Police corruption and computer misuse: an analysis of the contributing factors
Recent high profile media coverage of a number of police corruption cases has understandably caused an increase in public concern at the possibility of widespread malpractice within forces. These concerns have been further heightened by the instigation of a number of public and judicial reviews of police relationships with the media, as well as the resignation of the Metropolitan Police Commissioner and other senior figures. The causes and motivations of police corruption have been the subject of a small number of academic studies, generally focussing on types and typologies of the act itself and offenders. In this contribution the author has examined a number of factors which impact on the likelihood of police officers undertaking deviant practice in the small but focussed area of computer misuse. In conducting the research four sample groups were identified; two from the organisational side of policing; National leads in the corruption arena and local heads of Counter Corruption Units, and two from the employee side; The Police Federation and officers who themselves had misused police computer systems. The author conducted a total of thirty one interviews split between these four groups, examining factors such as 'knowledge of wrongdoing', 'perception and fear of being caught', 'awareness of sanctions', 'ease' and 'stigma'.
360 Social problems & services; associations
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