many cases, such demands are conﬂicting among different groups even in the same

18

community. With the obligation to fulﬁll the needs of the public, the police realize that
they are to accomplish “the mission impossible.” Moreover, it is easy for the public to
make scapegoats of the police for every problem. Hence, the police tend to alienate
themselves from the public and retreat to their peer group alliances, thereby forming
strong “peer group consensual bonds” (see Britz, 1997, p. 129).

Moreover, police work has been traditionally regarded as unpredictable,
dangerous and violent. Given the potential danger and unpredictability, police ofﬁcers
need dependable backup from colleagues to fulﬁll their job successfully without
subjecting themselves to personal danger or public ridicule. Thus, from the needs of
fulﬁlling their job, the police have developed a solid peer group relationship and view
loyalty to colleague ofﬁcers to be critically important. Isolation, coupled with other
characteristics inherent in police work such as danger, leads to police solidarity, which
Skolnick deﬁned as “an exceptionally strong tendency to ﬁnd his social identity within
his occupational milieu” (1966, p. 52). Further, he found that the acquisition of police
subculture and police solidarity was so powerful that individual personality differences
among police newcomers did not signiﬁcantly alter the socialization process (cited in

Britz, 1997, p. 133).

2) Approved deviance

 

The alliances of peer group loyalty and solidarity may facilitate the
accomplishments of organizational goals. Further, the sentiment of peer group support

supplies members with emotional and ideological support. Nevertheless, at the same

19

time, loyalty can play a critical role for the development of deviance inside a police
group.

Matza (1964) states, “persistent deviance typically is not a solitary enterprise;
rather it best ﬂourishes when it receives group support.” Barker (1991) further asserts that
many patterns of police deviance are forms of approved deviance by peer groups in
organizational settings. Police ofﬁcers conduct this type of “approved deviance” without
a sanction from their peer group, rather it is supported since these behaviors are not
deviant to their informal norms. This is generally true of marginally deviant behaviors
such as free meals, gratuities and discounts (Haberfeld, 2000, p. 43).

What makes matters worse is that these types of activities are not only supported
by peer groups but also permitted or ignored in silence by supervisors and administrators
provided that they are conducted secretly and discreetly (Haberfeld, 2000, p. 43;
Lundman, 1980, p. 172). Therefore, in many cases, it is no exaggeration to say that there
are two policies regarding police deviance in an agency—ofﬁcial policy and unofﬁcial
policy.

Since such behaviors are at least secretly accepted in police peer groups and
supervisors alike, they might be considered as insigniﬁcant by police administrators.
Nevertheless, those behaviors may play a critical role as an impetus for more serious
police deviance. The New York City’s Knapp Commission emphasizes the seriousness of
these approved deviance using the well-known metaphor “meat-eaters and grass-eaters”:

Although the vast majority of policemen on the take don’t deal in huge amounts

of graft and the meat-eaters receive the large payoffs and the newspaper coverage,

20

 

the grass-eaters are the heart of the problem because their greater numbers make

corruption respectable (p. 4).

One meaningful notice should be given to the fact that, during the socialization of
the approved deviance, police ofﬁcers also learn the skills that are needed to neutralize
the guilt of committing deviant behaviors. For neutralization, they come up with various
excuses like; “Every body is doing it. Why not me?” “He had it coming.” “It is part of the
job” etc. These excuses imply that police ofﬁcers are employing Sykes and Matza’s
techniques of neutralization taken by delinquents to avoid feelings of guilt (cited in Vold

etaL,2002,p.182)

3) The code of silence

 

Another consideration that bears emphasis is that police peer group support
engenders elements of secrecy, which can easily turn into “the blue code of secrecy,”
which is the informal prohibition in police subculture against reporting fellow ofﬁcers’
deviance. “The Code of Silence” or “The Blue Curtain” is a norm that one ofﬁcer should
not “rat” on other ofﬁcers. It is believed that the punitive orientation of the quasi-military
police administration, coupled with police subculture and peer group solidarity, generate
“The Code of Silence.” Haberfeld et al. (2000) noted;

Put too crudely, quasi-military police administration works by creating hundreds

and sometimes thousands of rules and punishing deviations from those rules

severely. It is a sociological inevitability that under such administrative and

organizational conditions, some form of The Code will evolve (p. 44).

21

Ofﬁcers learn through the socialization process that they are supposed to tolerate
or condone misconducts of colleague ofﬁcers. They also learn that “ratting on others”
will result in severe ostracism from almost all peer ofﬁcers. Police peer group socializes
police rookies into patterns of approved deviant behaviors and provides support in
possible ways such as the code of silence. In this regard, the approval of such deviance
and following support in the form of secrecy function as a “reinforcement,” which is
depicted in Akers’ Social Learning Theory (cited in Vold et al., 2002, p. 171-174).

Almost all empirical research on police deviance has implied that the rate of
committing police deviance is closely related to the perceived risk of being reported by
colleague ofﬁcers (see Klockars et al., 1997; Huon et al., 1995; Barker, 1978). That is,
when ofﬁcers believe their behavior will be covered up by the code of silence, they are
more likely to conduct deviant behavior. This study also attempts to explore the extent to
which the code of silence prevails with Korean police, though it is not stated in the
formal hypotheses.

The deﬁnition of police deviance and the code of silence may change within
different departments, or may be understood differently by ofﬁcers of different length of
service or rank. A recent study by Klockars et al. on 30 different police agencies within
the United States revealed substantial differences in the environments of integrity among
different agencies (1997). Martin (1994) also found in her research of Illinois municipal
ofﬁcers that certain kinds of police deviance are tolerated in some police departments but
were considered deviant in others. It is the same case with foreign countries such as

Croatia, Poland and Slovenia (Haberfeld et al., 2000). A study of 683 Australian police

22

ofﬁcers shows that length of service and rank are signiﬁcantly related to police ofﬁcers’

tolerance of police deviance (Huon et al., 1995).

Community

Another important dimension in understanding the socialization of police
deviance is the inﬂuence of community in which police agencies operate. A police
department is an integral part of a more complex community, and it reﬂects the values
and behaviors which are accepted in that community. To iterate, the various social,
economical and political factors of different communities can lead to diversities in
general police subculture, subsequently resulting in different dynamics of police deviance
(Klockars et al., 1997, p. 2; Lundman, 1980, p. 4).

In the same context, one may infer different culture of police deviance between a
rural community and an urban community. In general, police ofﬁcers in urban cities are
believed to encounter crimes more frequently compared to their rural counterparts. An
urban detective, who deals with a number of heinous homicides, may consider a free
meal to be of little signiﬁcance. It may be possible that more crimes, incidents and calls
inevitably desensitize urban ofﬁcers. It is deplorable, however, that there is no research
which examined differences in culture of police deviance between urban police ofﬁcers
and rural ofﬁcers.

Yet, there are several researchers who indicate possible variations between urban
and rural police ofﬁcers. Weisheit, Wells & Falcone state that ofﬁcers in rural
communities, compared to their urban counterparts, are likely to know the offenders, the

victims and their families, just as the ofﬁcer and his family will be known by the

23

community, suggesting higher visibility of police operations (1994, p. 553). Eisentein
further points out that rural police have less discretion because their work is more visible
to the public:
In smaller communities the actions of police ofﬁcers are known to most of the
population thanks to the effectiveness of informal communication networks; there
they are more highly visible. As a result, small town police enjoy less latitude in
deviating ﬁom dominant community values (1982, p. 117).
In sum, Weisheit et a1. and Eisentein do indicate that ofﬁcers in rural communities
seem to be less deviant than urban ofﬁcers due to higher visibility and subsequent lower

discretion.

24

CHAPTER 3
METHODOLOGY
1. KEY OPERATIONAL DEFINITIONS IN THE STUDY

Developing operational deﬁnition of police deviance

The items listed on the 10-point scale developed for this study represent a
working deﬁnition of the phenomenon of police deviance. It should be pointed out that
the items on the scenario are far from being exhaustive and were developed as typologies
of other deviant police practices. Eight items in the scenario were chosen in accordance
with Barker and Carter’s typology of police deviance (1991).

Police deviance is deﬁned as any deviant behavior, criminal or non-criminal, of
police ofﬁcers committed during the course of normal work activities. Barker and Carter
deﬁne police deviance in a two-point typology: occupational deviance and abuse of
authority. Occupational deviance consists of corruption and police misconduct. Abuse of
authority consists of physical abuse, psychological abuse and legal abuse (1991, p. 6-8).

1) Police corruption signiﬁes any forbidden act which involves the misuse of the
ofﬁcer’s ofﬁcial position for actual or expected material reward or gain. Speciﬁcally,
corruption involves three elements: (1) forbidden acts by some law, rule, regulation or
ethical standard; (2) misuse of an ofﬁcer’s position; (3) actual or expected material
reward or gain. Corruption is oftentimes viewed as a more serious form of deviance and
may range from acceptance of free or discount meals to chiseling, kickbacks, bribery and
shakedowns etc. Items 4 and 6 in the survey questionnaire represent examples of

behavior that would be categorized as police corruption.

25

2) Police misconduct represents a police ofﬁcer’s violations of formally written
normative rules, traditional operating procedures, regulations of the police and other
public service agencies and criminal and civil laws. Item 1 and 7 in the data instrument
signify police misconduct.

3) Physical abuse occurs when a police ofﬁcer uses more force than is necessary
to effect a lawful arrest or search, and/or the wanton use of any degree of physical force
by a police ofﬁcer. Item 3 represents such police behavior.

4) Psychological abuse includes circumstances wherein a police ofﬁcer verbally
assaults, ridicules, discriminates against, or harasses individuals and/or places a person
who is under the actual or constructive dominion of the ofﬁcer in a situation where the
individual’s esteem is threatened or diminished. Item 2 represents psychological abuse by
police ofﬁcers.

