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Misconduct
Definition
Police misconduct is a container concept: you can drop anything in it, competing in diffuseness with police deviance and corruption. All three are ambiguous but concern the fundamental issue: why do police officers, who are meant to abide by the rules, bend and break them? In a narrow sense misconduct can be associated with breaking internal disciplinary rules. These involve a range of offences including disrespect for the public and/or superiors, lack of punctuality, misuse of police property and unexplained absence while on duty. These non-criminal offences are dealt with in a form of private justice inside the organization. In a broader sense, misconduct overlaps with deviance, which covers almost anything where an officer deviates from a norm; with corruption (a sub-category of misconduct); ...
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