Two Case Studies for Police Officers

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In life there are a lot of issues that involve social psychology. Being a police officer is a profession that encounters a lot of social psychology issues. One issue that all police officers have to encounter is prejudice. Police officers have to not be prejudiced against the citizens that they are trying to protect and serve the criminals that they must apprehend and also against each other. Two case studies that will be discussed are prejudice against female police officers by their male counterparts and racial prejudice against potential criminals. You’re a female cop. You arrive to your precinct fifteen minutes before you scheduled time to prepare yourself for the day, and you patiently wait for your partner to arrive. Fifteen minutes after your scheduled time, your partner shows up. Although he did not call ahead of time, your captain did not reprimand him for his actions. You get mad at this because, just last week when you did call and say you would be a little late, you still got yelled at by the same captain for being late and your job position was threatened. As you’re out on patrol, you noticed a small brawl between two men starting to form in front of a corner store. You inform your partner about the possible fight and instruct him to pull over so you can see what’s going on. As the two of you get out of the car he says, “You should stay in the car there could be weapons involved and I don’t know if you can handle that.” You inform him that you have been working for the police force for over six years and have had to deal with situations far worse than this. He then tells you that this is a man's job and if he needs help he will call you for back up. Instead of fighting with him, you get back in the car even madder because of the comments he made about you. You sit in the car thinking if you were another male cop then it would not have been a problem, but since you are a female, there is a stereotype set upon you that you are weaker then he is and could not handle the situation. While thinking about this, you notice in the rearview mirror that your partner seems to be having some problems. As you get out of the car, you call for some backup just in case the situation gets out of hand. As you rush to his aid, he falls to the ground after being struck by one of the assailants. After a short fight between the two assa... ... middle of paper ... ...he officer already has beliefs about this suspect he will treat the suspect a certain way. The way that the officer asks the suspect the questions, may lead the suspect to act in a different manner than he normally would have, and if the suspect acts the way that the police officer expected him too, because of his race, then the theory of self-fulfilling prophesy is very present. Also, the illusionary correlation, which is when a person over-estimates the association between variables that are only slightly or not at all related, (Brehm, Kassin, & Fein, 2005), may have come into play. Since the officer already used prejudice to associate the man with the crime, the fact that he is Hispanic and was nearby may make him a suspect, but there is no hard evidence. As a police officer there are a lot of social psychological factors that come into play every day. You must constantly be helping people, not discriminating, unbiased in every way, and of course keeping an open mind at all times. All of the theories presented here should be taught to police officers, while they are in training, to help them to be able to handle these situations if any arise.

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