5) Legal abuse signiﬁes violation of a person’s constitutional, federally protected,
or state-protected rights by a police ofﬁcer. An improper search, stopping a person
without legal grounds, or the improper release of conﬁdential criminal history

information are examples of legal abuse. Item 5 and 8 represent legal abuse.

Enforcement Sections

Among twenty sections in Korean police stations, eight of them come under this
category: Criminal Affairs, Crime Investigation 11, Special Investigation, Investigation of
Trafﬁc Accident, Trafﬁc Patrol, Crime Prevention Guidance, Juvenile and Police
Substation. Police ofﬁcers in Enforcement Sections conduct direct law enforcement

activities towards civilians, such as trafﬁc control, crime investigation and entertainment

26

business regulations, thus presumably experiencing more opportunities for police
deviance. They experience more citizen demands for police deviance as a result of
characteristics of their work. They have more chances to conduct their daily work out of

the sight of supervisors, thus enjoying more discretion.

Non-enforcement Sections

Twelve among twenty sections in Korean police stations are included in this
category: Police Administration, Accounting, Communication, Internal Affairs, Service
and Information, Crime Prevention, Mobile Police Unit, Crime Investigation 1, Crime
Affairs and Administration, Public Security, Intelligence and National Security. Non-
enforcement Sections mostly carry on police administration, and coordination-related
tasks such as personnel, training, equipment, intelligence and public demonstration.
Police ofﬁcers in these sections rarely execute direct law enforcement tasks towards
citizens, thus presumably they are less exposed to opportunities for deviant police
behaviors. They rarely experience citizen demands for police deviance. Basically they
have less chance to conduct their daily work out of the sight of supervisors, thus

exercising less discretion.

Supervisory and Non-supervisory ranks
Supervisory ranks mean Lieutenant and above in Korean police stations:
Lieutenant, Captain, Superintendent and Police Chief. Non-supervisory ranks mean

Policeman, Senior Policeman and Sergeant in Korean police stations.

27

II. RESEARCH HYPOTHESES

This study tests four hypotheses.

Hypothesis 1: Police ofﬁcers who have served longer terms of service perceive
police deviance less seriously than ofﬁcers who have served shorter.

Many researchers have suggested that police recruits go through an occupational
socialization process through which they acquire values, norms and behaviors necessary
to become full-ﬂedged veteran ofﬁcers (N iederhoffer, 1967; Skolnick, 1966; Westly,
1970; Van Maanen & Schein, 1977). Occupational socialization is considered to be an
on-going process which occurs throughout the entire career of a police ofﬁcer. Therefore,
it is plausible to assume that length of service has an impact on the level of socialization,
and consequently inﬂuencing ofﬁcers’ perceptions of police deviance. Put simply,
ofﬁcers who served longer experience more incidents and chances of police deviance
than ofﬁcers with shorter length of service, thus desensitizing the veteran ofﬁcers’
perceptions towards police deviance. Such an assumption is reasonable considering the
assertion of Klockars et al. that policing is an occupation that is rife with opportunities for
deviance (1977). Huon et al. also admit that comparisons of ofﬁcers’ perceptions across
the length of service (and across rank) provide one way of inferring the impact of
socialization on attitudes towards police deviance (1995, p. 9).

Huon et al. (1995) also found that there is a curvilinear relationship between
length of service and Australian police ofﬁcers’ perceptions of police deviance, ofﬁcers
with between 6 and 10 years of service having least serious perceptions. Given the
different culture and police background, it will be a worthwhile undertaking to test the

above hypothesis in the Korean police setting.

28

Hypothesis 2: Police ofﬁcers who are in non-supervisory ranks perceive police
deviance less seriously than ofﬁcers who are in supervisory ranks.

In a Korean police station, the rank system is structured by 7 ranks: Policeman, Senior
Policeman, Sergeant, Lieutenant, Captain, Superintendent and Police Chief. Typically,
ranks from lieutenant and above are considered to be supervisory positions. It needs to be
pointed out here that the rank of Sergeant in Korean police is, unlike its American
counterpart, usually considered as a non-supervisory position. Since the main tasks of
supervisory ofﬁcers are more related to monitoring and controlling subordinates’
activities, it is conceivable that they experience different types of occupational
socialization processes since they entered the supervisory positions.

Martin (1994) found that rank was negatively related to the possibility of
observing fellow ofﬁcers’ deviant behaviors in Illinois police departments. Huon et al.
(1995) revealed that lower ranking ofﬁcers viewed police deviance less seriously than
higher ranking ofﬁcers did in the Australian police. Their research results further reveal
that although rank and length of service are correlated, rank relates more strongly to

seriousness ratings of police deviance than does length of service.

Hypothesis 3: Police ofﬁcers who work in the Enforcement Sections perceive
police deviance less seriously than ofﬁcers who work in the Non-enforcement Sections.

Barker asserts that the occupational opportunity structure for police deviance
varies by placement in the organizational structure (1991, p. 49). According to Barker,
patrol ofﬁcers, plainclothes ofﬁcers and detectives have different types of opportunities

for police deviance. Sherman also notes that the types of police deviance an ofﬁcer can

29

engage in are limited to a great extent by his functional and geographical assignment
(1978, p. 5). The demands of citizens for police corruption vary according to different
placement of ofﬁcers. Klockars et al. also state that the occupational culture of integrity
may differ substantially among precincts, service areas, task forces and work groups
(l997,p.2)

Most South Korean police stations are constituted of six divisions: Police
Administration, Crime Prevention, Criminal Affairs, Criminal Investigation, Public
Security and Trafﬁc and Intelligence and National Security. Each Division is composed
of several sections (Korean National Police Agency, 2002). Though ofﬁcial policies in
Korean police stations encourage ofﬁcers to rotate through diverse divisions during the
career, there is a tendency that each ofﬁcer stays in speciﬁc divisions longer than other
divisions, depending on personal likings or other circumstances. For example, if an
ofﬁcer prefers active ﬁeld work, he or she may be likely to serve longer in criminal
investigative sections. On the contrary, if one has a penchant for coordination and
administration, he or she may be willing to work in the police administration section.
Further, if a police rookie was assigned in a crime prevention division, and invested pains
and time in learning needed skills and knowledge, the ofﬁcer may not be willing to
transfer to other divisions.

Since different divisions and sections deal with different tasks, characteristics of
opportunity structure for police deviance vary by different placements in a police
organization. As a simple illustration, it is intuitively believed among Korean police
ofﬁcers that crime detectives are more exposed to deviant opportunities than ofﬁcers who

work for police administration or public security sections, whose main tasks are of either

30

paperwork or public security. Therefore, it will be a meaningful endeavor to test the

above hypothesis.

Hypothesis 4: Police ofﬁcers who serve in urban communities perceive police
deviance less seriously than police ofﬁcers who serve in rural communities.

Berkeley contends that the police of any society are essentially a reﬂection of the
prevailing customs of that society (1969). Further, the style of policing is inﬂuenced by
the relationship between the police and the community. Given the nature of different
cultural and social interactions with the police between rural and urban communities,
police-community relations and police law enforcement activities will be quite different
in rural and urban departments.

As noted earlier, one of the conditions in which police deviance begins and
evolves is the low visibility of police actions. It is generally believed that the police in
urban communities enjoy low visibility and subsequently more discretion (Eisenstein,
1982, p. 117). On the contrary, due to close informal networks in rural communities rural
police ofﬁcers are more visible and exercise less discretion compared to urban ofﬁcers
(Weisheit et al., 1994; Eisentein, 1982). Since rural ofﬁcers’ activities are more visible
and they enjoy less latitude, rural ofﬁcers may perceive police deviance more seriously
than urban ofﬁcers do. Moreover, urban ofﬁcers deal with more crime and calls. They
encounter many more anonymous persons. Under the circumstances, urban police
ofﬁcers may experience more opportunities for police deviance. For example, it is often

believed by rural police ofﬁcers in Korea that their urban counterparts are more deviant

31

because there are more crimes, more businesses, more chances of discretion and higher
anonymity in urban cities.

There are a few researches that investigated differences in ofﬁcers’ perceptions on
police deviance based on different departments in the United States. They reveal that
ofﬁcers from a department known for its low integrity have more favorable perceptions
of police deviance than ofﬁcers in a department known for its high integrity (Klockars et
al., 1997; Martin, 994). The manifestation of different perceptions of police ofﬁcers in
the United States seems to arise from the characteristics of the localized and fragmented
police organizations. On the contrary, Korean police typically represent a central and
national police organization. Under the national system, line ofﬁcers rotate around the
neighboring police stations on a regular basis. Moreover police chiefs rotate around
police stations on a wider geographical level at least once every two years. Consequently,
Korean police become quite homogeneous, and it is presumably not an easy undertaking
to distinguish more deviant police stations from less deviant ones. Considering the nature
of different cultures and different relationships with the police between rural and urban
communities, however, identifying disparities in ofﬁcers’ perceptions of police deviance
between urban ofﬁcers and rural ofﬁcers is highly likely. In addition, such an attempt will
be a worthwhile effort, since there is no previous research that examined this hypothesis

before.

32

III. OPERATIONALIZING THE VARIABLES

Measure of Independent Variables

In this study, there are four major independent variables: Length of Service, Rank,
Placement and Community. Length of Service and Rank will be measured on the basis of
participants’ self-identiﬁcation. Length of Service will be measured at a continuous level
by asking the respondents to write in the actual number of years they have served. Rank
will be divided into two categories: Supervisory Groups and Non-supervisory Groups.
The rank Lieutenant and above will comprise Supervisory Groups, and the rest of them
Non-supervisory Groups. Community will be divided into two categories based on its
geography, demographics and industry: Urban and Rural. In addition, participants will be
asked about other demographic variables such as gender, education, and marital status.
These demographic variables will be used as controls in multivariate analysis.

