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Ethics, Integrity and Police Misconduct: Analyzing Attitudes and Behaviors of Law
Enforcement Officers in the United States
by Julie Raines
Abstract
The ethical behavior of public officials is critical to the performance of public agencies,
yet it is rarely the subject of quantitative research. This paper seeks to contribute to our
understanding of the norms followed by police officers regarding misconduct and how these
norms are shaped among street-level bureaucrats who, regularly and without warning, confront
important value choices. A complete investigation of police ethics would need to consider both
the factors that contribute to unethical behavior as well as ethical behavior. The literature tends
to focus on the former, therefore, this study will focus on those factors that contribute to ethical
behavior. This study examines one type of street-level bureaucrat, namely police officers, and
their attitudes towards misconduct using existing data from police officers in thirty police
agencies. The issue is whether a police officer’s tendency to report peer misconduct is
influenced primarily by attitudes regarding misconduct or situational factors such as individual
characteristics, peer behavior, the facts of the situation, organizational characteristics,
and peer norms.
I.
Research Problem
Spectacular scandals illustrate the underlying issue of the performance and accountability
of public servants. The video taped Rodney King beating in Los Angeles, the torture of a Haitian
immigrant with a plunger in New York, the Diallo shooting in New York, and the widespread
corruption in the New Orleans police force are just a few of the examples found within law
enforcement. In North Carolina, police officers struck up e-mail friendships with a 17 year old
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Chicago girl that quickly escalated into sexually explicit conversations. In Wake County, eight
deputies were disciplined for exchanging sexually suggestive messages with the girl while they
were on duty. The girl’s mother said one