DR.

RAM MANOHAR LOHIYA NATIONAL LAW UNIVERSITY,

LUCKNOW
2015-16

Psychology-3
(Forensic Psychology)

Assessing the Potential for Corruption in Police Psychology

Submitted To:
Ms. ISHA YADAV

Submitted By:
SHOBHIT S. AWASTHI

Assistant Professor

Roll No.-130

Sec- B

(Psychology)

3rd semester

Dr. RMLNLU Lucknow.

BA.LLB (Hons.)

Signature

Signature

Acknowledgement
I would like to express my special thanks of gratitude to my subject teacher Ms. Isha Yadav
maam as well as our Vice Chancellor Prof. Gurdip Singh who gave me the golden opportunity
to do this wonderful project on the topic Assessing the Potential for Corruption in Police
Psychology which also helped me in doing a lot of Research and i came to know about so many
new things. I am really thankful to them.
Secondly i would also like to thank my parents and friends who helped me a lot in finishing this
project.
I am making this project not only for marks but to also increase my knowledge about the issues
of corruption in the light of Forensic Psychology and I hope that project will fulfill the criteria of
the department of psychology Dr. Ram Manohar Lohia National law University, Lucknow.
Thank You!
[Shobhit S. Awasthi]

Index
Acknowledgement..
Introduction.
Police Psychology: An Overview
Issue of corruption in general..
Issue of corruption in Indian Police Department.
Issue of corruption in Police Psychology.
Strategies to combat with the police corruption. .

Mental and Aptitude Testing

Personality Assessment

Police Counseling and On duty Stress Management

Conclusion
Bibliography.

Introduction
First of all there is an essential need to realize that only police is not the single department that is
corrupt and not only are Indian police corrupt. We cannot found a single country of the world
without corruption. Perhaps because of the frequent police-society interaction police is being
perceived as more corrupt department.
Police as a Law enforcing agency is an important institution of that social control which existed
in some form or the other in all society in all ages. Police is an integral part of the present day
society. A society in the present set up cannot live and progress without an effective, sincere and
honest police force. Therefore need of the hour is corruption free police and for this purpose
forensic psychology through its branch know as police psychology try to combat with the issue.
The application of psychology to law enforcement and public safety is a rapidly growing area
increasingly recognized as vital to many aspects of police work and the academic study of
policing. However, the field suffers from something of an identity complex.
This project work is assessing the issues of corruption in police through police psychology. First
of all project work defines what is police psychology through an overview and also highlights
the essential trends in police psychology. Secondly it would define the corruption in general
meaning there by the main focus of this part of the project work is to show the constituent parts
of the corruption.
The third and fourth part of this project work Issue of corruption in police psychology and
Issue of corruption in Indian Police Department as name suggest that both parts are intra
related to each other because the problems are similar in nature and the remedy is also same but
the color is different.
And the last but above bottom portion of the project work simply talks about strategies to combat
with the police corruption meaning there by this part states the personality measure test and
trends of the police psychology which use to testify the police officers for example MMPI-2, IPI
etc.

In conclusion the project work found that the single best predictor of corruption was not a
personality measure. Rather, the strongest predictor was post hire misconduct. And also mentions
certain suggestions for the betterment.
Police Psychology: An Overview
In order to know about the police psychology firstly we have to know about the forensic
psychology in short. Forensic psychology is defined by the American Board of Forensic
Psychology as the application of the science and profession of psychology to questions and
issues relating to law and the legal system.
The word forensic comes from the Latin word forensic, meaning of the forum, where the
law courts of ancient Rome were held. Today forensic refers to the application of scientific
principles and practices to the adversary process where specially knowledgeable scientists play a
role.
Forensic psychologists may address a variety of topics such as child custody, competency to
proceed in trial, evaluating the psychological impact of a personal injury that is being litigated,
the validity of claims of child sexual abuse, profiles of criminal offenders, and a long list of other
topics in which a psychologist is being asked to answer a psycho legal or investigative question.
Police psychology is a separate subspeciality of psychology that has been defined as, The
delivery of psychological services to and on behalf of law enforcement agencies, their
executives, and employees . . . The field of police psychology is extremely diverse and involves
more than 50 distinct proficiencies . . . . The police psychology proficiencies can be clustered or
organized into four distinct domains of practice: (1) assessment related activities, (2) intervention
services, (3) operational support, and (4) organizational/management consultation (Aumiller &
Corey, 2007, pp. 66-67).
Other psychologists who provide regular clinical services within the context of a police
department are probably best described as clinical psychologists providing services within law
enforcement, and not as a police or forensic psychologists, since they are providing clinical
services within a police department, and not engaging in any of the activities that distinguish
others as either forensic or police psychologists.
5

