Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
factors affecting police discretion
factors affecting police discretion
impact of discretion on criminal justice system
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: factors affecting police discretion
Discretion process
Discretion is a strong, and unpredictable tool that police use to demonstrate their power to maintain social orders in the community. It allows police officers to show authoritative powers to eliminate an individual’s freedom. The process enhances the way the police will be able to control all the crimes that happens within the society. It is an important process and therefore highly recommended in every community. The main aim of this work will be to investigate the process of discretion, the positive impacts it has in the society, and the effects it might have if it is abused.
To begin with, this process requires police organizations to confine and structure discretion to avoid unwanted influence in making informed decisions.
…show more content…
We expect that when a client experiences high discretion it positively influence their perception of the clients’ meaningfulness. They will have the feeling that their freedom to make choices. It is possible to employ the policy to their specific situation of their clients, which promotes the value of the policy of client. For example, when a social worker uses her discretion to cope with particular issues of the client, which helps her to help the client better. This promotes the meaningfulness of the policy. Client meaningfulness is closely related to the social work narrative that is experienced by workers who have the will to help the clients to achieve long-term success. When the police experience more discretion, this should impart a positive influence to their client meaningfulness that in turn leads to influence their willingness to implement a policy. Thus the client’s meaningfulness could call for willingness to implement the policy (Crawford and Burns, …show more content…
The police can exercise discretion units within the police if the detained suspects have not followed the powers stipulated. The police will use force to search the victims if their report of them is being victimized or something has been stolen. Discretion can also be applied when the victim fails to admit that the suspect crime activity was also involved. The use of force will enable the police to find the truth of the matter itself. The process is primarily used to extract the truth from the victims of the crime. The use of force may applicable within the department in the given above
How prevalent is police discretion and why does it exist? Can discretion be eliminated? Should it be? Due Date March 11 2005
Law enforcement officers are in constant dangerous situations while out doing their responsibilities. When in these threatening situations, police officers typically have little to no time to determine the right precaution. These precautions may lead to the death of a suspect or even the officer themselves. The media has recently shed light on police brutality with use of force. Use of force could be defined as the amount of effort an officer must use in order to make an unwilling subject compel. Police officers are usually trained to enable the proper responsible to a dangerous situation they may be put in. In this paper I will go through the guidelines that a police officer must obey when considering a certain degree of use of force. Within each guideline there will be the pro and cons with that situation and also a recent case that happened. This paper will also talk about how this topic can be addressed more properly. These guidelines that officer are taught during their training are called Use of Force Continuum.
There are four major factors, as described by Herbert Jacob, which influence police discretion (Dempsey & Frost, 2014). These factors include the “characteristics of the crime, relationship between the alleged criminal and the victim, relationship between the police and the criminal or victim, and department policies” (Dempsey & Frost, 2014, p. 142). Those are not the only factors but they can be considered the most commonly used and relied upon. They give a run down and a starting point on how to gauge and judge what steps they should take when deciding how to handle certain
Police brutality is a very real problem that many Americans face today. The police carry an enormous burden each day. Police work is very stressful and involves many violent and dangerous situations. In many confrontations the police are put in a position in which they may have to use force to control the situation. There are different levels of force and the situation dictates the level use most of the time. The police have very strict rules about police use force and the manner in which they use it. In this paper I will try to explain the many different reason the police cross the line, and the many different people that this type of behavior effects. There are thousands of reports each year of assaults and ill treatment against officers who use excessive force and violate the human rights of their victims. In some cases the police have injured and even killed people through the use of excessive force and brutal treatment. The use of excessive force is a criminal act and I will try and explore the many different factors involved in these situations.
The individuals within our society have allowed we the people to assess and measure the level of focus and implementation of our justice system to remedy the modern day crime which conflict with the very existence of our social order. Enlightening us to the devices that will further, establish the order of our society, resides in our ability to observe the Individual’s rights for public order.
Police officers are faced each day with a vast array of situations with which they must deal. No two situations they encounter are ever the same, even when examines a large number of situations over an extended period of time. The officers are usually in the position of having to make decisions on how to handle a specific matter alone, or with little additional advice and without immediate supervision. This is the heart of police discretion. As we shall find, the exercise of discretion by police has benefits and problems associated with such exercise. The unfettered use of discretion can lead to the denial of citizen rights. Strategies that control the use of discretion are, therefore, very important. The benefits and problems of police discretion and controlling strategies are the focus of this essay.
Discretion of a police officer is the subject I would like to tackle. In this paper I will discuss the issues I have with the discretion, the problems with these discretions I have, and how some officers may use discretion to their advantage. By the conclusion of the paper the reader will be educated on the subject of discretion and the issues facing it.
Laws and procedures are the most common basis for officers choosing not to allow offenders to remain free based on their discretion, a study by Mendias and Kehoe (2006) has found. The study found that laws or responsibilities were the main reason for a decision to suspend discretion in eighty-two percent of cases involving an arrest. The study also found that keeping the peace and procedural implications were the primary justifications for ex...
Police use their discretion to determine what laws should or should not be enforced. Discretion can be used in most instances; however there are some incidences that a police officer cannot ignore,
Police discretion. Police discretion is defined as the decision-making power afforded to Police Officers that allows them to decide if they want to pursue police procedure or simply let someone off with a warning. Police discretion can be also defined as the individual’s ability to make a decision based on the principle of courses in the actions. Police officers are usually in the position of having to make decisions on how to handle a specific situation alone, or without immediate supervision. In other words, police discretion is the choice the officer has on how he or she enforces the law. Discretion in law enforcement includes whom to arrest, whom to investigate, whom to talk to, and whom to interview (Pollock, 2014). Use of discretion
There are different principles that makeup the crime control model. For example, guilt implied, legal controls minimal, system designed to aid police, and Crime fighting is key. However one fundamental principle that has been noted is that ‘the repression of criminal conduct is by far the most important function to be performed by the criminal processes’. (Packer, 1998, p. 4). This is very important, because it gives individuals a sense of safety. Without this claim the public trust within the criminal justice process would be very little. The general belief of the public is that those that are seen as a threat to society, as well as those that fails to conform to society norms and values should be separated from the rest of society, from individuals who choose to participate fully in society. Consequently, the crime control model pro...
The use of force is when the officers have to use force to protect themselves and the people of the community from harm. There are two different ways of the use of force. The use of force involves the use of physical restraint usually by law enforcement to gain control of an unruly person or violent situations. (Harp)
Within this essay, the focus will be to explain three concepts in which influence the public’s confidence on the police. The concepts which will be analysed within this essay are media, racism and terrorism. Apart from analysing these three concepts this essay will also focus on how the police can help bring back public confidence within them and the plans which have been implemented to help restore the public faith within the police. At the end of this essay it will conclude whether the police have done much to build the public’s confidence within the police.
However, there are ethical concerns regarding giving police greater power of surveillance. The paper has examined the perspective of the Kantian theory, utilitarian theory, social contract theory, and subjective relativism theory. As a duty-based ethics, Kantian theory insists on doing the right thing regardless of the consequences. For this reason, the right thing is to prevent crime from taking place in the society. By enhancing the powers of the police to perform their duty through surveillance, the citizens are assured of their security regardless of other consequences such as social control and infringement of
Police decisions can affect life, liberty, and property, and as guardians of the interests of the public, police must maintain high standards of integrity. Police discretion concerning how to act in a given situation can often lead to ethical misconduct (Banks 29).