Tara O’Connor Shelley

The Bosnian Police and Police Integrity A Continuing Story

The international community has invested considerable resources in reforming the police in post-Dayton Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH). This paper develops a typology of integrity problems in the BiH and measures the level of integrity among the police in the Sarajevo canton. The typology consists of six forms of police misconduct; it suggests the presence of serious and pervasive integrity problems. In 2003, 451 police officers evaluated nine scenarios describing police corruption and one describing the use of excessive force. Police officers’ evaluations of the seriousness of the police misconduct illustrated by these scenarios were directly related to their opinions about appropriate discipline. The results also indicate that the code of silence provides stronger protection for the acceptance of gratuities and use of excessive force than for opportunistic thefts and shakedowns.

Gendered institutions and gender roles: understanding the experiences of women in policing

Men are disproportionately represented in many institutions including law, politics, the academy, and the economy. Women have made great strides in increasing representation in many of these professions with the exception of policing; where police departments have had difficulty hiring, retaining, and promoting female officers. The available literature on women in policing, however, is largely atheoretical and does not thoroughly address advancement barriers and the retention of women. To address this gap in the literature, this article utilizes Acker’s theory of gendered institutions to provide a historical review of women’s experiences in law enforcement. Acker’s four gendered processes are used to organize the existing literature regarding women’s experiences as well as coping and adaptation strategies in the gendered institution of policing. Finally, implications are explored and an agenda for future research is discussed.

The police code of silence and different paths towards democratic policing

We study the contours of the code of silence among the police in two Eastern-European countries (the Czech Republic (CR) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH)). These two countries have experienced relatively recent, but dramatically different paths towards democratisation of the police. We surveyed 604 Czech police officers and 451 officers in BiH regarding their willingness to report misconduct and expectations about the willingness of fellow officers to report misconduct. The results indicate that, although the code of silence is present among supervisors and line officers in both countries, the code is stronger among line officers than among supervisors. In addition, it appears that officers and supervisors in both countries have a good grasp of the extent of protection the code will actually provide. We also report that the code is more homogeneous among the line officers and supervisors in BiH than in the CR, and that tolerance of the use of excessive force is stronger in Bi than in the CR. Both of these...We study the contours of the code of silence among the police in two Eastern-European countries (the Czech Republic (CR) and Bosnia and Herzegovina (BiH)). These two countries have experienced relatively recent, but dramatically different paths towards democratisation of the police. We surveyed 604 Czech police officers and 451 officers in BiH regarding their willingness to report misconduct and expectations about the willingness of fellow officers to report misconduct. The results indicate that, although the code of silence is present among supervisors and line officers in both countries, the code is stronger among line officers than among supervisors. In addition, it appears that officers and supervisors in both countries have a good grasp of the extent of protection the code will actually provide. We also report that the code is more homogeneous among the line officers and supervisors in BiH than in the CR, and that tolerance of the use of excessive force is stronger in Bi than in the CR. Both of these findings may be explained by the recent war in BiH that created unique challenges for democratisation of the police.

The code of silence and disciplinary fairness: A comparison of Czech police supervisor and line officer views

Purpose – This paper aims to explore how police officer rank affects the relation between the extent of the code of silence and views of discipline fairness.Design/methodology/approach – In 2005, 150 police supervisors and 450 line officers from East Bohemia, the Czech Republic were surveyed, regarding crucial components of police integrity.Findings – Supervisor and line officer codes of silence are similar; whenever the codes differ, the supervisor code seems to be narrower. The majority of line officers and supervisors provided similar assessments of the expected discipline; they disagreed only regarding a small number of scenarios. The results clearly show a direct relation between how strongly police officers adhere to the code of silence and the way they view disciplinary fairness, regardless of their supervisory status.Research limitations/implications – The survey included only police officers from East Bohemia in the Czech Republic.Practical implications – The methodology can be utilized by police...