Measuring police ofﬁcers’ placement is comparatively a delicate undertaking,
since the structure of working placement in Korea is different from that of American
police organizations. Moreover, there is no ofﬁcial demarcation of placements that ﬁt the
goal of the present study. Yet, for the purpose of this research, placements are basically
divided into two groups: Enforcement Sections and Non-enforcement Sections. This
classiﬁcation is largely based on the characteristics of work with which each group deals
on a daily basis (Korean National Police Agency, 2002). As a matter of fact, although
there is no such ofﬁcial classiﬁcation, most police ofﬁcers in South Korea admit the
legitimacy of this demarcation. To further conﬁrm this type of classiﬁcation, nine ofﬁcers

in supervisory positions and fourteen ofﬁcers in non-supervisory positions throughout the

33

South Korea police stations were contacted for practical advice on this issue in the fall of
2002. Except for a few trivial indecisions, they supported this grouping unanimously.

To measure Placement, after given the details of the classiﬁcation, police
participants will be asked in which sections they have served longer. Placement will be
divided into ﬁve categories: Mostly Enforcement, Relatively Enforcement, Equal,
Relatively Non-enforcement, and Mostly Non-enforcement. Table 1 displays the major
independent variables.

Table 1. Measure of Independent Variables

 

 

Independent .
. Categories
Variables
Length of Service Scale
Rank Supervisory, Non-supervisory
Placement Mostly Enforcement, Relatively Enforcement, Equal,
Relatively Non-enforcement, Mostly Non-enforcement
Community Urban, Rural

 

Measure of Dependent miable

The dependent variable in this study is police ofﬁcers’ perceptions of police
deviance, speciﬁcally ofﬁcers’ perceptions of the seriousness of given deviant activities.
To construct the dependent variable, the survey questionnaire presents police ofﬁcers
with eight hypothetical case scenarios, which they might confront in their daily work
settings. Considering the sensitivity of the topic of this study, employing this form of
hypothetical scenario is considered to be appropriate in a sense of avoiding the
embarrassment of the participants and eliciting honest answers from them. Since the
validity of this survey depends upon participants’ honest responses, ofﬁcers are also
assured of the anonymity and conﬁdentiality of each response. Police ofﬁcers are asked

only about their opinions, not about their actual behaviors or the actual behaviors of other

34

fellow ofﬁcers. The eight scenarios will be presented in a shufﬂed way, not by the order
of seriousness of the behaviors, to eliminate the chance of bias in response due to the way
the questions are ordered. Table 2 presents the eight case scenarios.

Table 2. Case Scenarios

 

 

Case Scenarios Scenario Description Typology
1 Cover-up of police DUI Misconduct
2 Threatening statement to an interviewee Psychological Abuse
3 Excessive force on a car thief Physical Abuse
4 Holiday gifts from merchants Corruption
5 Release of conﬁdential information Legal Abuse
6 Auto repair shop kickback Corruption
7 Drinking on duty Misconduct
8 Improper Search Legal Abuse

 

The eight scenarios in the questionnaire were chosen with regard to Barker and
Carter’s typology of police deviance: corruption, misconduct, physical abuse,
psychological abuse and legal abuse (1991). Four of the scenarios—scenario 1, 3, 4, 6 —
were selected from the survey instrument used in the study by Klockars et al. (1997), and
the rest of them were chosen from related literature (Carter &Barker, 1991). The
scenarios cover a range of police deviance from taking holiday gifts from local merchants
to more serious activities such as the receipt of a kickback from an auto repair shop in
exchange for referrals.

The questionnaire employs a 10-point scale for responses to each item. Responses
will be indicated as follows: ‘Not at all serious (1-2)’ ‘Not really serious (3-4)’
‘Moderately serious (5-6)’ ‘Very serious (7-8)’ and ‘Extremely serious (9-10).’ A high
score indicates that police participants view the activity more seriously, a low score less
seriously.

In order to better capture possible dissimilarities of police perceptions, the scores

of the responses to eight scenarios will be handled in two different ways. First of all, the

35

mean scores of the responses to each of the eight scenarios will be compared between
different groups. By doing so, group contrasts in the perceptions of police deviance with
regards to the individual scenarios will be revealed.

Secondly, the scores for the eight scenarios will be totaled and compared
according to each group. This is to grasp the entire picture of the variation in police
perceptions among different police groups, regardless of speciﬁc scenarios.

In addition to the perceived seriousness, participants will also be asked about how
they evaluate the possibility of other ofﬁcers’ reporting the behavior of the given
scenario. This is to examine the relationship between the perceptions of a police ofﬁcer
and The Code of Silence. Although this study’s hypotheses do not include it, the ofﬁcers’
perceptions of other ofﬁcers’ willingness to report share an inseparable relationship with
the ofﬁcers’ perceptions of police deviance. The more seriously an ofﬁcer perceives that
other ofﬁcers are willing to report, the more seriously the ofﬁcer perceives a given

deviant behavior.

36

1V. SAMPLING PROCEDURE AND DATA COLLECTION

Korean Police System

Unlike the fragmented police system in the United States, the South Korean
police system is national. The National Police Agency is composed of 14 Regional Police
Agencies (Korean National Police Agency, 2002). Under the 14 Regional Agencies, there
are 231 police stations. In each police station, there exist seven hierarchical rank
structures from Policeman at the bottom, to the Police Chief at the top. Most police
stations have six different divisions, each of which consists of several sub-units named
sections. In all, there are 20 sections in each police station. There is a difference in the
number of police ofﬁcers depending on the locality of a police station. Approximately
from 300 to 600 sworn ofﬁcers serve in urban police stations and from 100 to 200 in rural
stations. Yet, due to the national police system, the 231 Korean police stations share the

same ofﬁcial rules, regulations and directives, thus becoming quite homogeneous.

The Sample

The sample in this study is a convenience sample, not a representative sample.
Because police departments are generally reluctant to participate in studies like this,
which deals with a sensitive issue, the researcher had to resort to personal
acquaintanceship to get permission to carry out the survey. The site of this study is
Chungnam Province, which is located in the middle of South Korea. Since the researcher
has served in this Province as a middle level police manager, the researcher requested the
personnel in leadership positions in two police stations to conduct the survey, and they

responded positively on the condition that the data set could only be used for academic

37

purposes. The two police stations among 19 police stations in this area were chosen
partly due to the researcher’s easier access and partly due to one being an urban police
station and the other a rural.

Under Chungnam Regional Police Agency there are 19 police stations. An urban
police station was chosen from ﬁve police stations located in the capitol city of
Chungnam Province, Daejeon Metropolitan City. The population of Daejeon is 1,408,809
as of December 2001, and the area is 539.84 km2 (Daejeon Metropolitan City, 2001).
Daejeon is the ﬁfth biggest city in South Korea in terms of population and area. The
chosen police station among ﬁve police stations in the city is named as “Urban Police
Station.” In terms of demographics and industry, the Urban Police Station is typically
considered to be the most urban agency among the ﬁve stations by police ofﬁcers in this
area. There are 345 sworn police ofﬁcers in the Urban Police Station.

The population under the jurisdiction of the Urban Police Station is 339,510. The
number of businesses that can be a direct target for law enforcement is 3,582, including
bars, clubs, restaurants etc (Urban Police Station, 2001). In general, a large number of
entertainment businesses are clustered in this area, and therefore, subsequently active law
enforcement is being operating in this police station.

A rural police station was chosen from 14 police stations in Chungnam Province
(Five other urban stations are located in the Daejeon Metropolitan area). The number of
sworn police ofﬁcers in the “Rural Police Station” is 147. This station is 32Km from
Daejeon city. The population in this area is 64,785, and more than half of them are
engaged in farming (Rural Police Station, 2001). The community in this area is in stark

contrast with the community of Urban Police Station in terms of the number of

38

population, geography, structure of industry, and presumably different characteristics of

law enforcement activities.

Data Collection

 

In the fall of 2002, the survey instrument used in this study was developed and
tested on 34 police officers in South Korea. The survey was distributed via e-mail to
police ofﬁcers to which the researcher had easy accesses. Although the sample was far
from being random, the ﬁndings of the pilot study indicated that there were differences in
the perceptions of police ofﬁcers, thus, indicating the merit of future research with a
larger sample.

The survey will be carried out in the spring of 2003 at both the Urban and the
Rural Police Station. The researcher will establish a relationship with the Administrative
Coordinator of each police station, inducing them to work as an instructor for the survey.
The survey will be conducted during the monthly meeting days of each police station. As
a way of overall communication among police personnel, it is mandatory that police
ofﬁcers in a police station in South Korea attend the monthly meeting. At this monthly
meeting police chief and division commanders convey new directives and mandates to
ofﬁcers. In order that every ofﬁcer attends the meeting, ofﬁcers are divided into two
groups— Group A and Group B, and the meeting opens twice a month at one week
interval. Each group takes turns to attend the meeting and all of them should attend it at
least once a month.

At the ﬁrst day of the monthly meeting in the spring of 2003 in each police station

auditorium, when the ofﬁcial session is over, the instructors will explain the survey and

39

request that ofﬁcers who are interested in participating in the survey will remain. The
instructors then read the cover letter and make sure that it is understood that responses are
to be voluntary. Ofﬁcers are asked not to write their name on the questionnaire, and
informed that the name of the police station will remain conﬁdential. By doing so, the
willingness and anonymity of police participants in this study will be guaranteed. The
instructors then will distribute the questionnaire and collect them when they are ﬁnished.
On the second day of the meeting, the same instructors will conduct the same procedures
to another half of the personnel. In each case, ofﬁcers will not be allowed to ask extra
questions once the instruction is over. This will be done to prevent any possible bias that
can occur due to the fact that the survey is conducted at a different time to different
groups. Meticulous care will be given to administer the surveys under the same

conditions in each case.

