Police Culture and Its Influence to Their Behavior Essay

IntroductionIn forthwiths American fellowship in policing argon a set of fundamentals that helps set the rectitude and keep e rattling(prenominal)thing in order or at least probe too. We will be discussing the natural law culture and the significance stress in policing. In addition, we will in addition analyze the culture for women and the ethnic minorities. Also, on how they can achieve pairity in law enforcement for women. Moreover, we will be firing more in depth with internal and external weapon that control legal philosophy discretion.Analyze practice of law Culture, including the Significance of Stress in Policing There are many genes that contri besidese to the stress of a police police police police officer. Some of these factors are as follows dangers of the job itself, the probability of advancement or a lack of advancement opportunities, family, and any vice that he or she may be influenced by. Along with any other responsibilities that he or she may convey . The culture to deal with these stresses is to speak to another police officer. At times this is encouraged because the other officer is your partner and probably the moreover one who will be able to relate to what the officer is going through. Police officers are always under stress because of the nature of their profession. In any case, they will admit to make a split atomic number 42 decision that will be evaluated again and again by masses in a controlled environment with none of the dangers or necessary immediate response that the officer was subjected to.This way outs in intense scrutiny by superiors, peers and the public. The result of this stress manifest itself though health colligate issues such as chronic illnesses, poor performance at work, failure to be a productive member of the family and unfortunately suicide. The police parts generate made cracking strides in creation able to detect an officer who is in need of helpand have conducted studies into how str ess affects police officers. During their studies they have discovered that Officers who describe high levels of stress had a link to heart disease, depression, anxiety, somatization and posttraumatic stress disorder. They withal discovered a strong relationship between work related stress and alcohol abuse (Gershon et al.2009). Police departments can help by having an engaged leadership in which they jockey their officers and know to look for the signs that individual needs help. Police department can also mitigate these issues by taking preventive measures by educating the officers to develop coping mechanisms to help remedy the daily stress that builds up in some people.Woman and Minorities in policing to solar dayEmployment discrimination on the basis of race, ethnicity, or wake up is illegal in the United States this is due to the passing of title sevener of the 1964 Civil Rights Acts. In 1n 1972 the Equal Employment fortune Act across-the-board the coverage of the 196 4 law to state, local, and government which included the police and sheriffs departments (Walker, S., katz, C.M. , 2011). The practice session of minorities and adult female officers have increased significantly over the last 40 years. A usable tool in measuring the ratio of nonage groups in a law enforcement delegacy is the (CALEA) which means Commission on Accreditation for Law Enforcement Agencies. The recomm restations of CALEA is that law enforcement agencies have a ratio of minorities employed in approximate proportion to the diversity of the internal representation. another(prenominal) useful tool that is useful to measure meshing in law enforcement is the Equal Employment Opportunity Index.This measurement tool is used to compute the relationship between the racial diversity in the community and how this reflects the racial diversity in police departments that serve that particular area (Walker, S., katz, C.M. , 2011). For example, a police department in southern part s of the United States may hire more African American officers because of the racial makeup of a particular city universe serviced at that time. There is hush however, an underrepresentation of African American police officers in some states. According to (AolJobs.com) there was a serious problem with the capital of Massachusetts Police Department in 2010. According to the article there was homophobic hiring practices being used to eliminate out minorities applicants. The city is about 24 percentblack correspond to the 2010 census but of the 51 Lieutenants on the force just two are black men and of the 23 Captains The however black man retired yesterday (Gorden, 2012). The Article shows that even today discrimination is still alive and surface and is still existing in some police departments across America today. Because of the rapidly changing creation in some parts of the United States employment of Hispanic and Hispanic officers have increased. Being able to speak with the public when dispatched to a chaffer is very grand.Being able to speak Spanish or know a foreign language can be a very measurable asset to a police department. Because a police officer of a different racial ethnicity can respond to citizens who may not speak English and may be able to efficaciously snuff it within their own racial group this is a very important asset to most police departments. Because of that fact most Hispanic and Hispanic officers are highly recruited by some police departments. Because of the changing formulation of law enforcement in the last 40 years char are becoming police officers in higher rates today. Old policies that discriminated fair sex officers have been changing over the last 40 years. For example, rules on hairstyles and officers who endure pregnant plot actively being a police officer has changed. The federal Discrimination Act prohibited Employment discrimination