A thin-slice of institutionalised police brutality: a tradition of excessive force in the Chicago Police Department

Article


Bleakley, P. 2019. A thin-slice of institutionalised police brutality: a tradition of excessive force in the Chicago Police Department. Criminal Law Forum. 30 (4), pp. 425-449. https://doi.org/10.1007/s10609-019-09378-6
TypeArticle
TitleA thin-slice of institutionalised police brutality: a tradition of excessive force in the Chicago Police Department
AuthorsBleakley, P.
Abstract

In the Chicago Police Department, a sustained tradition of tolerating violent conduct has contributed to the fostering of a police culture in which the use of force is celebrated. Evidence suggests that there has been a historical reluctance to take action to discipline officers accused of misconduct – many of whom are highly decorated veterans of the Chicago Police Department. It is the contention of this article that the long-standing endorsement of excessive force in Chicago policing has compromised officers’ ability to thin-slice, a psychological process in which people are able to draw on their experiences and socio-cultural context to make quick decisions under pressure. Instead, officers are instinctively drawn to engage in misconduct as a means to an end, with the confidence that their actions will not attract the sanction of their superiors.

Research GroupCentre for Criminological and Social Research (CSRC)
PublisherSpringer Netherlands
JournalCriminal Law Forum
ISSN1046-8374
Electronic1572-9850
Publication dates
Online01 Nov 2019
Print31 Dec 2019
Publication process dates
Deposited04 Nov 2019
Accepted01 Oct 2019
Output statusPublished
Accepted author manuscript
Copyright Statement

This is a post-peer-review, pre-copyedit version of an article published in Criminal Law Forum. The final authenticated version is available online at: http://dx.doi.org/10.1007/s10609-019-09378-6

Digital Object Identifier (DOI)https://doi.org/10.1007/s10609-019-09378-6
LanguageEnglish
Permalink -

https://repository.mdx.ac.uk/item/88912

Download files


Accepted author manuscript
  • 28
    total views
  • 81
    total downloads
  • 0
    views this month
  • 12
    downloads this month

Export as