40

Chapter 4
DATA ANALYSIS AND RESULTS

Methods of Analysis

This chapter consists of three parts. The ﬁrst part describes the demographic
characteristics of the sample. The second part is about the overall ratings of scenario
seriousness. The overall seriousness ratings were conducted in order to identify which
deviant incidents were perceived to be more serious, and which were less serious by
Korean police ofﬁcers. The test of the hypotheses constitutes the third part. First
bivariate, and second multivariate analysis was conducted.

As noted earlier, eight hypothetical scenarios were constructed to measure the
ofﬁcers’ perceptions of police deviance. Each scenario employed a 10-point scale for
responses: from ‘Not at all serious (1- 2)’ to ‘Extremely serious (9-10).’ The mean score
of the responses became the dependent variable of this study.

The mean scores, which constituted the dependent variable of the study, were
treated in two different ways. Firstly, the mean scores of the each scenario were
compared. This was done in order to capture the differences in ofﬁcers’ perceptions
based on varying individual scenarios. In this case, the mean score could range from 1 to
10. Secondly, the scores of the eight individual scenarios are added altogether, and its
mean was named as ‘Totaled Seriousness Score.’ The analysis of the Totaled Score was
conducive to understanding the overall picture of ofﬁcers’ perceptions without
emphasizing much on the individual scenarios. In this instance, the mean score could

range from 10 to 80.

41

As a way of bivariate analysis, Pearson correlation was employed to determine
the statistical signiﬁcance of differences in ofﬁcers’ perceptions according to different
lengths of service. For the independent variables, Rank and Community, an independent
sample T-test was conducted. Finally an Analysis of Variance (ANOVA) was employed
to determine if there were disparities in perceptions among the ﬁve categories of police
ofﬁcers with regard to the independent variable, Placement.

For multivariate analysis of data, an Ordinary Least Squares (OLS) regression
analysis was performed. With this statistical procedure, we can determine the relative
effects of each independent variable while controlling for other variables, and also
measure how well the independent variables as a group explain the dependent variable.
Besides the main independent variables, controls such as education, satisfaction on the
job, sex, and marriage were included.

One concern should be given regarding the multivariate analysis. The ideal way
of doing good regression analysis is to select independent variables that are strongly
related to the dependent variable, and weakly or unrelated to one another (Bachman &
Paternoster, see p. 491). On the contrary, when two or more independent variables are
highly correlated with another, multicollinearity occurs, which makes it difﬁcult to
disentangle the independent effect each has on the dependent variable.

Above all, among independent variables in this study, multicollinearity appeared
between the Length of Service and Rank. The correlation between the two variables was
.735. It is said that multicollinearity exists when the correlation between two independent
variables is .70 or higher (Bachman & Paternoster, 1997. p. 493). If the problem of

multicollinearity appears between two independent variables, one of the variables should

42

be eliminated. Therefore the OLS regression analysis was conducted excluding the
independent variable, Rank. Yet, for further reference, an extra OLS regression analysis

was conducted including Rank, and the result is presented in the appendix.

43

1. Demographic Characteristics of the Sample

The ﬁnal sample consisted of 321 police ofﬁcers from two Korean police
stations: Rural (126) and Urban station (195). The total response rate was sixty six
percent. The demographic characteristics of the sample for independent variables and
control variables are summarized in Table 3 and Table 4.

Table 3. Demographic Characteristics of the Sample for Independent Variables (N=321)

 

 

 

 

 

Independent Variable Mean Range
Length of service 12.07 32 (1—33)
Independent Variable N %
Rank

Supervisory group 25 7.7

Non-supervisory group 296 92.3
Placement

Mostly Enforcement 128 39.9

Relatively Enforcement 52 16.2

Equal 62 19.3

Relatively Non-enforcement 48 15

Mostly Non-enforcement 31 9.7
Community

Urban 195 60.7

Rural 126 39. 3

 

The mean length of service was 12.07 years. In terms of ranks, In fact, the
majority of the respondents were Non-supervisory ofﬁcers (n=296, 92.3%): Policeman,
Senior Policeman, and Sergeant. There were only 21 Lieutenants and 4 Captains among
the respondents. No Superintendents and chiefs participated in completing the
questionnaire. The low participation rate of high ranking personnel seems to reﬂect the
sensitivity of the issue of this study as well as their unwillingness toward an open

discussion on the issue of police deviance.

44

The number of ofﬁcers who had served longer in the Enforcement sections was
greater than that in the Non-enforcement sections. Ofﬁcers from the Urban station (195)
was more than ofﬁcers from the Rural station (126).

Table 4. Demographic Characteristics of the Sample for Control Variables (N=321)

 

 

Control Variable N %
Sex
Male 306 95.3
Female 15 4.7
Education
Less than high school 8 2.5
High school 156 48.6
College 145 45.2
Master and above 2 0.6
Marriage
Unmarried 35 10.9
Married 281 87.5
Others 5 1.6
Satisfaction on the job
Very satisﬁed 60 18.7
Modestly satisﬁed 128 39.9
Don't know 48 15
Modestly dissatisﬁed 66 20.6
Very dissatisﬁed 19 5.9

 

Table 4 indicates that the sample was predominantly male (95.3%), primarily
consisted of high school or college graduates (93.8%), and married (87.5%). Ofﬁcers in

the sample tend to be more satisﬁed (58.6%) rather than dissatisﬁed (26.5%) with the job.

45

11. Overall Ratings of Perceptions of Scenario Seriousness
Prior to conducting the hypotheses tests, overall seriousness ratings for the

individual scenarios were conducted. It revealed which deviant incidents were considered
to be more serious, and which were less serious by Korean ofﬁcers. In order to conduct
the ratings, the mean scores for each scenario, by the whole sample, were compared.

Table 5 summarizes the overall ratings of the mean seriousness scores. The table
also presents the ratings of the ofﬁcers’ perceptions of other ofﬁcers’ willingness to
report. Higher score indicates that the respondents consider the given behavior more
seriously. In addition, according to the mean seriousness scores, the scenarios are ranked
in an ascending order. The corresponding rank orders for other ofﬁcers’ willingness to
report are also displayed in the table.

Table 5. Police Ofﬁcers’ Perceptions of Scenario Seriousness and Other Ofﬁcers’
Willingness to Report

 

Scenario Seriousness Rank Other ofﬁcers Rank
wrllrngness to report

Cover-up of police DUI 6.09 1 3.80 4
Holiday gifts from merchants 7.11 2 3.62 3
Threatening statement to an 7.18 3 3.59 2
intervrewee

Excessive force on a car thief 7.33 4 3.42 1
Improper search 7.42 5 3.95 5
Drinking on duty 8.23 6 4.15 6
Auto repair shoo kick back 8.87 7 4.69 8
Release of conﬁdential 8.9 8 4.36 7
rnforrnatron

 

The comparison of the two column mean scores and rank orders shows that less
serious scenarios also ranked low in other ofﬁcers’ willingness to report, whereas more
serious ones ranked high. In other words, the more serious the police ofﬁcers perceived a
particular behavior to be, the more likely the behavior was considered to be reported by

other ofﬁcers. In light of the occupational socialization theory, this phenomenon could be

46

interpreted that police ofﬁcers consider a given deviant behavior more seriously if they
anticipate a less peer group support, and vice versa.

While the mean scores of seriousness for the scenarios range from 6.09 to 8.90,
the mean scores for other ofﬁcers’ willingness to report are notably low— from 3.80 to
4.36. The obvious gap between the two scores tells that respondents believe police
ofﬁcers are not likely to report their colleague ofﬁcer’s deviant behavior. To put it
differently, it implies that Korean police ofﬁcers are well aware of the existence of one

critical element of the occupational socialization of police deviance: the code of silence.

47

111. Test of the Hypotheses

Hypothesis 1: Police ofﬁcers who have served longer terms of service perceive

police deviance less seriously than ofﬁcers who have served shorter.

Hypothesis 2: Police ofﬁcers who are in Non-supervisory group perceive police

deviance less seriously than ofﬁcers who are in Supervisory group.

Hypothesis 3: Police ofﬁcers who have served in the Enforcement Sections
perceive police deviance less seriously than ofﬁcers who have served in the Non-

enforcement Sections.

Hypothesis 4: Police ofﬁcers who serve in urban communities perceive police

deviance less seriously than ofﬁcers who serve in rural communities.

 

Bivariate Analysis

1) Length of service and perceptions of police deviance

The data of the Supervisory group (n = 25) were excluded in the analysis because
the respondents in this group tended to have disproportionately longer terms of service,
with 18.28 mean years of service. The test results of Pearson correlation are presented in
table 6.

Table 6. Pearson Correlations between Perceptions of Scenarios Seriousness and Length
of Service (N=296)

 

 

Scenario Length of service
Cover-up of police DUI .011

Holiday gifts from merchants -.070
Threatening statement to an interviewee -.011

Excessive force on a car thief -. 144*

Improper search -.079

Drinking on duty -.067

Auto repair shop kick back -. 100

Release?! 9.99134993591i9f99astiea ................................. 29.1.4 ................

