Sociology Of The Police Essay Research Paper

Sociology Of The Police Essay, Research Paper

Robert Korn

May 13, 2000

Sociology of the Police

Dr. Vrettos

The Police

In today’s society the police, play may roles. They are the peacekeepers, law enforcement and many other jobs. However, recently they have become the subject of a very heated and large debate. Many believe that the police should give up their brute type tactics for a more civilized and humanized approach, while others feel that the police should crack down on the most insignificant of offences to type and disparage crimes that are more serious. In this paper, we will be analyzing both sides of this issue, from the look of the police administration to the public’s view of it. When we mention today’s police force we will be using the New York City police force as are basis of comparison, because they seem to have the biggest public arena of discussion.

To deeply under stand the issues surrounding the police one as to look at how the police has become what it is today. At the beginning of modern civilization, there was no such thing as the police as we know it today. There was no concept of society and therefore no concept of right and wrong. Justice was the ability of one man’s ability to defend himself. If one man sought to acquire another man wife then all he did was kill off the first man and take her for himself. In today’s modern society, these types of actions are unheard of. In this time and place, this was the unwritten law, survival of the fittest. As humans progress further they started forming tribes and small bands and society was born.

In the late 15th and 16th century a period known as the enlightenment was happening. One of the ideas that came from the enlightenment was the idea of a social contract. This theory explained what happened when those uncivilized, unorganized groups of men became a society. The theory says that in order for a society to work individuals have to give up the inherited right of self-government (i.e. The ability to do as they saw fit). They had to give those rights to a ruling body (i.e. the government). Then the ruling body then took on the responsibility of defending they right s of the people and deciding what was right and wrong.

Over many years the idea of a policing body took many forms. In many societies they were just a group of hired men that served a particular person, needless to say they were not acting in the best interest of society. Usually these groups were made up of workless men whose only ability was his strength. As more years role by the policing body adopted a more sociological or philosophical approach. These tactics included using the people themselves to police them selves. An example of this would be in early china where the people were expected to report on the neighbors and families for crimes committed against the state and ruling body. The idea behind this was to instill fear and unknowingness in the public to give the ruling body an upper hand. In other societies instead of punishing the wrong doer for a criminal action the ruling body would punish the families of the wrong doer. This would created a society that one would prevent crime on the idea f not wanting to harm one’s family and two would created a society that would turn in a brother or neighbor to prevent harm done on one’s self for another’s actions. This would free up the government to deal with other matters.

In the early 18th and 19th centuries the idea of crime control and regulation became the big thing. The idea of controlling the criminal class with bribes and suspicion of other criminal entities was the way the government hoped to put a leash on crime. So, we come to the police as we see it today, it is important to note that this is only a quick synopsis of the history of the police, to go into detail of the history of the police would take a long time.

Today one of the largest topics of the police debate is; does the police pick on the minorities as a center for crime. To further this idea does the police use excessive measures in fighting crime. The police New York City police have applied the idea of broken windows, which is the idea of fixing communities little problems before tackling the large ones. However, feel that the NYPD has taking it to far and has to re-define their methods. In an article with Prof. George Kelling (also the creator of Broken Windows) entitled “Fixing Broken Windows” he tries to show that the NYPD have to give officers training and guidance that will enable them to deal with the small problems. He also says that the police have to learn that that their behavior must reflect their positions. In short what Kelling is trying to do is show that the police have to understand that depending on their actions is what is going to stimulate the community as a whole.

Many in the public believe that the police are using tactics that are far too severe for the type of crimes committed. Also believe that the police use a class based policing police that pits the minority against the policing agents. If by making the precedent that all minorities have a higher crime rate compared to the rest of society therefore we as a policing body have to act much more harsher in order to control it. Those among the minorities are outraged because they are treated harsher then the majority. The scene is all too common, a b