Objectives:
• To understand the issues of police like use of excessive force and corruption
• To understand the strategies to combat with corruption
Issues of police
a. Use of excessive force
b. Corruption
a. Use of excessive force
Use of excessive force is an unacceptable behavior. “When the level of force exceeds the level considered justifiable under the circumstances, it is called excessive force”. For example, in a park few young boys were playing cricket, a woman asked them to stop their play but one boy denied and they kept playing. She called the police, boy again showed resistance. Policemen caught that boy and beat him badly. Now this is the excessive use of force, policemen could have warn him or simply caught him but they excessively used their force and beat-up that boy to death. Some time only one policeman is involved in torturing and some time all police is involved in such unjustifiable behaviour. In this regard a psychologist can help to identify whether the use of force was excessive or not? And if use of force was excessive then what should be the remedy.
Many researches has targeted the use of excessive force and regarding the unsatisfactory officer, Bartol (1982) have found that police applicants who consistently score low on personality tests and are later involved in excessive use of force, misconduct, accidents, deadly force, and/or resignation tend to fall into one of two (2) groups:
• Antisocial Personality -- characterized by narcissism, suspiciousness, cynicism, toughmindedness,
insensitivity, defensiveness, rigidity, irritability, resentfulness, sensation seeking and
hyperactivity.
• Ineffectual Personality -- characterized by indecisiveness, introversion, dependency, cautiousness,
oversensitivity, and tended to be quiet individuals who went through the motions and failed to make a difference on the street.
b. Corruption
First of all there is an essential need to realize that only police is not the single department that is corrupt and not only are Pakistani police corrupt. We can not found a single country of the world without corruption. Perhaps because of the frequent police-society interaction police is being perceived as more corrupt department. The application of psychology to law enforcement and public safety is a rapidly growing area increasingly recognized as vital to many aspects of police work and the academic study of policing. However, the field suffers from something of an identity complex.
Strategies to combat with the corruption of police
As discussed earlier Forensic Psychology can help law enforcing agencies in many different ways, but how can Forensic Psychology help in combating with police corruption? Forensic Psychology can help at following different levels:
1. Personnel Selection
2. Training Level
3. Police Counseling and On duty Stress Management
Personnel Selection
How to judge a person will corrupt or not? Who is more likely to indulge in corrupt behavior? The typical psychologist involved with personnel selection would use personality test results to assist selection boards to either "screening-in" or "screening-out". Many personality tests are used for recruitment but are not good predictor of honesty or/and corrupt behavior.
Personality tests were used extensively to try and predict corruption tendencies and PERSEREC Study is illustrative of such efforts. This study looked at the correlations between personality traits, as measured by four instruments (the MMPI-2, IPI, 16-PF, and CPI), and employees who were forced to resign, were fired, disciplined, or prosecuted. While the overall results were not promising for a sole testing approach to root out corruption, the following are some personality traits which had high correlation:
• To understand the issues of police like use of excessive force and corruption
• To understand the strategies to combat with corruption
Issues of police
a. Use of excessive force
b. Corruption
a. Use of excessive force
Use of excessive force is an unacceptable behavior. “When the level of force exceeds the level considered justifiable under the circumstances, it is called excessive force”. For example, in a park few young boys were playing cricket, a woman asked them to stop their play but one boy denied and they kept playing. She called the police, boy again showed resistance. Policemen caught that boy and beat him badly. Now this is the excessive use of force, policemen could have warn him or simply caught him but they excessively used their force and beat-up that boy to death. Some time only one policeman is involved in torturing and some time all police is involved in such unjustifiable behaviour. In this regard a psychologist can help to identify whether the use of force was excessive or not? And if use of force was excessive then what should be the remedy.
Many researches has targeted the use of excessive force and regarding the unsatisfactory officer, Bartol (1982) have found that police applicants who consistently score low on personality tests and are later involved in excessive use of force, misconduct, accidents, deadly force, and/or resignation tend to fall into one of two (2) groups:
• Antisocial Personality -- characterized by narcissism, suspiciousness, cynicism, toughmindedness,
insensitivity, defensiveness, rigidity, irritability, resentfulness, sensation seeking and
hyperactivity.
• Ineffectual Personality -- characterized by indecisiveness, introversion, dependency, cautiousness,
oversensitivity, and tended to be quiet individuals who went through the motions and failed to make a difference on the street.
b. Corruption
First of all there is an essential need to realize that only police is not the single department that is corrupt and not only are Pakistani police corrupt. We can not found a single country of the world without corruption. Perhaps because of the frequent police-society interaction police is being perceived as more corrupt department. The application of psychology to law enforcement and public safety is a rapidly growing area increasingly recognized as vital to many aspects of police work and the academic study of policing. However, the field suffers from something of an identity complex.
Strategies to combat with the corruption of police
As discussed earlier Forensic Psychology can help law enforcing agencies in many different ways, but how can Forensic Psychology help in combating with police corruption? Forensic Psychology can help at following different levels:
1. Personnel Selection
2. Training Level
3. Police Counseling and On duty Stress Management
Personnel Selection
How to judge a person will corrupt or not? Who is more likely to indulge in corrupt behavior? The typical psychologist involved with personnel selection would use personality test results to assist selection boards to either "screening-in" or "screening-out". Many personality tests are used for recruitment but are not good predictor of honesty or/and corrupt behavior.
Personality tests were used extensively to try and predict corruption tendencies and PERSEREC Study is illustrative of such efforts. This study looked at the correlations between personality traits, as measured by four instruments (the MMPI-2, IPI, 16-PF, and CPI), and employees who were forced to resign, were fired, disciplined, or prosecuted. While the overall results were not promising for a sole testing approach to root out corruption, the following are some personality traits which had high correlation:
