Value Conflicts in Law Enforcement

Abstract

In law enforcement, goal-oriented guides for behavior must be made explicit. Unclarified value conflicts result in irrelevant or inappropriate outcomes in police encounters. The sources of values are both personal and social. The former are largely derived from early personal experiences; the latter from the outside community (the middle class) and from formal and in formal demands within the police apparatus. The middle-class status of most police officers causes them to emphasize prompt ness, cleanliness, propriety, and orderliness. These values differ somewhat from those of lower-class society, where life may be a battle for survival. The police officer, usually poorly prepared for understanding persons from different backgrounds, finds it hard to cope with the conflict in values. Already alienated in an authoritarian police bureaucracy, he also feels alienated in the neighborhood in which he works. This increases his own sus picion and fear and conversely that of the lower-class persons whom he encounters.