Police
Behavior
Name
Institutional
Affiliation
Introduction
Law
enforcement forms a vital part of the triple components of the criminal justice
in the United States. The other two include the courts of law and the
corrections. Over the years, there has been a great transition in the concept
of police in American law enforcement. With various socio-political changes, a
need has risen to explain new roles, functions, units, and jurisdictions in the police agencies of America. This attributes
to changes from the past philosophies of law enforcement to modern ones. In the
past, the concept of police was mere maintaining law and order in the society,
without limits and controls of power.
According
to Frühling, (2012), this past philosophy lacked cognitive psychology that is a
currently a very instrumental tool is diplomatic law enforcement in the modern
day America. Instead, there were numerous cases of human rights violations with
the police practicing a lot of corporal
punishment. With the current concept of police in law enforcement, there is
little to no cases of corporal punishment, a define departmentalization
structure for police with clear areas of jurisdiction and non-overlapping
roles. However, according to Baker & Simons, (2010), the new philosophies
of law enforcement still drag along some past along other emergent negativities
and complexities such as racial profiling, corruption, among others.
The
revolution of law enforcement comes along with several psychological theories
that range from early ones such as the Freudian ideologies to the current
cognitive and social psychological models. The most striking element of these
psychological theories is the fundamental assumptions regarding criminal (human
behavior) they portray. Firstly, the view an individual as the smallest unit
for analysis of these theories. In addition to that, these theories assume the personality of a person to be the major driver
of their behavior. Another assumption is that social consensus is the mother of
normality. The fourth one states that crime is the result of abnormal, malfunctioning mental processes that impair the
personality of the victim. Moreover, this mental dysfunction is deemed to be because
of a variety of causes that culminates in diseases, improper learning, radicalization,
and adjustment of personal conflicts. Lastly, the psychological model suggests
that controls these various causes of mental impairments can help mitigate
criminal behavior (Hansen, 2018).
Criminal
justice integrates a couple of policing models that include the reactive or
traditional policing model, where the police wait to respond to already
happened crimes. Use of detective is a common phenomenon under this model, in
order to determine the cause of the crime and to gather possible artifact that
can give a lead to the possible suspects. Another form is predictive policing.
It involves applications of predictions and analysis as tools for identifying
potential lawbreakers. Additionally, problem-oriented policing is yet another
model and its main emphasis is the preventive
approach. Detectives analyze and determine various crime patterns and try to
eliminate the potential instigator of such crimes. A more engaging model is the
community-oriented policing in which police strive to build ties and engage the
society in the process of law enforcement. Here the emphasis is encouraging
community members to report criminals among themselves. In addition to that,
reassurance policing is a model closely similar to community policing and it
involves identification of signal crimes (Brogden & Nijhar, 2013). Scanning, analysis, response and assessment
(SARA) policing model that involves the four steps stipulated in its name.
Lastly, intelligence-led policing, that revolve around assessing and managing
risks is another policing model that is strategic in nature. It is
future-oriented (Ratcliffe, 2016).
Police
stress may emanate from a number of factors such as direct exposure to
suffering people, potential threats, and
unprecedented security breaches,
stewardship of the security of the entire population, emotional control even if
provoked, indefinite job description and weapon handling. The most common
negative effect of policing is the emotional imbalance it can cause to the
officers. Other times there is no time for family and other developmental
aspects of life such as pursuing higher education.
Conclusion
Leaders
should deploy more police officers and ensure flexible work shift to reduce
potential accumulation of police stress. Moreover, there should be a clear set
of guidelines and welfare programs protecting the rights of both the police and
the society. More important, the police salaries and other non-financial
motivators should be revised to eliminate police vicissitudes such as bribery
and fraud (Carter et al.,2014).
References
Brogden,
M., & Nijhar, P. (2013). Community policing. Routledge.
Carter,
J. G., Phillips, S. W., & Gayadeen, S. M. (2014). Implementing intelligence-led
policing: An application of loose-coupling theory. Journal of criminal
justice, 42(6), 433-442.
Frühling,
H. (2012). A realistic look at Latin American community policing
programmes. Policing and society, 22(1), 76-88.
Hansen,
F. (2018). Police Stress: Identifying & Managing Symptoms of Stress
| Adrenal Fatigue Solution. Adrenal Fatigue Solution. Retrieved
13 February 2018, from https://adrenalfatiguesolution.com/police-stress-fatigue/
Ratcliffe,
J. H. (2016). Intelligence-led policing. Routledge.
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