Police Corruption

Ihekwoaba D. Onwudiwe & Chibueze W. Onwudiwe

Police corruption may be viewed as a distinct mode of police transgression, which involves the misuse of police power for officers' benefit or managerial advantage. Police corruption activities include taking bribes in exchange for not reporting incidents of crimes by drug syndicates, traffic violators, and prostitution rings and other illegal activities such as involvements in forging evidence against defendants, false arrest, false confession, intimidation, and police brutality. Officers themselves may be involved in illegal distribution of illicit drugs for financial and personal gains. These behaviors are generally not reported because of the police code of silence rooted in secrecy. Historically, African Americans, and in some cases, Latinos, have suffered soaring levels of lethal force by the police, bogus arrests, harassment, and maltreatment. When compared to many other criminological pathologies in vogue today—violent crimes, white-collar crimes, terrorism, gangs, prison overcrowding, illegal immigration, environmental crimes, and drug syndicates—police corruption generally lags behind ...

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