If public discussion comes to debate the causes of police violence, one significant explanation dominates: Violation of justice results from the individual deficiences of the police officer and the working conditions that they face in the police force which can be seen through stress and frustration. In comparison to this there is the view that violence results from a structural deficiency in the police set-up, even if this idea is not particulary fostered.
If violation should for once come to a public debate, the cause is traced back to the absent-minded behaviour of the single police officer, this reasoning belonging to the common proceedings of the Home Secretary Office and police management. Here they refer to the existing potential for violence in society. With the assertion that the police force are a mirror of society, in which there are just as many violent people living as in the police force, police violence is simply seen as relative. Individual deficiences, such as the lack of professionalism of the police officer, lead to the police force resorting to the ”black sheep“ situation in order to place the blame elsewhere and not on the police officer.
Police officers mostly use ”structural weight“ as a further reason for violation being used. According to the study ”Police and Strangers“ which the Police Academy carried out, police violence results from the working conditions of the officer. The study notes that violence particularly results from ”the accumulation of burdens in areas with a higher amount of illegal immigration and criminality such as forbidden demonstrations which leads to a great overburdening of officers“. Violation of justice is interpreted as an ”unavoidable reaction of outer impulses“ – police perpetrators become victims of their working conditions.
For some people the cause of violation is accredited to the personality of the single police officer and for other people it is due to their working conditions. The number of possible solutions to these problems range from having stricter criteria that a person has to pass in order to become a police officer and having to be supervised by leadership within the police force, to the establishment of stress-management or the rotation of officers in certain areas. (more to this in the article: A Way for Reform?)
In contrast to the perviously mentioned ‘official’ explanations for violation, there is the idea of a police sub-culture (‘cop-culture’). The deciding factor for police violation and excessive violence is that the practise of the monopoly on violence is defined through a ”second code in the form of a sub-cultural pattern of action“. The self-definition of the police force of being used in the ”front line“ against the chaos in society, the feelings of comradeship (”being able to depend on one another...“) and the option of being able to use violence against people, form the basic elements of the idea of ”cop-culture.“ The practise of a monopoly of violence is not based on deficiencies in the law but is increasingly defined by the experiences of the everyday work of the police force in which the application of physical violence finds another, or rather, extensive legitimation, as is in the official teaching at the police academy.
The ”cop-culture“-base explains violation, on the one hand, as the actions of those in the ‘front line’ against people who seem to threaten the police’s defense of order and, on the other hand, explains why violation is tolerated and backed by a large percentage of indifferent officers (”Wall of silence“): Namely due to a false understanding of loyalty and therefore a resulting Esprit de Corps.
It is hard to find a solution to the problem of police sub-culture (”cop-culture“) because the characteristics are immediately connected to the peculiarity of the institution of the police force and to its organisation and political mission.
The development of the ”cop culture“ is directly linked to the institution of the police force. As well as the main characteristic, the legal use of physical force, there are 3 institutional ”basic conditions“ which police violation of justice promotes:
The formation of a ”police ghetto“ begins in police training: Although during their training police cadets no longer stay on a military-style base, ghettos start to form, like it has done in the past, before they separate themselves from the rest of soceity. However, marked socialisation with other officers is also responsible for the development, that is, the strengthening of a more violent pattern of behaviour in the police force.
Violence in the everyday work of a police officer is allowed to go mostly unnoticed due to insufficicent internal and external supervision mechanisms in the police force and acts of violation increase when they are not met with disciplinary or punishable measures.
The idea of ”cop culture“ is a part of the philosophy of the police force. The maintenance of existing order, defending society against those who want to destroy this order, and the threat and use of violence are characteristics of every police officer. Violations of justice are therefore not accidents but are outcomes of the normal functions of the institution of the police force.
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