Example Of Research Proposal On Favoritism In The US Police

Theoretical Framework

The value of the criminal theories of rotten apple and orchards is that the former refers to cases when separate officers go deviant and practice favoritism in expectation of reward in exchange for private services like the on-duty protection of private businesses while the latter refers to the systematic level of corruption affecting departments. Systematic is observable in the case of African American officers reporting racial prejudice and discrimination by the white majority who are used to favoring officers of the same ethnic descent. Officers who embrace the corrupt practice tend to contaminate white newcomers who often develop the same discriminatory attitude towards black officers. Perry (2001) stated that police theory no longer approved the rotten apple theory insisting that corrupt officers are neither morally wicked nor natural-born offenders (as cited in Gottschalk, 2011).
Despite rejection in some theoretical sources, the theory of a rotten apple does exist. Punch (2003) noted that police themselves often employed the metaphor to indicate officers with deviant ways who live the life of crime or develop bad ways and contaminate good, exemplary officers (as cited in Gottschalk, 2011). According to O’Connor (2005), criminologists have extended the rotten apple metaphor to incorporate the group level perspective of police cultural deviation with the metaphoric expression of a rotten barrel (as cited in Gottschalk, 2011). Punch (2003) suggested that the concept of rotten orchards showed police deviation at the systematic level. In this case, it is not an apple, or even a barrel that appears affected by corruption, but large parts of the system that overstep the authority (as cited in Gottschalk, 2011).
According to De Graaf (2007), organizational culture theory suggests that a certain group culture is results in a certain mental state that, in turn, leads to the development of a corrupt conduct. Punch (2000) stated that corruption within police department bore relation to the group behavior that has roots in extreme practices or established arrangements found within the culture and structures of police organization and work. It appears that separate individuals seeking personal gains have less to do with police corruption, unlike departments and large groups of officers (as cited in De Graaf, 2007). It follows from this that group culture deeply rooted in police structures and culture sometimes happens to be corrupt and that the problem of corruption is more systematic than expected. Favoring white officers practiced by the white cliques of officers in police departments relates to the organizational culture theory attributing corruption to large culture groups rather than separate individuals. Much the same holds true for police officers who favor relatives or fellow officers, which seems to find informal approval in the police culture.
Speaking of favors made to relatives and friends, clashing moral values theory rationalizes choices made by police officers. De Graaf (2007) noted that there were zero differences between public and private roles in some societies. Ackerman (1999) opined that gift giving was a highly valued and pervasive custom, as was the provision of job to friends and relatives (as cited in De Graaf, 2007). The theory relates directly to the type of favoritism, by which police officers allow relatives and friends to avoid criminal punishment out of friendship or due to blood relation. Finally, public choice theory, according to De Graaf (2007), suggests that a rational decision made by individuals is a causal chain that results in a predetermined outcome. A corrupt person is defined as being a rationally calculating individual who slips into bad ways when the desired pros prevail the cons (Graaf, 2007). The theory has a direct bearing on favoritism in police since officer do senior officials favor in exchange for a favor in return, which is one of motivations to be considered in the research paper.
Research question: Does favoritism enabled by status and position powers lead police officers to grant unfair privileges like protection or prosecution immunity to police fellow officers, senior management, or people of high social standing and influence and discriminate against racial groups, be they civilians or fellow officers.
Hypothesis: Police officers of various rank practice favoritism resulting in the distribution of illegal privileges, officers’ unlawful punishment, and racial prejudices.

Independent variable: Favoritism enabled by status and position-associated authority.

Dependent variable: Unlawful privileges granted to individuals unrelated and related to police, the unlawful punishment of fellow officers, racial prejudices or racism.

Theories: the rotten apple theory, organizational culture theory, clashing moral values theory, rational choice theory.

