Criminal Justice System

Police often apprehend criminals through deception or sting tactics. To hasten compliance to laws, police utilize their knowledge of crime to construct circumstances that invite criminals to commit more crime in a recordable way, enhancing the likelihood of apprehension of criminals who otherwise would be difficult to detect and prosecute (Crank 2004). Stings typically employ enforcement officers, cooperative community members, and apprehended offenders to play a role as a criminal partner or potential victim in order to gather evidence of a suspect’s wrongdoing. Stings are conducted by local, state, and federal enforcement agencies. Sometimes agencies operate stings independently, and other stings are mutual efforts consisting of many agencies, including agencies of other nations. Stings vary in the scope of their operations and techniques, suggesting numerous variations, yet their objectives are similar: Attract and build a case toward identification, apprehension, and conviction of offenders who often go undetected through traditional police initiatives. One way to examine stings is to review federal and local police sting experiences, components of a legal sting, and the perspectives of sting critics. Federal Stings Federal enforcement agencies conduct local, national, and international stings. Federal stings are conducted by the Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA), Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), Department of Homeland Security (HS), Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF), and U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement (ICE). Publicized stings often include terrorism and arms smuggling, child pornography and pedophile activities, bank laundering of illegal funds, and cigarette and drug trafficking. Terrorism and arms smuggling stings are typified by a New Jersey case. A suspect was charged with the crimes of providing material support for terrorism and smuggling firearms (IGLA-2 surface-to-air missile) into the country (Federal Bureau of Investigation 2003). The buyers were FBI agents pretending to be a terrorist cell, the sellers were undercover Russian enforcement agents, and the apprehended broker was a British citizen (BBC News 2003). National stings (that is, operations Artus, Avalanche, Candyman, Blue Orchid, Hamlet, and Rip Cord) and international stings (operations Ore, Snowball, and Twins) have detected and apprehended pornographers and pedophiles. For example, Operation Candyman uncovered an estimated seven thousand subscribers linked to a pornographer’s website. Those arrested included day care workers, clergy members, law enforcement personnel, and military personnel. Operation Rip Cord identified more than fifteen hundred child pornographer suspects who also solicited child sex through websites in several countries (CNN 1997). An investigator was so disgusted by the materials he viewed that he ripped a computer plug from the wall, giving the sting its name. Operation Twins, the global Internet investigation into a pedophile ring known as ”the Brotherhood,” was led by the United Kingdom’s National High Tech Crime Unit (NHTCU), the FBI, the Royal Canadian Mounted Police (RCMP), and the police forces of Norway and Germany. Stings have been conducted by individual federal agencies in other nations, such as Operation Casablanca. Three large Mexican banks were charged by the DEA with laundering millions of dollars from Mexican and Colombian drug cartels (Zinser 1998). The successful sting was called a national insult […]

There is a growing and rather extensive literature on strategic planning. For example, the Learning Resource Center at the FBI Training Academy has compiled a ten-page bibliography on strategic planning. This bibliography lists items available at the FBI Academy Library. Melcher and Kerzner (1988,20), tracing the evolution of strategic planning theory, write that the first interest in the subject can be traced to the Harvard Business School in 1933, when top management’s ”point of view” was added to the business policy course. This perspective emphasized incorporating a firm’s external environment with its internal operations. George Steiner’s classic work Strategic Planning: What Every Manager Must Know was published in 1979 and is generally considered to be the bible of strategic planning. Steiner asserts that strategic planning is inextricably interwoven into the entire fabric of management. Steiner lists fourteen basic and well-known management processes (for example, setting objectives and goals, developing a company philosophy by establishing beliefs, values, and so forth) that make up the components of a general management system and links them to a comprehensive strategic planning process (7-8). There are many different models or approaches to strategic planning. Melcher and Kerzner’s topic Strategic Planning: Development and Implementation provides an excellent description and review of various models. In essence, strategic planning is a highly rational approach to the management process. It seeks to answer the following questions: Why does the organization exist? What is the organization doing today? What should the organization be doing in the future? What short-term objectives and longer-term goals must be accomplished to bridge the gap from the present to the future? There is some debate among strategic planners as to whether this analysis can be meaningful without identifying the organizational culture, its values and norms, and the values of critical decision makers. Thus, a number of models of the strategic planning process include a values identification, audit, and analysis step. Many other models do not include this step. The writer’s experience has been that many law enforcement officials are turned off by what they see as ”mushy, touchy-feely, organizational psychology concepts” intruding into the planning process. The writer believes that an understanding of the organizational culture is extremely important to the success of any attempt to change an organization. Strategic planning is such an effort—changing the organization from its present to its future. Nevertheless, many organizations and their members are not ready for this kind of self-examination. Strategic planning can assist law enforcement agencies in performing their mission without including the values analysis step. Evolution of Management Thought Up until the 1950s, organizations were governed by one set of rules. There were a variety of highly respected theories about organizations, including Henry Fayol’s classical organization theory/administrative science, Max Weber’s bureaucratic theory, and Frederick Taylor’s scientific management, but all prescribed the same set of rules. First, simplify work as much as possible. Second, organize to accomplish routine activities. Third, set standards of control to monitor performance. Finally, take no notice of any changes in the world at large that might affect the […]

