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Slippery Slope Theory: Police Corruption In The United States

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Slippery Slope Theory: Police Corruption In The United States
Unit 4 Essay
Cheryl Murphy
CJ340: Applied Criminal Justice Ethics
Kaplan University
November 09, 2013

Ethics in Criminal Justice Ethical questions and acts are done every day. Being in law enforcement though, means everything an officer say’s and does is always under the microscope of the community. The community a police officer is hired to protect and serve, questions every move made to make sure corruption is not taking place. It does not take long for a new recruit to accept that free cup of coffee or half price meal which in turn can lead to bigger things.
Slippery Slope The slippery slope hypothesis is the idea that corruption starts with a tiny gratuity like a free or discounted cup of coffee and then rolls downhill to bigger things and eventually grows into crime for profit. An example of the …show more content…
It details the same thing as our text book.
Society-at-Large Hypothesis The society-at-large hypothesis tells us that everyone is corrupt. The main theory goes that everyone is corrupted by society at large. O.W. Wilson gave voice to the society-at-large in accounting for history of police corruption in Chicago. “This force was corrupted by the people of Chicago. It has been customary to give doormen, chauffer’s, maids, cooks, and delivery men little tokens of gifts and gratuities. It is felt that the level of service depends on these gratuities” (O.W. Wilson, ed, Parker on police). There was no trouble going from servants to public servants with these gratuities. It was easy giving gratuities to police officers who would do little favors in return. It was easy to offer a gratuity to a policeman for a favor that was not legal. Some of the more seasoned police officers would make themselves available for gratuities and business men knew if they wanted a favor done that it would cost them something. Structural or Affiliation
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