Annotated Bibliography
Cohen, H., and Feldberg, M. (1991). Power and restraint. The moral dimension of police work. New York: Greenwood Publishing Group. Retrieved from: https://books.google.com.ua/books?id=UqJ51i_L8TEC&pg=PA46&dq=police+favoritism&hl=uk&sa=X&ei=5h7SVIG2D4rkUuGVgPAJ&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=police%20favoritism&f=false
Howard Cohen is Associate Professor of Philosophy and Associate Provost at the University of Massachusetts-Boston. Michael Feldberg is President of the Boston-Fenway Program, Inc., which is a community service organization that majors in community and public safety issues. A wealth of experience and a rich professional background of book authors make the book an academic source worth choosing. Based on authors’ message, favoritism is one of issues defined in the book as such that contravenes moral standards for police work. Book authors take a profound look into favoritism and its nature. Of undeniable value to current research is their classification of the practice, in which they differentiate protection in exchange for gratuities from granting special offers and preferential treatment to fellow officers and friends, both proved with real-life examples included in current research paper. Examples do much to prove that preferential treatment is a well-developed practice quite prevalent among la enforcers. I will be using the typology of favoritism along with examples to prove the veracity of the police corruption trend.
De Graaf, G. (2007). Causes of corruption: towards a contextual theory of corruption. Amsterdam: Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. Retrieved from: http://unpan1.un.org/intradoc/groups/public/documents/un-dpadm/unpan049603.pdf
Gjalt de Graaf, the author of the articles on the causes of corruption, is Associate Professor at Vrije Universiteit Amsterdam. The biggest value of the article is that is provides information on all major theories used in the scientific project with regard to favoritism, such as the rotten apple theory, organizational culture theory, clashing moral values theory, rational choice theory. Bad apple theory relates police corruption to the influence of deviant officers. Public choice theory wisely connects the decision of committing an act of corruption to the personal calculation of a person motivated by the expectation of a reward outweighing potential risks. Organizational culture declares group culture rather than separate opportunistic individuals to be the primary source of corruption, clashing moral values theory. The theory of clashing moral values correlates personal duties like friendship and blood relation with professional ones, the overlapping of which breeds corruption. I am planning to use all four theories to explain various causal factors of favoritism in the US police.
Denver Police Department. (2008, October 1). Denver Police Department Discipline Handbook: Conduct Principles and Disciplinary Guidelines. Retrieved from: https://www.denvergov.org/Portals/744/documents/handbooks/DPD_Handbook_Final_6-4-2008_with_appendix.pdf
Denver Police Department Discipline Handbook is a manual developed by Denver Police Department by the order of the Chief of Police. Issued with the approval of the Manager of Safety, the handbook considers the principles of conduct and provides guidelines for disciplining law enforcement officers who have gone astray. The source has much to offer in terms of information on the ways police department officials discipline officers for professional misconduct and the scope of impact such activity has on the welfare of law enforcers. Since the scientific project studies favoritism and the possibility of preferential treatment causing innocent officers to receive punishment and uniformed law offenders to come unscathed, the source is of unquestionable value. I will use excerpts from the handbook to complement the research with information on disciplining types and the welfare consequences for officers depending on the maritime status and the number of dependents to show the cost of favoring guilty fellow officers and pressing charges against blameless law enforcers.
Gottschalk, P. (2011). White-collar crime and police crime: rotten apples or rotten barrels? Oslo: BI Norwegian School of Management. Retrieved from: http://brage.bibsys.no/xmlui/bitstream/handle/11250/93490/Gottschalk_2012_CritCrim_authorversion.pdf?sequence=1
Grynbaum, M.M., and Connelly, M. (2012, August 20). Majority in city see police as favoring whites, poll finds. The New York Times. Retrieved from: http://www.nytimes.com/2012/08/21/nyregion/64-of-new-yorkers-in-poll-say-police-favor-whites.html?pagewanted=all&_r=1&
Michael Grynbaum is a reputable journalist from the New York Times who has authored a great number of articles on topical problems in New York City and beyond. The article author reflects on the favoritism of police officers during the stop-and-frisk procedure that sees African Americans searched more often, unlike New Yorkers of European descent, which raises legitimate racism-based claims on the part of citizens of African parentage. The expert provides a statistical analysis of the problem that is clearly indicative of police favoritism. While officers may not necessarily commit the act of corruption in expectation of a reward, this example of preferential treatment provides the evidence of deviation from ethical professional conduct that would not normally allow officers to differentiate between races. The articles poses value to the research paper inasmuch as it examines methodically and in detail the instances of favoritism resulting in race-based discrimination. In addition, the article is worth including due to its statistical representation of the corrupt tendencies, based on the opinions of interviews of different ethnic descent on their attitude towards the stop, question, and frisk policy.
Jackson, T. (2014, July 1). Showing favoritism can be dangerous for state troopers. Sandusky Register. Retrieved from: http://www.sanduskyregister.com/article/5830426
Tom Jackson is a credible journalist working for Sandusky Register who is the author of the article exemplifying police favoritism in the ranks of American state troopers. According to the author, US troopers tend to abide by the philosophy of favoritism seeking to pull fellow officers out of predicament or give police chiefs’ relatives a favor in hopes of winning their favor. The journalists quotes multiple examples that show police officer assisting fellow officers with concealing evidence of the driver under influence. The wives of police chiefs are said to be released immediately after being caught driving at a high speed. The author claims that the outcome of favoritism may be the termination of officers as participants in guilt who were proved to have provided assistance to officers at fault. I am going to use the article as a valuable source of examples vindicating favoritism in the ranks of American state troopers.
