Preview

Corruption Within the Criminal Justice System

Powerful Essays
Open Document
Open Document
3664 Words
Grammar
Grammar
Plagiarism
Plagiarism
Writing
Writing
Score
Score
Corruption Within the Criminal Justice System
Corruption within the Criminal Justice System

I have always had a strong passion for the criminal justice system especially policing. Even as a student at Jessie Jensen Elementary I remember picking police officers for Career Day. However, my admiration for police officers has become pure disappointment. Corruption has become a major issue within police departments.
Unfortunately more and more police officers are being lured into committing corrupt acts. Although corruption with in the criminal justice system has always been around, it is now more evident than ever.
Policing in the United States has been around since the early nineteenth century
(Siegal and Senna 154). Even in the early nineteenth century corruption with in the police department was already a rising issue (Siegal and Senna 154). It is now becoming a major issue that continues to worsen. As we all know police officers are very closely involved with the citizens of our community, but I ask myself how close is to close? Police officers are now betraying their badges with the help of corrupt local citizens by committing the corrupt act of drug smuggling. In St. Louis, Bruce Gales, owner of a towing company, and Sergeant Christopher
Cornell were indicted on multiple charges in the distribution of approximately 120 kilograms and about $ 2.4 million in drug proceeds (“Owner of Wellston Towing”)
Police officers should be setting the example for the citizens by not joining in and bringing more corruption to the police departments. Sergeant Cornell was misguided into crossing the line of crime which caused him to end up throwing his career away, and facing prison time. Sergeant Cornell punishment was only ten years in prison with the privilege of parole. That punishment was definitely not stiff enough especially for the crime he committed. Sergeant Cornell will only spend five out of those ten years in prison since he was awarded parole and will do the other five years out of



Bibliography: Martrinez, Andrew. “Ex-cop, gang members still at large.” The Monitor 26 Sept. 2006 <http://www.themonitor.com/>. Simferopol, Russia. 04 Sept. 2006. Transcript. Lexis-Nexis. U of Texas – Pan American Lib., Edinburg, Tx. 14 Nov. 2006 <http://web.lexis-nexis.com/>. Siegel, Larry J. and Joseph J. Senna. Introduction to Criminal Justice. United States: Thomson Wadsworth, 2005. Service. Lexis-Nexis. U of Texas- Pan American Lib., Edinburg, Tx. 29 Sept. 2006 <http://web.lexis-nexis.com/>. Safety. Sept. 2005. <http://fbi.gov/publications/leb/2005/sept05.txt/>.

You May Also Find These Documents Helpful

  • Good Essays

    I agree with the Knapp Commission in organizing a council to research corruption in our law enforcement, alongside other infringement. Subsequently, with the Knapp Commission motivation, it seems that it concentrates on arraigning those law enforcement officers that are sharing in criminal activities. Corruption was at its maximum in the police department. There were officers that were labeled as grass-eater and meat eaters. A grass eater was the least notice because they were involved in taking small bribes from the citizen who was avoiding receiving jail time. On the other hand, a meat eater is an officer that hustles on a regular base with the uses of threat or intimidation. During the investigation the Knapp Commission found officers were involved in such crime as gambling, narcotics, prostitution, construction, receiving payoff to ignore crimes in bars and Sabbath law to name a few (Dempsey & Forst, 1973).…

    • 468 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    In the police force in the Ferguson area, there were “allegations involving use of force that raised questions” (50). Police officers rarely stay in the same department over their career. Therefore, there is almost no familiarity between the officers, and the community they are serving in. Most of the revenue of…

    • 578 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Departments have a chain of command with the Chief of Police answering to the public for anything wrong or right within his or her department. The departments also have a uniformed system with each officer dressing the same so there is no mistaking who is law enforcement. Each officer takes an oath, just as in the military, to serve and protect. The military model although observed and followed, it is done loosely and the captains and chiefs around the country interpret the model in their own way. The military model should be followed strictly and thoroughly in order to reduce the amount of corruption and to stabilize the respect communities have for law enforcement. When officers use excessive force, when they are caught in any situation that denounces the badge they wear, they should be subjected to the same punishments as any military personnel would if they were found to be guilty of breaking their…

    • 595 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Better Essays

    Victor, J. L. & Naughton, J. (2010). Annual editions: Criminal justice. New York, NY: McGraw-…

    • 1321 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Better Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Article Review cjus300

    • 617 Words
    • 2 Pages

    Our society has become corrupt at each level, and the police force is no exception. While most officers are committed to maintaining honor and integrity in their service to the public, there will be crime or misconduct among both female and male officers (Gottschalk, 2011). Police officers should be upholding the image of sacrifice, dignity, and overall competency (Gottschalk, 2011). Unfortunately, corruption can happen and add distrust amongst the public toward the public service of police officers. These actions of misconduct can include oppression, racial profiling, physical or emotional abuse of power, overall mistreatment of citizens or prisoners in their care, extortion, misuse of information or perjury, and overall manipulation (Gottschalk, 2011).…

    • 617 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    This blue wall of silence can lend to a police culture where violations of a citizen’s civil or human rights become the norm for an officer or even for a group of officers. When loyalty among officers become the priority over doing what is right, a department may become more susceptible to deviant behaviors including violations of organizational policy, discrimination, misconduct, intimidation, sexual harassment, corruption, and excessive force. To overcome the blue wall of silence and bring change to the police culture departments require transparency and accountability of the actions of their officers. Reform in police training should emphasize such transparency and accountability, adequate supervision and appropriate discipline measures are necessary for problem officers which can aid in revitalizing the professionalism of an entire…