Research physician Hans Selye introduced the concept of stress to the life sciences and later defined stress as the organism’s response to any demand placed on it (1946, 1976). Although there has been extensive research on the topic of stress, there is not necessarily a commonly accepted definition of the term. Stressors are physical or psychological stimuli that impact on one’s state of arousal and are often seen as threatening, frustrating, or conflicting and therefore can lead to anxiety. Therefore, while hard to define, stress clearly involves both psychological and physiological processes. Anxiety is a common reaction to stress and is marked by both physical and psychological components such as ”fear, anger, apprehension, and muscular tension” (Bartol and Bartol 1994). Fear then often leads to increased engagement, avoidance, or incapacitation (the so-called fight, flight, or freeze phenomenon), speech difficulties, generalized irritability, or other relief behaviors like biting nails, smoking, or drinking. This form of anxiety, known as state anxiety, is to be differentiated from trait anxiety, an individual characteristic or personality attribute that is associated with a more chronic form of stress (Spielberger 1966). Effects of Stress There is no doubt that the effects of stress can be harmful. There are many illnesses thought to be brought on or exacerbated by the amount and experience of stress including heart disease, alcoholism, sleep disorders, and psychological disorders, to name a few. Research on stress has suggested that too little or too much stress can negatively impact performance, although this relationship has not been well established in the research on police (Sewell, Ellison, and Hurrell 1988). How Stressful Is Policing? Policing has been described as the most stressful job in America (see, for example, Kupelian 1991; Greaves 1987; Bartol 1983), yet recent research has refuted that claim with evidence suggesting it may be no more stressful than many other occupations (Anson and Bloom 1988; Malloy and Mays 1984). While an Australian police study showed police to have higher incidences of heart disease, hypertension, asthma, hay fever, skin illnesses, nervous breakdowns, and divorce rates than those of the general population, other research comparing police officers to other public workers found few differences in the level of stress experienced. There is some indication, however, that there are differences in the sources of stress associated with various jobs. Sources of Stress in Policing Many of the stresses police officers encounter are unique to their profession. While much of police work is routine, there is the possibility of great risk and danger at any moment. Additionally, police officers are often called to the scene of trouble and therefore are exposed to trauma, both physical and emotional. They frequently deal with individuals who are antisocial, antiauthority, angry, violent, emotionally disturbed, manipulative, or under the influence of alcohol and/or drugs. Police also work in paramilitary organizations with rigid lines of authority, numerous rules and regulations, and the threat of disciplinary action when their behavior does not conform to laws, policies, procedures, or public expectations. In addition, many police find it difficult to build […]

