Citation

Carter DL. J. Crim. Justice 1990; 18(2): 85-98.

Copyright

(Copyright © 1990, Elsevier Publishing)

DOI

10.1016/0047-2352(90)90028-A

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

This project studied drug-related police corruption in thirteen law-enforcement agencies nationwide through the use of interviews and a content analysis of documents related to drug-corruption investigations. Findings indicate that there are two distinct types of drug corruption. Type 1, characterized as a “Search for Illegitimate Goals”. is the traditionally conceptualized corruption involving bribery, theft, and similar activities. It is characterized by two behavioral notivations, defined as a “user-driven cycle” and a “profit-driven cycle”. Type 2 is labeled “In Search of Legitimate Goals” and involves corruption of the criminal justice process, in which officers violate criminal procedure, perjure themselves, and plant evidence as means to facilitate drug-law enforcement. Despite the significant differences in the corruption types, eight common factors were found to permeate both types. These were: opportunity structure, abrogation of trust, rationalization, the invulnerability factor, Blue Code of Secrecy, market forces of the illicit drug trade, inadequate organizational controls, and persistence of the corruption patterns.