Education

The Psychology Behind Police Brutality

Police brutality involves the use of excessive or unnecessary force by law enforcement personnel in dealing with suspects and civilians. The term police brutality is usually used in the context of causing physical harm to a person. It can also cause psychological harm through the use of intimidation tactics outside of officially sanctioned procedures. From the 18th to the 20th centuries, those who committed atrocities in the police could act with the implicit approval of the local legal system.

Numerous problems with the law enforcement of the American police have their origins in the lack of staffing. Not surprisingly, the mandatory screening of candidates for service was only partially introduced in 1997, with the adoption of a system of professional standards. Until then, even in the metropolitan police, the biography of the candidate for the service, his behavior in everyday life, moral qualities, and the presence of a criminal record of him and his relatives was checked only sporadically.

Modernity and free essay examples

In the modern age, those who have committed brutal violence by the police may do so with the tacit approval of their superiors, or they may be fraudulent officers. In any case, they can act in the color of the law and most often take part in further concealment of their illegal activities. Since the 20th century, many efforts have been made to combat police brutality.

Activists and lawyers take different approaches to decisions. Proponents of police reform offer concrete proposals to combat violence. For example, legislation aimed at reducing violence or mandatory visits to a psychologist. If you want to learn more information about police brutality, you can find free examples to read. There are many essays on police brutality, which can help to understand this problem better. You should just research paper and find essays on such topics. By reading them, you’ll realize how many people were killed, or hurt by police.

What causes police brutality?

Numerous doctrines, such as federalism, separation of powers, causation, respect, reason, and the burden of proof, have been cited as partial explanations for the police’s fragmented prosecution. However, there is also evidence that courts cannot or do not want to see systemic patterns in police brutality.

Other factors that are called to encourage police brutality include institutionalized police training, management, and cultural systems; a criminal justice system that discourages prosecutors from vigorously prosecuting police offences; a political system that responds more to the police than to the inhabitants of minority communities; and a political culture that fears crime and values ​​tough police more than its citizens. It is believed that without significant social change, control of police misconduct is impossible at best.

The blue wall of silence

The Psychology Behind Police Brutality

Typically, U.S. police departments adhere to an informal cultural code known as the “Blue Wall of Silence.” Under this rule, police officers do not report misconduct or abuse by other employees, and they will not interfere when their colleagues commit illegal or abusive behavior.

Domestic violence

An equally pressing issue for the US policy is the spread of domestic violence in police families. The Boston Department of Internal Affairs has repeatedly been criticized for its passivity in registering and handling complaints of police domestic violence against its wives and cohabitants. In one of the cases, a police sergeant was accused of harassing a former roommate, threatening to kill her and her children. During his 15-year career, the sergeant has had six complaints on the citizen’s track record: two for verbal abuse of women, one for alcohol abuse, and three for excessive use of force. The superintendent of the Internal Investigations Department acknowledged that the most common reason for arresting police officers was accusing them of domestic violence, although investigations usually do not lead to a conviction.

The Psychology Behind Police Brutality

Police hit police

The aggressive arbitrariness of the police affects not only the civilian population, but even the police themselves – ethnic minorities. In Boston, for example, black police officer M. Cox, while on duty on January 25, 1995, in civilian clothes, joined the radio broadcast of the prosecution of a murder suspect. However, he was detained by police in uniform, who took Cox as a suspect. Without any attempt to establish his identity, Cox was brutally beaten by several colleagues, resulting in concussions, facial injuries, and genital injuries. After six months in intensive care, M. Cox filed a lawsuit, which was left without consideration. During the investigation, which lasted 3 years, the police denied their involvement in the incident, so none of the officers was even disciplined.

Conclusion

The issue of police brutality is a traditional research topic, especially for American scientists and human rights groups. Resonant scandals that regularly occur among US police officers demonstrate the spread of the widest possible range of offences in police units – bribery and corruption, drug trafficking, participation in organized crime, and racism. All these negative manifestations, according to numerous government commissions, are directly related to the facts of intentional rudeness, arbitrariness, and abuse of power by the police. Even after a series of progressive policy reforms, violence against law enforcement, combined with racism, remains one of the most pressing problems in the United States’ criminal justice system.

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