This paper examines the fatal shooting of Michael Brown by a Ferguson, Missouri police officer in August 2014 as a case study in organizational deviance within criminal justice institutions. The paper argues that the incident and the Ferguson Police Department's response — including delays in releasing the officer's identity, use of excessive force against protesters, and a lack of transparency — reflect systemic racial profiling and organizational discrimination. Drawing on the concept that deviance can operate at an institutional rather than purely individual level, the paper demonstrates how Brown's shooting and its aftermath illustrate the dangers of unchecked organizational misconduct in law enforcement agencies.
The paper demonstrates applied conceptual analysis: it introduces a formal criminological framework (organizational deviance), defines it in contrast to related concepts (individual deviance, organized crime), and then systematically applies it to a real-world event. This technique — define, distinguish, apply — is a reliable structure for short analytical essays in criminal justice and social science courses.
The paper opens with a factual account of the shooting and its immediate consequences, then introduces the concept of organizational deviance and explains why it is relevant to criminal justice management. The middle sections apply the concept to the Ferguson Police Department's conduct before and after the shooting, citing two sources to support claims about excessive force and lack of transparency. The paper closes by tying racial profiling and institutional discrimination back to the organizational deviance framework, reinforcing the central argument. At roughly 500 words, it is a tightly focused short analytical essay appropriate for an undergraduate criminal justice course.
Michael Brown was fatally shot by a police officer in Ferguson, Missouri on August 9, 2014. While the circumstances surrounding the shooting remained under investigation, the incident contributed to several days of protests and conflicts between citizens and law enforcement officers that were covered extensively by the media. During the shooting, Michael Brown was shot six times despite presenting no threat to the life of the officer or any other individual. Therefore, the use of deadly force by the police officer was not immediately necessary to enforce the arrest of the suspect. The series of protests that followed was fueled by the widely held belief that the officer had killed an innocent individual and endangered the lives of others by discharging his weapon multiple times in a densely populated area.
The aftermath of the incident raised a series of important criminal justice issues, particularly organizational deviance within criminal justice organizations. Although deviance has traditionally been considered from an individualistic perspective, it is sometimes carried out in organizational terms. In fact, some of the most consequential and devastating deviance is conducted on behalf of organizations and through resources those organizations provide. In the criminal justice field, it is important for organizational managers to be aware of and sensitive to organizational deviance, since such actions by police officers may not only have considerable impacts on individuals and society, but can also prove fatal.
Organizational deviance is evident in Brown's shooting because of the events that unfolded in its aftermath, especially the actions of the police department. Pazzanese (2014) states that the incident resulted in accusations that law enforcement officers were using excessive force and harassing citizens by firing teargas and pointing rifles at peaceful journalists and protesters. As the shooting generated widespread discussion and controversy, it was attributed to racial profiling and organizational discrimination within the criminal justice organization. The Ferguson Police Department opted for obscurity instead of transparency by taking an extended period of time before revealing the officer's identity — this despite the large-scale protests and public concern that followed the shooting of the presumably innocent citizen. As a result, the criminal justice organization was widely regarded as protecting the racial profiling and discrimination that may have contributed to the fatal shooting of Michael Brown.
Compared with other forms of organized crime, organizational deviance is conducted within an organization that has a legitimate purpose and function. The police officer, Darren Wilson, demonstrated the discriminatory practices of the Ferguson Police Department by stopping and shooting an individual who was simply jaywalking. The reaction of the police department epitomized the extent to which racism could still be embedded in criminal justice organizations and other public institutions. The department should have responded to the issue through transparency, which is the only mechanism available for building genuine trust within the community (Alba, 2014).
The seeming lack of transparency in dealing with the problem was a major indication of the issues embedded in the criminal justice organization, especially racism and organizational discrimination. Therefore, Michael Brown's fatal shooting relates directly to the framework of organizational deviance in light of the problems that surrounded the department's response.
Alba, M. (2014, September 5). Ferguson police force faces civil rights investigation. NBC News. Retrieved September 8, 2014, from http://www.nbcnews.com/storyline/michael-brown-shooting/ferguson-police-force-faces-civil-rights-investigation-n196236
Pazzanese, C. (2014, August 21). The fumbles in Ferguson. Retrieved from Harvard University website: http://news.harvard.edu/gazette/story/2014/08/the-fumbles-in-ferguson/
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