Police psychologists are usually doctoral level clinicians who have migrated into a law
enforcement position. Most serve as consultants; that is, they have an independent practice and
are hired to consult.
Because most North American police departments have fewer than 15 total employees, it is not
feasible

for

all

departments

to

have

police

psychologist as a staff member. When departments have more than 700 sworn officers, many
departments hire their own full time psychologist(s).
Police psychologists serve in a number of ways. They provide pre-employment screening of
applicants (to make sure someone is fit to serve), provide counseling to employees, perform
fitness for duty evaluations (to determine if an employee is still capable of performing their
duties)

and

often

engage

in

crime

specific

consultation

(E.g.,

consulting

with hostages, profiling), and provide training to employees.

At last Police psychology is a subfield of forensic psychology addressing issues specific to police
personnel and other public safety workers.
Issue of corruption in general
Corruption is an improbity or decay in the decision-making process in which a decision-maker
consents to deviate or demands deviation from the criterion which should rule his or her
decision-making, in exchange for a reward or for the promise or expectation of a reward, while
these motives influencing his or her decision-making cannot be part of the justification of the
decision. - Dr. Petrus van Duyne
The simplest definition is:
Corruption is the misuse of public power (by elected politician, appointed civil servant or police
officers) for private gain.
Defining corruption can be a challenge. It takes many forms, and perpetrators are skilled in
developing new ways to be corrupt and cover their tracks. Much thought has been devoted to
developing different definitions of corruption but, despite its complex nature, most people can
recognise a corrupt act when they see it.
6

Corruption may be defined as the abuse of entrusted power for private gain. This definition
captures three elements of corruption. One, corruption occurs in both the public and private
sectors (and media and civil society actors are not exempt). Two, it involves abusing power held
in a state institution or a private organisation.
Three, the bribe-taker (or a third party or, for example, an organisation such as a political party)
as well as the bribe-giver benefit, whether it be in terms of money or an undue advantage.
Sometimes the advantage gained by the bribe-giver may not be undue or clear cut but is
nonetheless an advantage.
For example, in a corrupt society where the right to access public services such as health or
education can be only secured by paying an unlawful bribe, those who can afford to pay have an
advantage over those who cannot. In such circumstances the bribe-givers benefit is merely that
which is his or her rightful due and bribe-takers receive an advantage for carrying out functions
that they are obliged anyway to perform.
Corruption is often described as either grand or petty (petty corruption is also described as
administrative). Grand corruption typically takes place at the top levels of the public sphere and
the senior management levels of business, where policies and rules are formulated and executive
decisions are made. It also often involves large sums of money (political corruption is another
common term that may be used to refer to grand corruption more generally or specifically to the
negative influence of money in political campaigns and political parties).
Small scale, administrative or petty corruption is the everyday corruption that takes place at the
implementation end of politics, where public officials meet the public. Petty corruption is most
commonly found as bribery in connection with the implementation of existing laws, rules and
regulations, or in abuse of power in daily situations (e.g., the traffic police who takes money
every day from taxi drivers in return for not harassing them further). It usually involves modest
sums of money in any given exchange. However, endemic petty corruption can result in great
costs and can place serious stress on the functioning of state systems, in a way comparable to
grand corruption.

Issue of corruption in Indian Police Department

The main purpose of the above discussion on corruption is to create a background knowledge for
this work. Now because the topic is related to the police corruption so its my self-proclaimed
duty to attach our Indian Police department.
Police corruption is defined as the abuse of police authority for personal or organisational gain
by a police officer acting officially. It is not an easy concept to understand and it has many
complex aspects. But one aspect which stands out is its existence which is spread almost in every
part of the world.
Corruption can be broken down into two sections, internal and external corruption. With
reference to the police department, internal corruption is the illegal acts and agreements within a
police department by more than one of the officers and external corruption is the illegal acts and
agreements

with

the

public

by

one

or

more

officers

in

department.

