Sign Up Now
Get instant access to over 1 million+ study documents
OR
Already registered? click here to login
By creating your account, you agree to our terms of service, privacy policy and student honor code.
¶ … resonse . writergril1 avail? Does exercise discretion signify a return rule men (,, women)"? Or,
Discretion in Law Enforcement
There are a number of important considerations one must take into account when determining the use and effect of discretion in the part of police work. The fundamental question that any preponderance of the place of discretion in police work has is this: does the exercise in discretion signify a return to "the rule of men (and, now, women)"? Or, is it, rather, an important dimension of the rule of law? (Kleinig, 2008, p. 72). A prudent examination of some of the most eminent factors related to this issue unequivocally finds that all processes of law establishment and enforcement contain innate requirements of discretion to preserve the spirit in which such laws were conceived.
One of the most convincing forms of evidence that reinforces the fact that discretion is an intrinsic part of the rule of law is the place that experience plays in police work. Experience based on working with people and situations in everyday affairs is oftentimes a police officer's most valuable means of understanding...
Even an article by Lawrence Sherman, which propounds the usage of scientific evidence to displace police discretion, readily concedes that experience is an essential part of police work. The following quotation demonstrates as much. "…experience is the best teacher and…helps to give…excellent judgment…Experience…is the foundation of empiricism…as a source of truth in the world" (Sherman, 2008, p. 62). This quotation proves that police officers are right to rely on experience as informing their usage of discretion when encountering situations with civilians, and further solidifies the fact that discretion is an integral part of law enforcement.
Moreover, it is important to understand that there are distinguishable and implicit measures of approval for police officers to utilize discretion and their judgment when dealing with people in the public. Both in the written legislation that police officers follow, as well as in the general expectation of the public that relies on police officers for a plethora of reasons, the notion exists that police officers…
References
Banks, C. (2013). Criminal Justice Ethics. third edition. Thousand Oaks: Sage Publications.
Kleinig, J. (2008). Ethics and Criminal Justice, An introduction. Cambridge, UK: Cambridge University Press.
Sherman, L.W. (1980). "Experiments in police discretion: scientific boon or dangerous knowledge? Law and Contemporary Problems. 47 (4), 61-81.
Furthermore, there is often a veil of silence from witnesses in these types of assaults, which makes investigation very difficult. However, when an officer exercises the discretion to treat these incidents as lesser-crimes, he reinforces the devaluation of the gang members and actually increases the validity of the gang culture. Furthermore, gang violence does not occur in isolation, and it is unfair to the non-criminal members of gang-afflicted communities
706). Yet, this clearly does not eliminate the possibility of abuse of power and wrongful use of police discretion as the disproportionate application of justice upon those of lower class and of minority races is fundamentally present in both lesser and greater crimes. III. If you were a supervisor within a police department, how would you manage or control the discretionary practices of your officers? One of the most important aspects
, Skolnick and Fyfe, and Walker, that conclude racial discrimination has been found in several policing duties, facilitated by police discretion, including shootings, use of force, arrests, street stops, offense charging, search and seizure, and equality of coverage. Police discretion allows for this discrimination to occur. Skogan and Frydl (2004) concur that police discretion is an increased concern, in relation to racial profiling and discrimination. The authors surmise that pro-active special
Police Discretion The execution of discretion in judgment among police officers has been studied for decades (De Lint, 1998). Before the 1960's, For some three decades now it has been established knowledge that police officers use discretion (De Lint, 1998). Through the 1960's, officers were expected to use "common sense," with little attention paid to analyzing situations where discretion was called for or for applying specific training to improve the kinds of
Police and Juvenile Delinquency According to the numbers published on the National Institute of Justice, in 2010, the number of arrests of juveniles was down by a little over half the same number in 1994, when it reached its maximum. The reasons for this "recession" in juvenile arrests in the U.S. may be attributed to better results in the work of juvenile delinquency prevention as well to increased police discretion when
Therefore, it does not seem logical that a police department could exist without at least some form of discretionary decision-making. Discretion is used at just about every level of a police department, from the officers on patrol to detectives and even management. Another expert notes, "Police encounter a wide range of behaviors and a variety of situations that the law hasn't even thought about yet. One of the most amazing