SOC 3750 Lecture Notes - Lecture 6: Moral Authority, Perjury, Credibility Gap

• School: University of Guelph
• Department: Sociology
• Course: SOC 3750
• Professor: Patrick Parnaby

Document Summary

Prejudicial treatment on basis of age, race, gender etc: noble cause corruption. Support their cause, but adopted the wrong techniques to achieve a cause: self interest corruption. Using position to get what you what, personal gain: misbehaviour showing up late for work, stealing office supplies, not cleaning out police car, crime. Getting involved in crime: force excessive: using more force then is necessary to apprehend someone illegal: when the officer uses forces when they don"t have the legal authority to do so. Emphasis on savagery or cruelty, officer harms someone just cause they want to. Officer desires to get a conviction and feels like this is the only way to do it. Perjury: lying on the stand: why, subculture: working personality (skolnick, 1966), officers believe that they have to adopt deviant means to do their jobs and to apprehend offender. If they are scum then who cares about them, they aren"t worthy of respect.