The most important elements of police corruption are misuse of authority and misuse of personal
attainment. Widespread corruption at every level of the administrative department poses as a
great obstacle in its working, efficiently and effectively. It inverts the goals of the organisation,
that is, it may encourage and create crime rather than deter it.
One of the main causes for this is that the police officials have ceased to act as professionals and
are politicized to a great extent. They are manipulated by political leaders, who have misused the
power of appointments and transfers to patronize weak or corrupt officers for their own selfish
purposes at the cost of public interest. These leaders appoint wrong persons for the top jobs as
they are willing to carry out the dictates and wishes of their political masters for their own
survival. The main areas for their interference are appointments, transfers, rewards, and
punishments.
General police corruption includes bribery or exchange of money or something of value between
the police and the wrong doer. Other police crimes may range from brutality, fake encounters,
sexual

harassment,

custodial

crimes,

to

illicit

use

of

weapons.

Despite an attempt to eliminate corruption by ways like increased salaries, upgraded training,
8

incentive for education, and developing policies that focus directly on factors leading to
corruption, it still exists. Therefore to eliminate this evil from the system police psychology is
trying to do something. Because the person who is acted as police officer is not a alien s/he is
also like all of us so for the better understanding of the problem and to solve it I think police
psychology is a best tool. In spite of being an emerging field of science police psychology is also
changing the face of the old age system.
Issue of corruption in Police Psychology
On the face of it issue of corruption in police psychology is not different with the issue of
corruption in Indian police department. But in fact here the story is different in other words we
can say that police psychology talks about the scientific cause of the corruption and also tell us
about the solution.
The most famous code of corruption in police psychology is The blue wall of silence also blue
code and blue shield are terms used in the United States to denote the unwritten rule that exists
among police officers not to report on a colleague's errors, misconducts, or crimes. If questioned
about an incident of misconduct involving another officer (e.g. during the course of an official
inquiry), while following the code, the officer being questioned would claim ignorance of
another officer's wrongdoing.
Now we know that the above problem is critical in nature so it is a tough task to solve it. But
some how police psychology manage to the code:One method of preventing the code from penetrating the police force is exposure. Many states
have taken measures in police academies to promote the exposure of the blue code. In most
cities, before being admitted into the academy one must pass a criminal background check.
Through additional background checks, polygraph testing, and psychological evaluations, certain
departments are better able to select individuals who are less likely to condone wrongdoing. In
these departments, police are exposed to a basic training curriculum that instructs on ethical
behavior; this instruction is reinforced in seminars and classes annually in some cases.

Several campaigns against the blue code or for making the blue code more visible in the public
eye have taken place in the United States. One of the first of these campaigns was the Knapp
Commission in New York (officially known as the Commission to Investigate Alleged Police
Corruption) which was headed by Mayor John V. Lindsay in 1970. Over 20 years after the
Knapp Commission the Mollen Commission was established in 1992 by New York City Mayor
David Dinkins to investigate the nature and extent of corruption in the New York City Police
Department NYPD, and to recommend changes to improve these procedures. These and other
investigations have revealed details of the inner workings of the NYPD.
Strategies to combat with the police corruption
When we try to work out on strategies to combat against police corruption then the whole
problem comes under the one following question;
Can a police psychologist assist department in selecting out candidates who are likely to be
engaged in corrupt activites?
According to the police psychology there is three trends which are important in testing.
The First Trend:
Mental and Aptitude Testing
Mental and Aptitude test, examination that attempts to determine and measure a persons ability
to acquire, through future training, some specific set of skills (intellectual, motor, and so on). The
tests assume that people differ in their special abilities and that these differences can be useful in
predicting future achievements.
In general, intelligence and ability tests have been useful predictors of police academy
performance but less valuable for predicting how well a police officer actually performs in the
field. Screening of applicants for law enforcement positions, then, should go beyond simply
using standardized intelligence testes. A multi assessment procedure involving standardized tests
plus other measures and screening procedures should be used.