The Contours of Police Integrity Across Eastern Europe: The Case of Bosnia and Herzegovina and the Czech Republic

We study the integrity contours of two police in Eastern Europe that have experienced dramatically different democratic transitions. The democratic transition and reform of the police in the Czech Republic was largely self-imposed and occurred with relatively low levels of violence. Conversely, the experience in Bosnia and Herzegovina involved a war resulting in outside intervention and reform efforts orchestrated by the international community. The goal of this article is not only to review reforms of the Czech and Bosnian police in the context of and Kutnjak Ivkovićs organizational theory of police integrity but also to empirically measure the extent of integrity among the police in both countries. We survey 604 Czech police officers and 451 Bosnian police officers regarding their opinions about the seriousness of police corruption, the appropriate punishment such misconduct deserves and would receive, and their willingness to report misconduct.

Police Integrity and the Czech Police Officers

The Velvet Revolution of 1989 ended the socialist period in former Czechoslovakia. Sixteen years after the transition toward democratic policing, we explore the integrity contours of the Czech police. In the summer of 2005, we surveyed more than 600 police officers from East Bohemia regarding their perceptions about the seriousness of police corruption, the appropriate punishment such misconduct deserves and would receive, and their willingness to report misconduct. The results indicate that the majority of the respondents correctly labeled behaviors described in our questionnaire as rule‐violating. Furthermore, with the exception of the least serious forms of corruption, they supported and expected the two most serious forms of discipline: a cut in salary and dismissal. Finally, the majority of the respondents said that they would not be willing to tolerate the most serious forms of corruption in silence.

Camouflage-Collar Crime: An Examination of Wildlife Crime and Characteristics of Offenders in Florida

Fish and wildlife crime is an understudied area of criminology and criminal justice and when it is the focus of research, studies tend to be characterized by small samples and a lack of multivariate analyses. This study examines the nature and extent of cited fish and wildlife offenses and characteristics of offenders through quantitative analysis of 15,657 incidents of cited fish and wildlife offenses in Florida. The results indicate that a viable typology of wildlife crime is emergent and that there are important racial and ethnic differences across types of wildlife offenses.

The Normative Order of Reporting Police Misconduct: Examining the Roles of Offense Seriousness, Legitimacy, and Fairness

Using anonymous surveys of 3,235 officers in 30 police agencies, we tested hypotheses derived from prior policing research, legitimacy theory, and disciplinary fairness literature on the intentions of police officers to report acts of misconduct perpetrated by fellow officers. We examined features of the normative order involving peer reporting of police misconduct at both the individual agency and aggregate police subculture levels. Consistent with previous research, the perceived seriousness of the offense and legitimacy (endorsement) are consistently strong predictors of officers’ intentions to report misconduct. We also find that perceived fairness of discipline provides significant results, but the direction of the relationship depends on the perceived seriousness of the offense. It is clear that the majority of police officers participate in a shared normative culture of when to and when not to report misconduct. Finally, we note the importance of studying the reporting of police misconduct using a social psychological lens.

The Influence of Criminal Justice Major on Punitive Attitudes

Students majoring in criminology and criminal justice are assumed to have more detailed and accurate knowledge about crime, criminal justice, and punishment practices than peers majoring in other disciplines. The purpose of this study was to examine if criminology/criminal justice majors were more or less punitive than students pursuing other majors at three universities using standard predictors of punitiveness that have not been consistently examined in previous research. The results indicate that criminology and criminal justice students are more punitive in the combined three‐campus sample and in two of the three‐campus samples considered separately.

Do Conservation Organizations Influence the Production of Natural Resource Violations

This research extends the study of natural resource violations by examining the association between conservation organizations and the enforcement of natural resource violations across 67 Florida counties in 2006. Specifically, the authors look at natural resource violations as an organizational outcome that is influenced by perceived community organization around environmental conservation. To do this, they examine the association between the number of conservation organizations and the level of enforcement for natural resource violations. The results suggest that even while controlling for organizational capacity (i.e., number of officers), offenders and targets, proportion rural population, and economic benefits from natural resource use, a positive association exits between conservation organizations and natural resource enforcement levels. This relationship is not replicated in the case of animal rights and hunting and fishing organizations. Although issues related to environmental justice are always a concern in studies of environmental enforcement, the authors find no evidence of an association between social and economic disadvantage and community organizing. Finally, a post hoc examination of the data suggests that the association between conservation organizations and the level of natural resource enforcement is stronger for those counties where more officers enforce natural resource violations than for those counties where fewer officers enforce violations.