Criminal violations and legal consequences

Criminal Violations Committed by Police/Correction Officers:

The work of law enforcement and correctional officers revolves a slippery slope or the likelihood of slow worsening social-moral inhibitions and perceived view of permissibility for deviant conduct. Generally, law enforcement or police officers are mandated with the task of maintaining law and order in the society through dealing with crime and criminals. On the other hand, correctional officers help in incarceration and rehabilitation of convicted criminals as they serve the respective sentences for their offenses. As a result, law enforcement and correctional officers are expected to carry their work with extreme professionalism and without any deviant conduct. While the general public has huge expectations from these professional, they tend to forget the slippery nature of their work. Actually, the criminal justice work involves dealing with situations that are usually below the usual comfort levels. The nature of the work has contributed to the emergence of the notion of correctional deviance, which incorporates all activities that are inconsistent with regulations, values, and ethics of criminal justice work.

Deviance in the Criminal Justice Work:

Criminal violations committed by police or correctional officers can be basically defined as deviance, which is a much broader term than corruption (Banhart, 2010). Deviance in the criminal justice work is a term that refers to all criminal violations carried out by law enforcement and correctional officers. This term is used to refer to all activities that are not in accordance with the laws, ethics, and values that govern the criminal justice field. These behaviors are inconsistent with the laws, ethics, and values not only in criminal justice but also from a society and police perspective.

In the past few years, criminal violations by these officers have been explained through police misconduct and corruption, which are primarily abuses of police authority. While these terms are used interchangeably, they are used to refer to criminal, civil, and procedural violations. However, the term police misconduct is the broadest category since it refers to all these aspects of violations. Procedural violations by these officers occur when they violate the rules and regulations of the police department or correctional facility. On the other hand, civil violations take place when these officers violate state and federal laws in light of citizens' civil rights, which imply that their actions are unconstitutional. In contrast, criminal violations involve practices that breach state and federal laws without necessarily violating an individual's civil rights. Generally, the most common forms of police and correctional officers' misconduct involve the use of excessive force, physical or verbal abuse, discrimination, and selective application of the law.

Types of Criminal Violations by Police/Correction Officers:

As previously mentioned, police misconduct or deviance usually takes place in several ways depending on the situation at hand and the particular officer. The past few decades have been characterized by enormous efforts in the criminal justice and law enforcement field. An example of such initiatives is the avoidance by many police departments and correctional facilities to hire candidates with minimal ethical standards. Even though these efforts have yielded some positive gains, unethical practices and criminal violations by these officers continue to take place in small and large departments and facilities (Martin, 2011). Some of the most common types of criminal violations or deviance committed by police/correction officers include & #8230;

Perjury:

This is primarily described as a means to influence an act of corruption that leaves some pertinent pieces of information in order to affect the probable outcome of a criminal prosecution. This type of criminal violation sometimes involves dropsy evidence, which refers to the provision of false testimony by a police officer that he/she saw the criminal drop some contraband or narcotics. In most cases, perjury occurs in the form of lies in incident summaries or reports, which in turn contribute to slippery slope of criminality. This kind of criminal violation tends to be committed by law enforcement officers who believe that a guilty defendant is likely to escape any punishment unless they lie about something. The most unfortunate part regarding this criminal violation is that other players in the criminal justice system are usually aware of it.

Brutality:

This is a criminal violation committed by correction officers and involves the use of excessive force, disrespect, and ridicule or any breach of due process. This kind of crime tends to go hand in hand with correction perjury since officers who commit it are likely to lie to prevent the likelihood of departmental or lawsuit charges. Brutality is likely to be committed because of the presence of opportunities to physically abuse and hurt inmates or due to being provoked beyond self-control.

Sexual Violence:

Sexual violence is a criminal violation likely to be committed by law enforcement officers in the line of duty ("Worse than the Disease," n.d.). Actually, in the past few years, there have been several incidents and reports of numerous rectal violations by police officers. This violation is also committed by correction officers who get attracted to incarcerated male and female inmates. The probability of sexual violence to be carried out by police and correction officers is attributed to the lack of enough supervision for these officers while they continue with their respective duties.

Profanity:

The other type of criminal violation caused by police and correction officers is profanity, which occurs through verbal communication. While effective verbal communication is one of the required skills for correction work, correctional officers sometimes use profane and obscene language when talking to inmates. The use of such language in correctional facilities is fueled by the emergence of concepts like command presence and command voice, which are usually taught in correctional training institutions. Obscene and profane language involves the use of words with sexual functions, religious connotations, and excretory functions.

Dealing with Criminal Violations by Police/Correction Officers:

Since the previously discussed and other types of criminal violations have become common in the criminal justice work, there are several attempts that have been taken to deal with these violations. Notably, most of these initiatives have been geared towards addressing police corruption based on lessons from past scandals and present challenges. This is primarily because police corruption is a global problem and has attracted international attention in designing efforts to deal with it. Some of the major efforts to deal with criminal violations by police and correction officers include creating external oversight, enhancing recruitment and training, promoting accountability, and holding all officers responsible for their own actions (Bayley & Perito, n.d.).