10

The Second Trend:

Personality Assessment
Personality assessment, the measurement of personal characteristics. Assessment is an end result
of gathering information intended to advance psychological theory and research and to increase
the probability that wise decisions will be made in applied settings (e.g., in selecting the most
promising people from a group of job applicants). The approach taken by the specialist in
personality assessment is based on the assumption that much of the observable variability in
behaviour from one person to another results from differences in the extent to which individuals
possess particular underlying personal characteristics (traits). The assessment specialist seeks to
define these traits, to measure them objectively, and to relate them to socially significant aspects
of behaviour.
The Defense Personnel Security Research Center conducted one of the most extensive studies on
ability of personality measures to identify eventual police corruption and misconduct.
The few personality inventories that had any success tended to indicate that those officers who
engaged in misconduct or corruption during their careers had more of the following
characteristics:
-difficulty getting along with others,
-delinquent histories,
-indications of maladjustment, immaturity, irresponsibility, and/or unreliability.
Basically, the study found that the single best predictor of corruption was not a personality
measure. Rather, the strongest predictor was posthire misconduct. Officers who got into trouble
for misconduct early in their careers were most likely to be punished for the later acts of
corruption.
The Third Trend:
Stress Management

11

Stress arises when individuals perceive that they cannot adequately cope with the demands
being made on them or with demands being made on them or with threats to their well-being.
Whether police officers actually experienced more stress than persons in other high risk
occupations?
Nevertheless, there was little doubt that stress played a major role in lives of law enforcement
officers at all levels of the organizations. The focus on stress was significant because it moved
police psychologists away from their traditional testing functions and into a much larger realm of
opportunity and services. Consequently, psychologist began to offer not only stress management
but also crisis intervention training, hostage negotiation training, domestic violence workshops,
and substance abuse and alcohol treatment.
Police work is highly stressful and is one of the few jobs where one continually faces the effects
of murders, violence, accidents and serious personal injury. A police officer's twenty-plus years
of "peacetime combat" wreaks a heavy toll personally and professionally. No human being, no
matter how healthy, well trained, or well adjusted, is immune to the long-term effects of
cumulative stress or sudden critical incidents. In the words of one police veteran with 17 years
on the department, "Policing is a combination of mind-numbing boredom and mind-blowing
terror."
Because the nature of policing has changed so drastically in the past decade, many departments
have begun to provide psychological services for officers and their families either as an in-house
unit or as a contractual arrangement with a private therapist who is not an employee of the
department.
One barrier that prevents officers from seeking counseling is the perception that the information
they share is not confidential. These concerns are valid because in some cases, the information is
not confidential. The following information is essential for all officers to protect their rights
should they seek the services of a therapist on their own or be ordered by their department.
Important Definitions: Confidentiality and Privilege
Confidentiality refers to information that is shared with the implicit or explicit promise and
expectation that it will not be disclosed to others.
12

Privilege is a legal protection against forced disclosure in legal proceedings that would violate
the promise of confidentiality. "Privilege" allows the professional to refuse to answer questions
in court and/or to refuse to produce records without fear of a "contempt of court" citation or an
adverse instruction to the jury. Professionals who can decline to disclose information provided by
their "clients" or "penitents" are priests, lawyers, physicians, and therapists in many states.
However, a recent Supreme court decision (June 13, 1996 Jaffee v. Redmond) is particularly
important to police officers because it upheld the right of psychotherapists to maintain the
confidences of their clients. Moreover, this case involved a police officer in Illinois.
Conclusion
This is a noble goal to rid our nations police organizations of unethical behavior. Although
studied and researched, the topic of police corruption, in large part, remains a mystery. Over the
past few decades, great strides have occurred in the law enforcement profession. To begin with,
many police agencies have avoided hiring candidates who have low ethical standards and have
identified those onboard employees early in their careers who might compromise the
departments integrity. In addition, research has discovered new methods of testing candidates
for their psychological propensity to act ethically. However, unethical conduct by the nations
police officers continues to occur in departments large and small.
Therefore, First of all, the discussion of ethics as related to law enforcement must begin with a
definition of the word integrity. Because it is the sum of the virtues required to bring about the
general goals of protections and service to the public. Officers must possess to have integrity
means prudence, Trust, Courage, Intellectual honesty, Justice, and Responsibility.
In short, an ethical police organization will require the scrupulous adherence to existing
policies and standards, the ability to detect an individual or collective pattern of performance
which falls short of that expectation, and the courage to deal with those who are responsible for
those failures.
And for the above target I am sure that police psychology has a vision to keep up the good work
with law enforcement agencies in the direction to make integrity and remove unethical issues
like corruption.

13

Bibliography

Applied Psychology in Criminal Justice,2006,2(3) by Karen C. Kalmbach, Phillip M.

Lyons.
Introduction to Forensic Psychology: Research and Application Bartol and Bartol.
Forensic Psychology R. Bull.
Current perspectives in Forensic Psychology and Criminal Justice.
Web Resources.

14