Totaled seriousness score -.024

 

Notes: Asterisk indicates that the coefﬁcient is statistically signiﬁcant at the
.05 level (* p < .05)

48

The strength of the correlation between the totaled seriousness scores and length
of service was not signiﬁcant (r = -.024). This value of correlation coefﬁcient implies that
there is a weak negative relationship between the length of service and ofﬁcers’
perceptions of police deviance. It was the same case when the correlation was tested
regarding individual scenarios. Only one scenario — Excessive force on a car thief --
appeared signiﬁcant at the .05 level (r = -. 144). Thus, on the surface, the socialization
hypothesis in this study did not seem to bear any credence. Nevertheless, the almost
unanimously negative values of Pearson' s r — except for Cover-up of police DUI —
indicated that there was a consistent negative relationship between the length of service
and ofﬁcers' perceptions.

Therefore it was decided that a closer look should be taken by using a different
way of analysis. To do that, police ofﬁcers are grouped into ﬁve categories according to
different lengths of service: 1) 1 year, 2) 2 Cl 4 years, 3) 4 El 10 years, 4) 10 Cl 15 years,
and 5) over 16 years.

Figure 1 presents the ratings of totaled seriousness scores for ﬁve police groups.

The graph in Figure 1 clearly delineates the steady decrease of seriousness until
the lowest point 59.4 is reached. Ofﬁcers with one year of experience showed the highest
score of 64.8. However, those neophytes manifested a conspicuous decrease after only a
couple of years of occupational experience. The mean difference between ofﬁcers with
one year experience and with two to four year experience was the greatest (2.1) compared

to other groups’ mean differences.

49

Figure 1. Seriousness Ratings by Length of Service

66...

65-

64.8 (n=9)

  
  

63 -
62.7 (n=38)

62-

Totaled Seriousnes Scort

61.2 (n=109)

  

61"

 

 

59 l I I I l
1 year 2—4 years 4-10 years 10-15 years over 16 years

Years of Service

Notes: This ﬁgure tend to magnify the actual differences for maximum visual effect. A
scatterplot with a ﬁtting line, which describes the data more realistically, is presented in
the appendix.

For the ofﬁcers on the job from the two to ten year period, there was a continued
decrease to 61.2. The seriousness score for the ten to ﬁfteen year interval moved down to
its lowest point at 59.4. After this continued decrease, there was a slight increase for the
last stage of over sixteen years. When the sample means of these different groups were
compared to each other, no signiﬁcant statistical difference was found here again. Yet,

Figure 1 indicates that the seriousness ratings are in the predicted direction of the stated

hypothesis.

50

2). Raﬁ and perceptions of police deviance

As noted earlier, for the purpose of testing the signiﬁcance of mean difference
between Supervisory group and Non-supervisory group, a t-test was conducted. In order
to utilize a t-test, each sample group needs to include large enough samples. In this study,
however, the obvious smaller sample size of 25 for the Supervisory group in contrast
with that of 296 for the Non-supervisory group generates a problem. Thus, to address the
problem, a non-parametric test— Kolmogorov-Smirnov two-sample test— was also
employed. The result of the Kolmogorov-Smimov test is presented in appendix since the
result was almost the same as that of the t-test.

Table 7 shows the mean scores of each group for individual scenarios, the mean
of totaled seriousness score for all the scenarios, and corresponding t-test results. The
mean difference between the two groups were not statistically signiﬁcant at the .05 level
except for one scenario— Excessive force on a car thief. Yet, interestingly enough, the
mean differences generally manifested that the Supervisory ofﬁcers considered the
scenarios more seriously than do the Non-supervisory ofﬁcers, only with the exception of
two cases; the minus (Cl ) values in parentheses in the mean difference column show the

exceptions.

51

Table 7. T-test for Perceptions of Scenario Seriousness (N=321): Supervisory Group vs.
Non-supervisory Group

 

 

. Non-
Scenario Supervrsory supervisory . Mean t score
(n=25) (“=2 9 6) difference

Cover-up of ofﬁcer DUI 5.84 6.11 (-.27) -.448
Holiday gifts from merchants 7.60 7.07 .53 1.210
Threatening statement to an 7.24 7.17 .07 .129
rntervrewee

Excessive force on a car thief 7.48 7.32 .16 .338
Improper search 8.52 7.32 1.2 3628*
Drinking on duty 7.52 8.29 (-.77) -l.662
Auto repair shoo kick back 9.24 8.84 .4 1.866
Release of conﬁdential 9.04 8.89 .15 .432
information

Totaled seriousness score 62.1 61.0 1.1 .589

 

Notes: Asterisk indicates that the t value is statistically signiﬁcant at the
.05 level (* p < .05). Values in parentheses indicate that the mean difference is not in the
predicted direction of the hypothesis.

Thus, a more detailed investigation was warranted in order to get a clear idea on
what was going on in the data. In this case, ranks were divided into ﬁve categories
following the actual ranks of Korean police. Table 8 illustrates the mean of totaled
seriousness scores among Policeman, Senior Policeman, Sergeant, Lieutenant, and
Captain. The general pattern in the table is that Supervisory ofﬁcers perceive police
deviance more seriously than Non-supervisory ofﬁcers. The Captain viewed the incidents
most seriously, followed by the Lieutenant.

All Non-supervisory ranks scored lower than Supervisory ranks. The lowest
rank, Policeman (61.7), perceived the scenarios more seriously than Senior Policeman
(60.9) and Sergeant (60.7). The reason might be attributed to the fact that the rank of

Policeman largely consisted of ofﬁcers who had shorter terms of service. Apart from a

slight difference between Senior Policeman and Sergeant, it appeared that these two rank

52

groups, who constituted the majority of police personnel (82.4%), shared the lowest
seriousness scores in the organization.

Table 8. Totaled Seriousness Scores for Five Rank Categories

 

 

Rank N (%) Totaled Seriousness Score
Policeman 54 (16.8) 61.7
Senior Policeman 140 (40.6) 60.9
Sergeant 102 (31.8) 60.7
Lieutenant 21 (6.5) 62.3
Captain 4 (1.2) 63.2

 

In sum, all Non-supervisory police ofﬁcers considered the incidents less
seriously than the Captains and Lieutenants. This seems to coincide with the hypothesis
that supervisory ofﬁcers perceive police deviance more seriously due to the different
occupational socialization; it stems from the inherent characteristics of their work, which
is related to the controlling and monitoring of subordinates’ activities. It is, however, also
possible that the supervisory ofﬁcers are more likely to report what is expected for them
to do rather than what they really perceive. At present, yet, the results were in the

predicted direction of the hypothesis although it was not statistically signiﬁcant.

3). Placement and perceptions of police deviance

An ANOVA test was conducted to determine the statistical signiﬁcance of mean
differences among different police groups. The respondents were divided into ﬁve groups
based on their history of placements: Mostly Enforcement (n=128), Relatively
Enforcement (n=52), Equal (n=62), Relatively Non-enforcement (n=48), and Mostly
Non-enforcement (n=31). Here again, the unevenly large number of respondents for

Mostly Enforcement (128) presents a problem when conducting an ANOVA test. Thus, a

53

non- parametric test—Kruskal-Wallis H test— was also employed. The result of the
Kruskal-Wallis H test is presented in appendix.

Table 9. Analysis of Variance for Perceptions of Scenario Seriousness by Placement

 

 

 

(N=321)
Scenario F

Cover-up of ofﬁcer DUI 1.184
Holiday gifts from merchants 2.982*
Threatening statement to an interviewee 1.493
Excessive force on a car thief 1.823
Improper search 7025*"
Drinking on duty 1.725
Auto repair shop kick back 3.557"
Release of conﬁdential information 3.736“
Totaled seriousness score 5.496"

 

Notes: Asterisk indicates that the F ratio is statistically signiﬁcant
(* p < .05, ** p < .01, *** p < .001).

Table 9 presents the results of the ANOVA test for ofﬁcers’ perceptions by
Placement. The table generally indicates that there is a signiﬁcant mean difference among
the perceptions of ofﬁcers. Signiﬁcant F ratios were found in four scenarios: Holiday
gifts from merchants, Improper search, Auto repair shop kick back, and Release of
conﬁdential information. When all the scenario scores were totaled, a signiﬁcant F ratio
(5.496) also appeared at the .001 level. Figure 2 shows the seriousness ratings of the

totaled scenario scores for ﬁve police groups.

54

Figure 2. Totaled Seriousness Scores for Placement

7o -
68 -
6" ' 64.6 (n=48))
64 -
62 - 61.3 (n=52)

60 58.8 (n=128) 59.4(n=62)
58 ~
56 -
54 1 . -

Mostly Relatively Equal Relatively Non- Mostly Non-
Enforcement Enforcement enforcement enforcement

68 (n=31)

 

 

 

 

 

Seriousness Score

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Placement

The ﬁgure indicates that the group, Mostly Enforcement, shares the lowest
seriousness scores, while ofﬁcers from Relatively Non-enforcement and Mostly Non-
enforcement sections show higher seriousness scores. Except for the group, Equal, the
data were exactly in the predicted direction of the hypothesis. It seemed that hypothesis 3
was well supported. Yet, the F test alone cannot tell which speciﬁc means are
signiﬁcantly different from one another. To pinpoint where the signiﬁcant differences
are, Tukey’s Honest Signiﬁcant Difference (HSD) test was employed concerning the
totaled seriousness scores. As a result, signiﬁcant differences were found at the .05 level
between the group Mostly Enforcement and Relatively Non-enforcement, and Mostly
Enforcement and Mostly Non-enforcement. Signiﬁcance was also found between the
group Equal and Mostly Non-enforcement. In sum, it is statistically supported that
ofﬁcers who have served longer in Enforcement sections tend to view the incidents as

less serious, while ofﬁcers in Non-enforcement sections viewed them more serious.

55

4). Community and perceptions of police deviance

Table 10 presents the mean scores of Rural and Urban Station for the individual
scenarios, the mean of the totaled seriousness scores for all of the scenarios, and
corresponding t-test results.

