Leon Festinger developed cognitive dissonance theory that stated
“if an uncomfortable feeling or stress is caused by simultaneously holding two
contradictory ideas (cognitions), then people will strive to reduce the
discomfort (dissonance) by modifying an existing belief or by rejecting one of
the two conflicting ideas” (Grigg, 2008).
Cognitive dissonance almost always will have a strong influence on an
individual’s behavior and actions because it is a conflict between behavior and
belief. The theory of cognitive
dissonance explains how an individual may try to lessen the amount of
discomfort by making a decision that will not generate a lot of worry. Cognitive dissonance plays a part in many
important judgments and choices an individual has to make in situations where
their morals and beliefs do not agree with the behavior as in the case where
the veteran officer extorted money from suspected drug dealers.
According to the Encyclopedia of Law Enforcement “the police
organization is the primary public agency representing the state in the lives
of citizens” (Punch, 2005). Police
officers have a wide-range of responsibilities that are related to keeping the
peace in the community, protecting the citizens and their property and
investigating crimes that may occur.
Police officers have been known to partake in questionable behavior
while on the force such as, excessive violence on suspects, extortion and drug
trafficking just to name a few, which are considered to be corruption.
Police corruption is defined as a “distinct mode of police
transgression, which involves the misuse of police power for officer’s benefit
or managerial advantage” (Punch, 2005). An
example of police corruption is a veteran police officer extorting money from
suspected drug dealer while executing a search warrant. The police officer would give money to a
source and instruct them to buy drugs from suspected drug dealers and told them
to leave a small amount of the drugs inside the car of the suspected dealer so
when they performed a traffic stop the drugs would be present during the
search. While performing the search on
the vehicle and the suspected drug dealer the officer arrest the suspected drug
dealer for possession of narcotics and take some or all of the money that was
recovered in the search. Evidence
collected during the search was never accounted for because the officer
falsified evidence log sheets by excluding the money that was taken for his own
personal gain. The officer then
compensated the individual that helped by leaving the drugs in the car with
some of the cash that was recovered with stipulations to assist with finding
more suspected drug dealers.
Onwudiwe, I., & Onwudiwe, C. (2009). Police
corruption. Encyclopedia of race and
crime. doi:10.4135/9781412971928.n255
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