Police work is highly stressful since it is one of the few occupations where employees are asked to continually face physical dangers and to put their lives on the line at any time. The police officer is exposed to violence, cruelty, and aggression and is often required to make extremely critical decisions in high-pressured situations (Goolkasian et al. 1985; Territo and Vetter 1983). Officers are often called upon to maintain social order while working long hours, experiencing conflicts in their job demands, and having to face hostile feelings of an unusually nonsupportive community (Fell, Richard, and Wallace 1980). Law enforcement officers can use both adaptive and maladaptive strategies to cope with stress. Whether a police officer uses adaptive or maladaptive approaches depends on the officer’s understanding the stressful situation, making sense of it, and developing appropriate responses to it (Lazarus 1967). Adaptive coping strategies are problem-solving approaches that help law enforcement professionals deal directly with the stressful situation by seeking and implementing solutions. The active-cognitive coping category includes trying to interpret the meaning of the event, logical analysis, and mental preparation. Problem-focused coping involves the practical aspects of seeking information and support, taking action, and identifying alternative rewards. These are adaptive strategies. One of the functions of adaptive coping behaviors is to decrease the impact of the demands of stress (Marshall 1979; Pearlin and Schooler 1978). Therefore, the use of an appropriate coping strategy might function as a buffer against stress, both present and future, and limit the negative impact of the stress. A model offered by Zeitlin (1984) depicts adaptive coping as a process in which personal resources are used to manage stress. This model approaches adaptive coping from a cognitive and behavioral standpoint and emphasizes the importance of both external and internal resources for coping with stress. In contrast, maladaptive approaches are emotion-focused coping strategies. These maladaptive strategies include affective regulation, emotional discharge, and resigned acceptance of the stress. These maladaptive coping approaches frequently do not deal directly with the problem and therefore are not likely to relieve the individual’s anxiety. Indeed, maladaptive coping strategies are more likely to exacerbate stress and have a negative effect on job satisfaction (Parasuraman and Cleek 1984). Research by Kirmeryer and Diamond (1985) indicates that the personality type of each police officer strongly dictates that officer’s selection of a coping mechanism. Police officers who have a type A personality are more likely to make emotive-focused coping decisions, while type B personality types are more likely to react slowly to the stress and maintain their emotional distance. All of this research indicates that police personnel are experiencing high levels of stress without a clear understanding of how to alleviate that stress in acceptable ways. Research by Violanti and Marshall (1983) has indicated that police officers utilize coping mechanisms that increase the stress rather than alleviate it (Violanti and Marshall 1983; Violanti, Marshal, and Howe 1985). This research showed that police officers used maladaptive coping mechanisms, such as alcohol, drugs, deviance, and cynicism. The use of these emotion-focused solutions has […]

Strikes and job actions are intentional alterations, disruptions, or suspensions of the work roles of a significant number of employees for the purpose of forcing employers to satisfy worker demands. Among public safety employees, these actions have included a number of covert job actions and overt strike tactics. The former category includes principally the ”ticket blizzard,” in which the issuing of traffic citations reaches epidemic proportions, and the ”blue flu,” or sick-ins, during which extraordinary numbers of officers report themselves ill and unable to work, as well as other speed-up and slow-down tactics. The latter category is reserved for the strike, in which significant numbers of officers overtly refuse to work in order to achieve their collective goals. Such activities have been widely and popularly perceived as disruptive of and an interference with, if not a grave threat to, commonwealth interests. This article focuses principally on the overt strike, and only incidentally addresses covert forms of job action. Arguments: Pro and Con At the outset, it is well to recognize that ”unionization” and ”strikes” are not coextensive phenomena. Nonetheless, in the public perspective on these matters, fear of strikes by police often appears to dominate the collective consciousness. Anticipation of the strike, then, necessarily influences attitudes toward unions. For that reason, arguments regarding the propriety of police unionization and the right of officers to strike are intimately related. Publicly accepted understandings of the purpose and role of unions, on the one hand, and the importance assigned to the role of police, on the other, have often led unions and police to be seen as incompatible. As a result, the unionization of and strikes by public sector employees have traditionally been regarded as inappropriate. Only since the 1960s and 1970s has this attitude tended to soften and become less rigid. The opposition has several facets. When applied specifically to public safety workers such as police, the foregoing arguments have been refined and supplemented. Of particular importance is the issue of strikes among employees who provide allegedly essential services, that is, those regarded as indispensable for maintaining the health, safety, and well-being of the populace. There are several facets to this issue: First is the concern over the fear generated in the population by the suspension of such services. Second, there is concern that the supposedly essential nature of their duties affords these workers undue influence in the collective bargaining process. The third concern is that, taken together, these and other matters put government at a disadvantage in negotiations. However logical this may seem, evidence suggests that the foundations on which much of this concern rests, that is, the dire consequences of suspending essential services, including injury, loss of life, destruction of property, loss of property, loss of profits and revenue, and a decline in public order, are more anticipated than real. Additionally, arguments developed in opposition to specific reforms sought by line officers have frequently been converted into arguments opposing unionization of police officers. For example, efforts to establish a dues check-off system, of […]