Kitaeff, J. (Ed.). (2011). Handbook of police psychology. New York: Taylor and Francis Group, LLC. Retrieved from: https://books.google.com.ua/books?id=332rAgAAQBAJ&pg=PA480&dq=favoritism+is+police+corruption&hl=uk&sa=X&ei=CyHSVP_NBJHwapzrgqgN&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=favoritism%20is%20police%20corruption&f=false
Philosophy Doctor Jack Kitaeff is a licensed clinical psychologist and a reputable expert in forensic and police psychology, an editor and the author of multiple books from Virginia. The book gives the profound knowledge of the legal issues in recruiting and hiring police officers, ethical issues in police psychology, pre-employment psychological screening, and the training and evaluation of law enforcers among other topics. I will be using the book section addressing the psychological strategies for helping officers under investigation, civil litigation, or criminal prosecution since it provides information on corrupt practices officers are caught committing. A classification of police crimes embraces 19 law offences believed to be perpetrated by officers who trespass on justice and professional ethics. Favoritism and mooching related directly to the preferential treatment are two types of police offences that pose value to the research paper. The inclusion into classification proves the fact that favoritism in the ranks of police is a customary corrupt practice as extortion or shakedown is.
Leinen, S. (1984). Black police, white society. USA: New York University Press Book. Retrieved from: https://books.google.com.ua/books?id=t5_aR3Ad24EC&pg=PT87&lpg=PT87&dq=danger+of+favoritism+in+police&source=bl&ots=cqLth665p8&sig=hhqmNyJqJL1nEVGP2JIjwwsWgrY&hl=uk&sa=X&ei=oh7SVNneKMvdavWPgPAP&ved=0CFUQ6AEwCDgK#v=onepage&q=danger%20of%20favoritism%20in%20police&f=false
Book author Steven Leinen addresses the problem of discrimination faced by African American police officers who find themselves discriminated when in white-dominated police departments. The author describes favoritism is preferential treatment of white police newcomers and the marginalization of African Americans who fail to reach top administrate positions or establish important connections with influential officers. Leinen defines informal group connections as a criterion for the distribution of rewards and privileges within departments. The author has collected the opinions of interviewees providing the first-hand knowledge of police corruption. Leinen believes the practice confined primarily to white ethnic groups. Reward distribution is just one of products of favoritism generalized in the research paper as unlawful privileges. I will include information reflecting the ways white ethnic groups of law enforcers discriminate in favor of fellow officers of the same ethnicity forming informal cliques and grant illegitimate privileges to them.
Shane, J. M. 2008. Organizational stressors and police performance. (A doctoral dissertation). The Graduate School-Newark Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey. Retrieved from: http://www.researchgate.net/publication/222561618_Organizational_stressors_and_police_performance
The ultimate scientific credentials of the author and his deep scientific experience were what determined the choice of the source. The author of the doctoral dissertation used by writing the project is John Shane who is a Philosophy Doctor and Research Associate from the City University of New York, John Jay College of Criminal Justice. His dissertation deals with organizational stressors and police performance. Current research paper incorporates the major ideas retrieved from the section containing literature review on the properties of the situation as stress mediators and the subsection that analyzes favoritism as a lack of supervisor social control. I am going to include information regarding the types of favoritism, including the effects of the corrupt practice during the disciplinary process on law enforcement officers and extracts from the analysis of police investigative commissions. One of the major merits of the author is the unique compilation of criminology-related materials that give an exhaustive insight into police corruption and favoritism, in the first place.
Stoltze, F. (2014, August 5). LAPD chief Beck defends daughter, strongly denies favoritism. South California Public Radio. Retrieved from: http://www.scpr.org/news/2014/08/05/45796/lapd-chief-beck-defends-daughter-strongly-denies-f/
Frank Stoltze is a respectable journalist from South California Public Radio and the author of the article on police favoritism in Los Angeles Police Department. At the center of the scandal is a daughter of the LAPD Chief Charlie Beck alleged to have used connections to buy a horse from his daughter on behalf of the city. The chief denies having any fiscal connections with the daughter. The article is of value, as it show one of extremely blatant examples of police corruption in the form of favoritism. Family connections and the manipulation of post powers and status are instrumental in the act of corruption of serious public resonance. I am going to use the article as a source of evidence of US police corruptibility.
Travis, L. F. (2012). Introduction to criminal justice. (7th ed.). Burlington: Anderson Publishing. Retrieved from: https://books.google.com.ua/books?id=xB_VUSx4yzEC&pg=PA188&dq=favoritism+is+police+corruption&hl=uk&sa=X&ei=CyHSVP_NBJHwapzrgqgN&redir_esc=y#v=onepage&q=favoritism%20is%20police%20corruption&f=false
Book author Professor Lawrence Travis, whose wide range of accolades speaks for itself, is a research analyst at the National Parole Institute and a research director for the Oregon State Board of Parole. In “Introduction to Criminal Justice,” Travis describes the nuances of the criminal justice administration in the USA, such as justice processes, perspectives, crime control, police and policing, criminal courts and related issues, the objectives and process of punishment, incarceration and associated problems, community corrections, parole, probation, discharge, and the system of juvenile justice. What poses particular interest to the project is the book section analyzing law enforcement in the Criminal Justice System, including the elements of police corruption like favoritism. Professor Travis does an excellent job revealing the underlying rationales behind the deviant behavior of police officers. The author connects the concept of corruption to the practice of favoritism, whereby law enforcers grant privileges to a limited circle of individuals allowing them to escape criminal justice, which causes public disillusionment with the integrity of self-compromising police. He cites the lack of accountability and power as the chief reasons for corruption prevalence in the ranks of the law enforcement agency. The source value consists in information on the reasons for police favoritism and a brief description of corrupt practice development.