Table 10. T-test for Perceptions of Scenario Seriousness (N=321): Urban Station vs.
Rural Station

 

 

 

Scenario Rural Urban .Mean t score
(n= 126) (n= 1 95) Difference

Cover-up of ofﬁcer DUI 5.49 6.48 (-.99) -2.979**
Holiday gifts from merchants 6.98 7.19 (-.21) -0.76
11:31:32: S‘a‘emem ‘0 a“ 7.39 7.04 .35 1.214
Excessive force on a car thief 7.38 7.30 .08 .317
Improper search 7.50 7.36 .14 .494
Drinking on duty 8.37 8.14 .23 .961
Auto repair shop kick back 9.13 8.70 .43 2.178*
Release 9f conﬁdential 9.10 8.76 .34 1.765
information
Totaled seriousness score 61.3 60.9 .40 .28

 

Notes: Asterisk indicates that the t value is statistically signiﬁcant (* p < .05, ** p < .01).
Values in parentheses indicate that the mean difference is not in the predicted direction of
the hypothesis.

The mean differences between the two groups were not statistically signiﬁcant
except for two scenarios. Mean scores of two scenarios— Cover-up of ofﬁcer DUI,
Holiday gifts from merchants— showed that they were in the reversed direction of the
hypothesis. Furthermore, mean difference for the scenario, Cover-up of ofﬁcer DUI, was
statistically signiﬁcant. It means, quite opposite to the stated hypothesis, that ofﬁcers
from Rural Station viewed the given behavior signiﬁcantly less seriously than ofﬁcers
from Urban Station.

Excluding the two incidents, nonetheless, the positive values of seven mean

differences including the totaled seriousness score imply that rural ofﬁcers, in aggregate,

56

perceive the deviant behaviors more seriously than do urban ofﬁcers. In sum, the result is

in the predicted direction of the hypothesis although it is not statistically signiﬁcant.

57

1

 

Multivariate Analysis

Hypothesis 1, hypothesis 2, and hypothesis 4 have not been statistically supported
at bivariate level analysis. Multivariate analysis was, in part, conducted in order to ﬁnd
out whether any statistical signiﬁcance would appear with regards to the above three
hypotheses at multivariate level. In addition, multivariate analysis would reveal whether
or not hypothesis 3 could still be supported. Finding out the amount of explained
variance (R square) in the model would be another important outcome.

An OLS regression was conducted as a way of multivariate analysis. In this case,
as a measure of perceptions of police ofﬁcers, for the sake of brevity, only the totaled
seriousness scores for the scenarios were used. Controls were included for education
level, satisfaction on the job, sex, and marriage. For OLS regression analysis, all
categorical variables were modiﬁed to dummy variables, and were given the value of 1 or
0.

Respondents were coded according to the following groups: Those who have
served longer in Enforcement sections versus those who have not, Urban versus Rural,
Those who have a college or higher degree versus those who hold a lower degree, Those
who are satisﬁed with the job versus those who are not, Male versus female, and Those
who are married versus those who are not. Table 11 presents the results of ordinary least

squares regression analysis.

58

Table 11. OLS Regression of Perceptions of Police Deviance

 

 

Independent variable B Standard Error Beta Sig.
Length of Service -7.69E-02 .109 -.047 .703
Enforcement -4.527** 1.367 -.187 .001
Urban -.165 1.442 -.007 .909
College or Higher 1.882 1.465 .078 .200
Satisﬁed .976 1.379 .040 .480
Male 5.033 3.381 .089 .138
Married -5. 109* 2.410 -.l34 .035
Constant 68.020

R Square .058

 

In a multiple regression analysis the value of R square reﬂects the amount of
variance explained in the dependent variable by a set of independent variables. The small
value of R square, .058, in table 11 indicates that the independent variables explain little
variance in the perceptions of police ofﬁcers. It suggests that there could be other
variables which affect the variance in the dependent variable.

As in the bivariate analysis, independent variables, Length of service and Urban,
did not signiﬁcantly affect ofﬁcers’ perceptions. Yet, each coefﬁcient value for those
variables indicated that the predicted direction of the hypotheses was still holding: Length
of service (-.0769) and Urban (-. 165).

The reported signiﬁcance in the relationship between Placement and ofﬁcers’
perceptions from the bivariate analysis was still sustained when other independent
variables were being held constant. Further, the highest Beta score (-.187) appeared for

the variable, Placement. It indicates that Placement has the most impact on the dependent

59

variable among the independent variables. Thus, hypothesis 3 was consistently supported
at this level.

Concerning the control variables, a signiﬁcant coefﬁcient value appeared with
regard to the variable, Married (-5.109)- that is, married ofﬁcers viewed police deviance
less seriously, and unmarried ones more seriously. Considering that unmarried ofﬁcers
are relatively young and new to the organization, it is plausible that unmarried police
ofﬁcers share more serious views on police deviance than married ones.

Ofﬁcers who were more satisﬁed with the job appeared to perceive police
deviance slightly more seriously than those who were less satisﬁed. Male ofﬁcers seemed
to view police deviance more seriously than female ofﬁcers. Yet, this result could not be

substantiated concretely since there was too small number of female ofﬁcers (4.7%).

60

 

CHAPTER 5
DISCUSSION AND CONCLUSION
1. Summary and Discussion
This study hypothesized that there are differences in police ofﬁcers’ perceptions
of police deviance based on four independent variables: 1) Length of service, 2) Rank, 3)
Placement, and 4) Community. When statistical signiﬁcance is involved, only the
relationship between Placement and ofﬁcers’ perceptions turned out to be signiﬁcant.
With regard to the remaining three hypotheses, no statistical signiﬁcance was found.
However, the results were all in the predicted direction of each hypothesis. The outcome
of this study indicated that police ofﬁcers’ views on police deviance are systematically

related to their length of service, rank, placement, and community.

Length of Service and Perceptions of Police Deviance

Figure 1 shows that there is a continued decrease in ofﬁcers’ perceptions as the
length of service increases. The decrease reaches its lowest point when the length of
service reaches the 10 to 15 year interval. Then, there is a slight increase as the service
experience goes over 16 years.

This result generally concurs with the study of Huon et al. (1995). They found
that Australian ofﬁcers’ perceptions of police deviance decreased as the length of service
increased, reaching the lowest point at the six to ten years of service period. Then, as the
length of service increased above ten years, the perceptions also increased. In contrast

with the Australian study, this study of ofﬁcers from Korea showed that Korean ofﬁcers

61

reached the lowest point in their perceptions about ﬁve years later than their Australian
counterparts did.

The greatest decrease of perceptions among police ofﬁcers who have only one or
two years of occupational experience is an important ﬁnding of the study. It signiﬁes that
police neophytes become quickly socialized to view some deviant police behaviors less
seriously. This phenomenon implies that new ofﬁcers are very much attuned to what their
fellow ofﬁcers are doing or not doing, and they are quick at absorbing the existing
informal values and attitudes from old timers.

The fact that ofﬁcers with ten to ﬁfteen years experience share the lowest
perception of police deviance draws a special attention to the problem. Ofﬁcers in this
group usually have a thorough knowledge of their job and a great deal of experiences.
Thus, they might be mirrored as role models and reference groups by police newcomers.
If the reference group disseminates the idea that they view certain police deviance far
from being serious, new police ofﬁcers will exactly absorb those attitudes and values in a
short period of time.

The slight increase of ofﬁcers’ perceptions at the last stage of their career seems
to parallel one of the hypotheses of Niederhoffer’s study on police cynicism (1967).
Niederhoffer argued that when ofﬁcers have served enough time and are approaching
retirement, they encounter a limited opportunity of new employment. Thus, their
appreciation and commitment to the police occupation revives, and the extent of anomie
they have experienced decreases. Likewise, ofﬁcers may become more attached to the
police organization and formal values and regulations when they approach the end of

their police career.

62

Rank and Perceptions of Police Deviance

The data manifest that ofﬁcers in supervisory ranks report more serious
perceptions of police deviance than ofﬁcers in non-supervisory ranks; both Lieutenant
and Captain reported higher mean scores than Policeman, Senior Policeman, and
Sergeant. It implies that ofﬁcers tend to see a “them and us” situation, drawing a line
between Non-supervisory and Supervisory ofﬁcers.

The lowest scores were revealed at the Sergeant group. The reason for the lowest
mean scores of Sergeant seems to stem from a unique situation in which Korean
Sergeants reside. Traditionally there has been a distinct classiﬁcation between ranks
under Lieutenant and the ranks of Lieutenant or above. Ofﬁcers under Lieutenant were
considered as “workers” and Lieutenant and above “management.” Even the color of all
the insignia was different: silver color to the former, gold to the latter. Being promoted to
Lieutenant denoted a meaningﬁrl success in their career especially if an ofﬁcer started his
career from the bottom. Due to the pyramidal hierarchy of Korean police, the probability
of rising up to Lieutenant is not ample. Under this situation Korean Sergeants who fail to
reach the rank of Lieutenant, or who simply ﬁnd it requires excessive effort, may feel a
greater amount of strain than any other ranks. Drawing on Niederhoffer once more,
symptoms of strain or anomie are “loss of enthusiasm for high ideals of police work,
pride, and integrity” (1967. p. 96). Borrowing his assertion, the lowest perception of
police deviance from Korean Sergeants could be understood by the degree of strain or
anomie they experience in their occupation.

The ﬁndings show that Senior Policeman share nearly as low scores as the

Sergeant group. Figure 2 indicates that Senior Policeman’s perception was only .2 lower

63

than Sergeant’s. The fact that ofﬁcers from those two ranks regarded the scenarios least
serious implies a grave problem regarding police deviance. As a matter of fact, the groups
of Senior Policeman and Sergeant represent the bulk of members in the Korean police
force (75.4% of the sample). They are the backbone of the Korean police and are engaged
in active interaction with the community. They also play a critical role in shaping and
maintaining the police subculture. Under these conditions, their low perceptions of police
deviance could impose a signiﬁcant impact on the degree of integrity of police

organization as well as the image of organization to the community.

P_lacement and Perceptions of Police Deviance

The result showed that hypothesis 3 was well supported by the data with
statistical signiﬁcance. Ofﬁcers who have served longer in Enforcement sections tended
to have a more lenient attitude toward police deviance. According to the result, their
experience in Enforcement sections appears to change their values in the direction such
that they consider police deviance less seriously. This ﬁnding well accords with the
occupational socialization theory of police deviance.

Ofﬁcers in Enforcement sections whose daily operation involves direct law
enforcement activities out in the ﬁeld such as crime investigation, traffic control, and
entertainment business control, go through different types of occupational experiences
than other ofﬁcers. They tend to meet more of the public who are acting contrary to the
law. Daily exposure to public immorality may nibble away their high integrity with
which they entered the job. In order to get their job done efﬁciently, in many cases they

need to resort to expediency rather than fairness and justice. Thus, it can be concluded

64

that the impact of the occupational socialization generating from their placement partly

accounts for the extent to which their perceptions of police deviance change.

Community and Perceptions of Police Deviance
Although statistically signiﬁcant difference was not revealed between perceptions
of urban and rural ofﬁcers, table 9 indicates that urban ofﬁcers generally view the
scenarios less seriously than do their rural counterparts. It is consistent with the speciﬁed
hypothesis. Different types of occupational socialization originating from different
community characteristics do affect ofﬁcers’ perceptions of police deviance.

One might be tempted to disregard this outcome as having little value considering
the nonexistence of statistical signiﬁcance. Taking into account the national system of
Korean police, however, this ﬁnding is not of little signiﬁcance. Due to the national
system, both rural and urban stations are subject to the same regulations, code of ethics,
and other directives coming down from the National headquarters. Consequently, there
is a strong possibility of them becoming more homogeneous in their values and mores.
Thus, the difference found in their perceptions between rural and urban ofﬁcers is
another manifestation of the socialization theory. It also sheds a light of support to
Weisheit et al. and Eisentein’s argument that the informal but effective communication
networks in rural society leads police ofﬁcers to higher visibility, less discretion, and
ﬁnally less deviation.

An unexpected anomaly, however, appeared in the case of Cover-up of ofﬁcer

DUI. Quite contrary to the direction of the hypothesis, rural ofﬁcers considered the

behavior of an ofﬁcer who covered up a colleague ofﬁcer’s DUI signiﬁcantly less

65

seriously than urban ofﬁcers do. This deviation from the hypothesis may be interpreted in
light of presumably stronger bonds among rural ofﬁcers.

Ofﬁcers in urban stations in Korea are drawn from varying geographical areas.
They tend to rotate through nearby stations frequently. In contrast, a large portion of rural
ofﬁcers are drawn from the local members of the community which the police station
serves. Moreover, normally fewer ofﬁcers serve in rural police stations. Thus, rural
ofﬁcers may share closer relationships with each other than urban ofﬁcers. Consequently,
stronger bonds will develop in rural stations. Thus, the loyalty manifested by the ofﬁcer
in the given scenario may draw more empathy from rural ofﬁcers than urban ofﬁcers.
Therefore, it is understandable that rural ofﬁcers view the given speciﬁc behavior less

seriously.

66

11. Recommendations for Future Research and Policy Implications

Limitations and Recommendations for Future Research

The sample in this study is a non-random convenience sample. The sample
includes only a particular region of the country, gathering data only from one section of
Korean police. Further, the sample includes disproportionately small numbers of
Supervisory rank respondents. Because of the above biases, the results of this study may
not be generalizable to all police forces in South Korea. Future research would beneﬁt by
selecting a representative sample, and a large enough and proportionate number of each
subgroup.

The total response rate was sixty six percent. Regarding the remaining forty four
percent of ofﬁcers who did not participate in the survey, this study does not explore the
speciﬁc characteristics of the ofﬁcers. It may be possible that those ofﬁcers are more
prone to deviance, or have anti-organization attitudes. If so, and if those ofﬁcers are
included in the future research, the results could be quite different from the present study.

Next, although this study is based on the occupational socialization approach, it
attempts to explore only four aspects of occupational socialization: length of service,
rank, placement, and community. As was revealed in the low R square value, there
should be other strong variables that could affect ofﬁcers’ perceptions of police deviance.
Further, future research, which involves the equivalent number of male and female
ofﬁcers, would be desirable.

Researchers have advocated the execution of longitudinal studies to examine the
dynamics involved in the process of occupational socialization. Such studies can

document the formation, development and resultant changes in the perceptions of police

67

 

recruits over the course of the occupational socialization process. The present study of a
cross section of serving police ofﬁcers lacks such merits due to practical limitations.
Longitudinal study is recommended for future research in this regard.

Finally, it should be noted that this study focuses only on the dimension of police
ofﬁcers’ occupational socialization in attempting to explain police deviance. Other
functions that can possibly inﬂuence the mechanisms of police deviance are not
examined in this study. Although the occupational socialization process plays a critical
role in the development of police deviance, individual socialization outside of the
organization and psychological baggage individuals bring to the organization should not
be ignored. Due to such factors, differential responses from different individuals may
appear although they are subjected to similar type of socialization process. This is the

area in which more integrated future research is required.

Policy Implications

The four independent variables in this study, which represented a phase of police
occupational socialization, appeared to affect police ofﬁcers’ perceptions. Yet the true
variable is not length of service, rank, placement, or community. They are only some part
of an index. The title of the index is occupational socialization.

Occupational socialization exercises signiﬁcant impact on the construction of
perceptions of ofﬁcers at each stage of their career. In a similar vein, occupational
socialization would be the most complicated question that any police administrator needs

to grapple with if he/she attempts to initiate an effective management of police deviance.

68

The point is that police ofﬁcers can be re-socialized to take a direction so that they will
not tolerate police deviance.

Drawing on the results of the study and being mindful of the limitations as well,
several policy recommendations can be made. As far as the length of service is
concerned, during the ﬁrst one or two years of occupational experience, a quick and
signiﬁcant change in ofﬁcers’ perception appeared. Also ofﬁcers in the ten to ﬁfteen year
term showed the lowest seriousness scores in their perceptions. Thus, an ethics program
needs to be focused on ways which can deter the negative aspects of socialization of less
experienced ofﬁcers and also strengthen the integrity level of veteran ofﬁcers.

The different levels of perception among different rank groups suggest special
attention be given to those classiﬁcations when police administrators initiate an effective
management of police deviance. Police ofﬁcers might need to be regularly inculcated
with the code of ethics. Yet, a more special care should be given to the ﬁrndamental and
institutional reasons, for example, the strain from which Korean Sergeants suffer, which
have the potential to deteriorate a police ofﬁcer’ integrity level.

Ofﬁcers who are daily engaged in active law enforcement operations need to be
differently dealt with when administrators are aiming to enhance integrity. For example,
detectives may easily become less subjected to formal regulations because of the unique
characteristics of what they do. Referring to the freedom of detectives and their lack of
concern for formal regulations, one author once described the detective division as a
“mock bureaucracy” (Niederhoffer, 1967, p. 85). In contrast, ofﬁcers who mainly engage

in administrative or clerk type work may perceive organizational rules and regulations

69

more seriously. Thus, if it is possible, it would be best to develop custom-made training
programs or ethics classes based on different placements.

Finally, the type of community where an ofﬁcer serves warrants a consideration
when dealing with police deviance issues. It appears from the result that although urban
ofﬁcers in general view police deviance less seriously, certain behavior was considered
as signiﬁcantly less serious by rural ofﬁcers. It will be police administrators’ duty to
identify in which area their subordinates are most vulnerable, and establish appropriate

programs and policies to manage the problem of police deviance.

70

APPENDICES

71

Appendix A

Tablel. Kolmogorov-Smimov two-sample test (N=321): Supervisory Group vs. Non-
supervisory Group

 

Scenario Kolmogorov-Smimov Z Sig.
Cover-up of DUI .803 .540
Holiday gifts from merchants 1.211 .107

Threatening statement

 

to an interviewee '426 '993
Excessive force on a car thief .356 1.000
Improper search 1.352 .052
Drinking on duty .937 .344
Auto repair shoo kick back .633 .818
Release of conﬁdential information .392 .998
Sum of seriousness score .552 .921

 

72

Table 2. Kruskal-Wallis H test of Scenario Seriousness by Placement

 

 

 

Scenario Chi-Square Sig.
Cover-up of DUI 5.295 .258
Holiday gifts from merchants 12.516 .014
51:31:;125 statement to an 5440 .245
Excessive force on a car thief 10.064 .039
Improper search 30.909 .000
Drinking on duty 8.813 .066
Auto repair shop kick back 12.120 .016
Release of conﬁdential information 14.571 .006
Totaled seriousness score 24.040 .000

 

73

Table 3. OLS Regression of Perceptions of Police Deviance Including Rank

 

 

Independent variable B Standard Error Beta Sig.
Length of Service -8.47E-02 .113 -.051 .455
Supervisory .702 2.603 .016 .787
Enforcement -4.470 1.385 -. 185 .001
Urban . 168 1 .444 .007 907
College or Higher 1.825 1.482 .076 .219
Satisﬁed .969 1.381 .040 .484
Male 5.053 3.386 .089 .137
Married -5.053 2.415 -.133 .036
Constant 67.870

R Square .058

 

74

Figure 1. Sactterplot with a Fitting Line for Seriousness Scores by Length of Service

 

 

 

 

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Length of Service

75

Appendix B. Questionnaire

INSTRUCTIONS
CONFIDENTIAL

Participation in this survey is voluntary, thus you have the right to withdraw at
any time and the right to refuse to answer particular questions. On the following pages,
you will be asked to evaluate eight descriptions of police ofﬁcer behavior that may differ
from the department policy. In each instance you should assume that the ofﬁcer in
question has been a police ofﬁcer with ﬁve years of service, has not been previously
disciplined, and the ofﬁcer has a satisfactory work record. Please do not make any other
assumptions about the incident or the ofﬁcer. For each incident you will be asked to
respond how seriously you view the given behavior. You should CIRCLE a number that
indicates how you perceive the seriousness of the behavior on the ten-point scale that
appears beneath each question.