    • 341 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    Rampart Scandal

    • 2952 Words
    • 12 Pages

    When officers from the Los Angeles Police Department's Internal Affairs bureau began shadowing Rafael Perez, watching their fellow cop steal massive amounts of cocaine from evidence lockers in order to sell it on the street, investigators thought they had a major misconduct case on their hands. They didn't know the half of it.…

    • 2952 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Powerful Essays

    The Blue Wall of Silence

    • 2893 Words
    • 12 Pages

    Being a police officer is an honorable career. For the majority of the public, a police officer is one of the more respected members of the community because everyone looks up to them to protect their community. The work that police officers do, for the most part, is noble for the reason that they put their life on the line for everyone, every day. There is no doubt a great deal of personal fulfillment that comes from the duties and responsibilities assigned to police officers, because they get to help out in the community. Police officers have a duty to serve and protect and that type of job description can only affect the community in a positive way. We see the way that people can affect their community in the reading by Psychology Professor Howard Gardner et al, “Good Work in Difficult Times.” This essay describes people who do good work and it not only shares the value systems of people who do good work but it shares how that carries over into the community. Additionally, this reading discusses standards, by which professionals ought to adhere too. Being a police officer does not come without challenges that can cause problems with community relations. One of the many challenges, both past and present, facing police departments is police corruption. To further explore the topic of corruption we look the reading entitled, “The Code of Silence” written by senior research experts in the field of criminology and crime prevention, Joycelyn Pollock, Juha Kaariainen, Ahti Laitinen, and Tomi Lintonen, who concede that the most prevalent form of corruption facing our police departments and police administrators is The Blue Wall of Silence. The Blue Wall of Silence is the name used to explain the unity exhibited by police officers in an attempt to limit their co-operation when a police official is accused in the line of duty. Even though the Blue Wall of Silence has arisen out of the understandable need for police officers to be able to…

    • 2893 Words
    • 12 Pages
    Powerful Essays
  • Good Essays

    Police Brutality Essay

    • 904 Words
    • 4 Pages

    We all know as a police officer their job is protect us citizens while trying to detect and fight crime. Because that is their job we trust them to always do the right thing and do right by the law. Unfortunately that doesn’t always happen. There are hundreds of cases all around the world about police officers harming and even killing completely innocent people leaving hundreds of families with broken hearts and no answers to why an innocent life was taken daily. This is known as police brutality. Because this is starting to happen very often people now look at police and no longer get that sense of protection, but instead we now fear the police. Police officers are now looked at as the monsters of our society.…

    • 904 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    In the early 1990’s police brutality had become common; police officers abused their powers and became brutal when dealing with offenders and even non-offenders. One infamous example of such brutality occurred in 1992 in Los Angeles when a black man named Rodney King was violently beat by five officers for being “black.” The five officers repeatedly struck King as a few other officers stood by not paying any attention to the situation near by. Two of the five officers were later acquitted which angered the black and Latino community around the world as did the videotape of the incident. This incident did however put more attention and awareness on the issue of police brutality.…

    • 294 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Law Enforcement Officers are employed to enforce the law and to protect society. However, with every article in the newspaper or program on the television, which takes the public’s side in a Police Brutality case; Police Officers gradually lose their power to protect Society.…

    • 1116 Words
    • 5 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Satisfactory Essays

    Police Corruption Essay

    • 458 Words
    • 2 Pages

    According to Holloway (2002) corruption can be of two types: internal and external. Internal corruption is a corrupt agreement that can take place among a group of police officers and may involve major changes or decisions of administrative policies that are inappropriate and illegal. Internal politics and unjustified removal of officials, or carrying out behavior within prison situations that may not be completely legal or even releasing prisoners by accepting a bribe given to a group of police officials are all part of internal corruption which accounts for a failure of an entire police system and can involve several policemen or police of one state or region. External means of corruption can be payoffs to police by non-criminal elements like paying of bribes for repeated viola-tions of traffics rules, paying off to police for repeated violation of law as done by prostitutes, narcotics peddlers and burglars; and indirect bribes where special favors are given to police to get special services in turn. Analyzing issues of personal gain, corrupt uses of police professional authority, unjustified use of authority as policemen and inappropriate or improper conduct, Sayed and Bruce (1998) describe in detail are elements that go on to make up…

    • 458 Words
    • 2 Pages
    Satisfactory Essays
  • Good Essays

    Nypd Corruption

    • 607 Words
    • 3 Pages

    Police corruption is a problem that has and will continue to affect us all, whether we are civilian or law enforcement officers. An examination of any newspapers or police-related publications on any given day will have an article about an officer that got busted committing some kind of illegal act. Since its beginnings, many aspects of it have changed, however, a lot of it remains and it seems to just keep growing. Even though being a policeman is one of the most commendable and honorable professions in society, there have been certain instances that demonstrate misconduct and corruption in terms of unethical violence, illegal drug abuse, bribery and unjustified arrests.…

    • 607 Words
    • 3 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    The Unwritten Code

    • 1342 Words
    • 6 Pages

    The “Code of Silence” is not the only way police commit misconduct and show forms of integrity in our society. Spectacular scandals further prove the underlying issue of the quality and accountability of our public servants. The Diallo shooting in New York, the torture of a Haitian immigrant with a plunger in New York, The video taped Rodney King beating in Los Angeles, and the widespread corruption in the New Orleans police force are just a few prime examples of ongoing Police corruption in our society.…

    • 1342 Words
    • 6 Pages
    Good Essays
  • Good Essays

    Police Stereotypes

    • 814 Words
    • 4 Pages

    Unfortunately this same problem still goes on today in many places around the United States including the world and wherever there are police officers present. The fact that some people cannot handle being police officers gives a black eye to police officers around the world when they do something that will taint that…

    • 814 Words
    • 4 Pages
    Good Essays

Related Topics