The Code of Silence and the Theory of Police Integrity

Abstract

AbstractThis chapter nests the code of silence within the discussion of police integrity. It starts by presenting an overview of the tenets of police integrity theory and the methodology developed by Klockars CB, Kutnjak Ivković S, Haberfeld MR (2004a) The contours of police integrity. In Klockars CB, Kutnjak Ivković S, Haberfeld M R (eds). The contours of police integrity. Sage, Thousand Oaks, p 1–18.; Klockars CB, Kutnjak Ivković S, Haberfeld MR (2004b) Police integrity in the United States of America. In Klockars CB, Kutnjak Ivković S, Haberfeld M R (eds). The contours of police integrity. Sage, Thousand Oaks, p 265–282. Based on the data from one mid-sized police department in the United States, the chapter examines the extent of the code of silence across 12 different scenarios depicting lapses in police integrity, including police corruption, use of excessive force, organizational deviance, and interpersonal deviance. Our findings show that the strength of the code of silence varies across scenarios and that it is negatively related to how serious misconduct is evaluated to be. The multivariate models indicate that the perceptions of organizational peer culture are the strongest factor affecting the respondents’ own willingness to report. In addition, other factors based on the police integrity theory—seriousness of police misconduct, assessment that the behavior violates official rules, and severity of expected discipline—are all related to the respondents’ expressed unwillingness to adhere to the code of silence.