Please understand that you are free not to answer any given question. It will be
assumed that you indicated your voluntary consent to participate in the research by your
returning the questionnaire. In this research, you are being asked for your PERSONAL
OPINIONS on these matters. Your answers will remain conﬁdential, and will be used
only for academic purposes. Furthermore, your police station’s name will not be cited

anywhere in this study and will remain conﬁdential.

If you have any questions about the nature of the research, you can contact either

Professor Dr. Bruce Benson by phone: (517) 355—2199, email: besoan’i‘zmsu.edu,

 

address: 560 Baker Hall, School of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University, East

Lansing, MI 48824-1118 or llhong Yun by phone: (517)355-1270, email: yunil(ti‘msu.cdu,

 

76

address: 1452 Spartan Village Apt. C, East Lansing, MI 48823. In case you have
questions or concerns about your rights as a research participant, please feel free to
contact Ashir Kumar, MD, Michigan State University’s Chair of University Committee
on Research Involving Human Subjects by phone: (517) 355-2180, fax: (517) 432-4503,

email: ucrihstg msuctlu, or regular mail: 202 Olds Hall, East Lansing, MI 48824. If you

 

do not want your name to be known, you may contact Dr. Kumar anonymously.

77

PART 1.

CONFIDENTIAL
Case 1.

At 2:00 a.m., a police ofﬁcer, who is on duty, is driving his patrol car on a deserted
road. He sees a vehicle that has been driven off the road and is stuck in a ditch. He
approaches the vehicle and observes that the driver is not hurt but is obviously
intoxicated. He also ﬁnds that the driver is a police officer. Instead of reporting this

accident and offense, he transports the driver to his home.

1. How serious do you consider this behavior (cover-up of ofﬁcer DUI) to be?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Not at all serious Not really serious Moderately serious Very serious Extremely serious

2. Do you think most other police ofﬁcers in your agency would report an ofﬁcer who
failed to report the accident?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Deﬁnitely No Deﬁnitely Yes

Case 2.
A police officer who is interviewing a girlfriend of a robbery suspect threatens her,

saying, “If you don’t tell me where he is, I’m going to arrest you right now.”

1. How serious do you consider this behavior to be?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Not at all serious Not really serious Moderately serious Very serious Extremely serious

2. Do you think most other police ofﬁcers in your agency would report a fellow ofﬁcer
who engaged in this behavior?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Deﬁnitely No Deﬁnitely Yes

78

Case 3.

Two police officers on foot patrol surprise a man who is attempting to break into an
automobile. The man ﬂees. They chase him for about two blocks before
apprehending him by tackling and wrestling him to the ground. After he is under
control, both ofﬁcers punch him a couple of times in the stomach as punishment for

ﬂeeing and resisting.

1. How serious do you consider this behavior to be?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Not at all serious Not really serious Moderately serious Very serious Extremely serious

2. Do you think most other police ofﬁcers in your agency would report a fellow officer
who engaged in this behavior?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Deﬁnitely No Deﬁnitely Yes

Case 4.
A police ofﬁcer is widely liked in the community, and on holidays local merchants
and restaurant and bar owners show their appreciation for his attention by giving

him gifts of food and liquor.

1. How serious do you consider this behavior to be?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Not at all serious Not really serious Moderately serious Very serious Extremely serious

2. Do you think most other police ofﬁcers in your agency would report a fellow ofﬁcer
who engaged in this behavior?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Deﬁnitely No Deﬁnitely Yes

79

Case 5.
A police officer habitually releases conﬁdential criminal history information to any

acquaintance who asks for it.

1. How serious do you consider this behavior to be?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Not at all serious Not really serious Moderately serious Very serious Extremely serious

2. Do you think most other police ofﬁcers in your agency would report a fellow ofﬁcer
who engaged in this behavior?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Deﬁnitely No Deﬁnitely Yes

Case 6.
A police ofﬁcer has a private arrangement with a local auto body shop to refer the
owners of cars damaged in accidents to the shop. In exchange for each referral, he

receives payment of 5 percent of the repair bill from the shop owner.

1. How serious do you consider this behavior to be?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Not at all serious Not really serious Moderately serious Very serious Extremely serious

2. Do you think most other police ofﬁcers in your agency would report a fellow ofﬁcer
who engaged in this behavior?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Deﬁnitely No Deﬁnitely Yes

80

 

Case 7.
Two patrol officers on a night shift park their patrol car in a park and drink two

bottles of beer together.

1. How serious do you consider this behavior to be?

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Not at all serious Not really serious Moderately serious Very serious Extremely serious

2. Do you think most other police ofﬁcers in your agency would report a fellow ofﬁcer
who engaged in this behavior?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Deﬁnitely No Deﬁnitely Yes

Case 8.
A police ofﬁcer investigating a theft conducts an improper search at the suspect’s

house without proper warrant.

1. How serious do you consider this behavior to be?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Not at all serious Not really serious Moderately serious Very serious Extremely serious

2. Do you think most other police ofﬁcers in your agency would report a fellow ofﬁcer

who engaged in this behavior?
1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10

Deﬁnitely No Deﬁnitely Yes

81

PART 2.
CONFIDENTIAL
1. Sex: Male __ Female
2. Education

Lower than High School High School College Graduate or above

3. Rank:
4. Length of Service: years
5. Marital Status: Not married Married Other

6. What is your current assignment? Enforcement section
Non-enforcement section

*Enforcement Sections: Criminal Affairs, Crime Investigation 2, Special Investigation,
Investigation of Trafﬁc Accident, Trafﬁc Patrol, Crime Prevention Guidance, Juvenile,
Police Substation.
*Non-enforcement Sections: Police Administration, Accounting, Communication,
Internal Affairs, Service and Information, Crime Prevention, Mobile Police Unit, Crime
Investigation 1, Crime Affairs and Administration, Public Security, Intelligence, National
Security.
7. What describes you the best? __

1). I served mostly in Enforcement Sections throughout my police career.

2). I served relatively longer in Enforcement Sections throughout my police career.

3). I served approximately the same period in both sections.

4). I served relatively longer in Non-enforcement Sections throughout my police career.

82

5). I served mostly in Non-enforcement Sections throughout my police career.

8. What describes you the best?__
1). I am very satisﬁed with my job.
3). I am modestly satisﬁed with my job.
4). I don’t know well.
4). I am modestly dissatisﬁed with my job.

5). I am very dissatisﬁed with my job.

83

Appendix C. Approval of the University Committee on Research Involving Human
§pbjects (UCRIHS)

84

 

 

OFFICE or
RESEARCH
ETHICS AND
STANDARDS

University Committee on
Research Involving
Human Subjects

Michigan State University
202 Olds Hall

East Lansing, MI

48824

517/355~2180
FAX ‘ 517/432-4503

\leb www.msuedu/user/ucrihs
E—Mail: ucnns@msu.edu

MSU is at: affirmative-action,
equal-opportunity institution

MICHIGAN STATE

 

SI Ii y

UNIVERSITY

April 21, 2003

TO: Bruce BENSON
508 Baker Hall

RE: IRB# 03-292 CATEGORY: EXPEDITED 2-7

APPROVAL DATE: April 21, 2003
EXPIRATION DATEzMarch 21, 2004

TITLE: A STUDY OF POLICE OFFICERS' PERCEPTION OF POLICE DEVIANCE:
FROM AN OCCUPATIONAL SOCIALIZATION PERSPECTIVE

The University Committee on Research Involving Human Subjects' (UCRIHS) review of this
project is complete and I am pleased to advise that the rights and welfare of the human
subjects appear to be adequately protected and methods to obtain informed consent are
appropriate. Therefore, the UCRIHS approved this project.

RENEWALS: UCRIHS approval is valid until the expiration date listed above. Projects
continuing beyond this date must be renewed with the renewal form. A maximum of four such
expedited renewals are possible. Investigators wishing to continue a project beyond that time
need to submit a 5-year application for a complete review.

REVISIONS: UCRIHS must review any changes in procedures involving human subjects, prior
to initiation of the change. If this is done at the time of renewal, please include a revision form
with the renewal. To revise an approved protocol at any other time during the year, send your
written request with an attached revision cover sheet to the UCRIHS Chair, requesting revised
approval and referencing the project's IRB# and title. Include in your request a description of
the change and any revised instruments, consent forms or advertisements that are applicable.
PROBLEMS/CHANGES: ' Should either of the following arise during the course of the work,
notify UCRIHS promptly: 1) problems (unexpected side effects, complaints, etc.) involving
human subjects or 2) changes in the research environment or new information indicating
greater risk to the human subjects than existed when the protocol was previously reviewed and
approved.

If we can be of further assistance, please contact us at (517) 355-2180 or via email:
UCRIHS@msu.edu. Please note that all UCRIHS forms are located on the web:
httpz/lwww.msu.edu/user/ucrihs

  

Ashir Kumar, M.D. T/(7

UCRIHS Chair

AK: jm

cc: llhong Yun
1452 Spartan Village Apt. C

East Lansing, MI 48823 85

 

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