on the basis of pregnancy, childbirth, or any other pregnancy-related me dical conditions (Walker, S., katz, C.M. , 2011). There still is a long way to go in the hiring of more woman police officers. Woman police officers are still underrepresented compared to men in police departments across the United States.Some of the reason diversity is so important in the police work force environment for minorities and woman is improvement of public service to different racial and gender groups, and also to improve the image of the police departments as a fair and equal employer. This will lead to fracture police community relations and better work environment for police departments in general. Internal and External Mechanisms that fit Police Discretion Many writers have a tried to ready police discretion but the most widely used description is the following A police officer or police agency may be utter to exercise discretion whenever effective limits on his, or her, or its power leave the officer or agency free to make choices among possible courses of acti on or inaction. This very well written description of the said subject was written by Kenneth CulpDavis in his book Discretionary Justice from (1969). What he meant by that is not very hard to comprehend. Mr. Davis believes that when an officer has a choice over how to respond to a specific problem or situation that police officer is said to have discretion or choice.The big word to remember is choice. Another definition used for police discretion states Discretion is defined as an formalised action by a criminal justice official based on that individuals judgment about the surpass course of action. So what do some police officers take into good will when making the decision to perk up or not to turn back? Well, according to research the seriousness of the alleged offense is one of the most important factors that police officers take into consideration when deciding whether to arrest a shadowed as one might expect. For example, an officer is most likely to arrest an individual for assault or robbery than a minor superficial offense. Another reason an officer might lean more towards prehend an individual is safety. For example, if the officer believes that an individual might pose a brat to himself or to others then he or she might be tend to deescalate the situation by removing or incapacitating the said suspect.Another factor that plays a part in whether or not an officer makes an arrest is the attitude of the suspect, believe it or not. For example if the suspect appears aggressive or disrespectful when stopped or being questioned. Other factors that influence discretional decisions are the strength of the evidence, characteristics of the victim, relationship between victim and suspect but the most controversial factor, by far, is taking the minority status into sexual conquest to the offence or racial profiling, as it is more largely called. Some factors that inhibit the officers discretionary ability are official department policies, the inform al organizational cultures of the department, the local political culture. But at the end of the day, the decisions made by individual officers still determine who is arrested and who is not. Despite the filter of mandatory arrest policies and other influences, the final decision is theirs and theirs alone.ConclusionIn conclusion, we have discussed and analyzed police culture and the significance of stress while policing, women and minorities in policing today, and finally internal and external mechanisms that control public discretion. The Police profession as a whole is one that can go from oneextreme of emotion to another. Policing is often many hours of boredom to chaos in a moments notice, because of this a police officers career is marked frequently with encounters of danger and reckless abandon. The issues that order of magnitude has directly affects the police officer negatively impacting his or her psyche. As the storm of duty rises police officers often experience ange r, depression, and or delusion. Because of this stress, over a period of time, can build up, and cause psychological indispositions that may var. an officers relationship with family or friends, or worse co-workers. These psychological indispositions can lead to an officer to quit, retire early, or even worse, experience abusive or suicidal. The importance of women and minorities in policing today are vast.Because employment discrimination is against the law in the United States, the addition of women and minorities have amend the police force throughout the country. Although there are some discrepancies in hiring certain ethnicitys, as a whole, the police forces of America are go on in an upward climb. Because of changes in policy, women are able to not only become police officers but also brinytain the status of being a mother. The importance of minorities within the policing community is important with the make up of America rapidly changing it allows police to communicate w ith the community effectively and efficiently. Police discretion although there is no clear definition of what it is, have internal and external mechanisms which control it. Policing officers always have a choice when it comes to making a decision (even split second). What the main control of police discretion is always relies upon the police officer to be calm clear minded and professional especially in this day and age where every move an officer makes is either filmed or recorded and scrutinized.ReferencesGrant, H. B., & Terry, K. J. (2012). Law enforcement in the 21st century (3rd ed.). Upper send River, NJ Pearson.Jobs.aol.com/articles/2012/02/15/black-police-officers-sue-boston-for-discrimination Law Enforcement in the 21st Century, Third editionWalker, S., & Katz, C. M. (2011). The police in America An introduction (7th ed.). New York, NY McGraw-Hill.