Police Personality Essay

The publishing regarding the phrase law of nature individualizedity has acquired great debate. Arguably this has been in the main over the problem of definition and develop work phalanxt. What is a legal philosophy nearlybodyality? How does it lay down? Is it a pre-existing condition, thus predisposing authoritative(prenominal) individuals to patrol work, or whether it is equitable a product of occupational socialization (on the stemma experiences). Perhaps the issue is not as simply dichotomous as that conceivably it is an amalgam of both predispositions and experiences that shapes this intangible temper.Does this divisionlity make them any different from the planetary population which they vowed to serve and protect? How do these attitudes and affect not lonesome(prenominal) himself and the part he belongs to but as well as the police-community relation in prevalent? These argon some questions relating to the issue of police temperament that will be answered a long the way.To start with, how do we define police genius? thither are a few who made several models or theories nigh this idea. According to G.A. Kelly (1955), personality is our abstraction of the activity of a person and our prove simplification of this abstraction to all matters of his relationship to other persons, known and unknown, as well as to anything else that may trip upm particularly valuable. His theory is base on the vantage point of personality as a personal construct model. G. Alport (1937), another theorist describes this as a three-pronged task for a certain individual (1) self-objectification, (2) extension of self, (3) unifying philosophies of life.According to him, it can be further understood as a multifariousness of major and chela traits by which a single life is known and that a personality trait is a biological, psychological and social mixture that disposes a person toward specific kinds of action under specific circumstances. (Monte, 1999). With r espect to the develop custodyt of the police personality, Allport can be said to be adhering to the predisposition model-that a certain type of person becomes a police officer as irrelevant to the notion that job experiences shape the personality construct.A third psychologist, H. Kohut (1977) describes that blueprint development was a process of interaction between the growing sister and his mirroring and idealizing self-objects. This assumption tends to support the view that police personality is a mixture of the predisposition model and the experience model. But regardless of the process by which this certain personality has developed from, what are these traits that make up a police personality? The characteristics ordinarily associated with police personalities in present propagation are machismo, bravery, authoritarianism, cynicism and aggression. Additional characteristics have been associated with police personalities as well suspicious, solidaristic, conservative, con fused and thoroughly bigoted (Balch, Skolnick 1977). In movies like Lethal Weapon which stars Mel Gibson, we see an image of a cop that is not only brave and dependablebut a super cop, who can handle almost anything that goes in his way.The movie Training Day by acclaimed actor Denzel Washington as well as depicts a vicious, sadistic cop. Gone are the mean solar days when people trope cops as men in uniform, walking around the neighborhood circumstances children to get their pet cat down from a tree (a male child Scout persona). Modern pop culture and the media have greatly helped the opens perception of todays policemen. Little is known slightly how these men undergo series of screenings in order to be true though. Before being hired, aspiring policemen go through several personality tests that determine whether they are capable enough to handle the job.Only men who display particular personality profiles (e.g. bravery, honesty, punctuality) are accepted to the forcefulne ss. But these screening, however with the help of psychologists, does not give us a clear catch of what police personality is all about. In contrast, it tells us what the police persona is NOT. There certain traits that make entry-level policemen unfit for the job. Examples are tardiness, excessive absences, alcoholism, and pretermit of assertiveness among many others. From the successful ones however we can gather some commonalities in their traits that may help us define police personality. multitude who enter the force turn out to be psychologically legal and competent young men who display common personality features. They are generally assertive and restless, with a high degree of physical energy. adept trait that stands out from this however, is cynicism. Some schoolmasters view cynicism as counterproductive and in due course, harmful not only to the individual but to the department as well. It said to that for the most part, it is a precursor to corruption, brutality, and misconduct for men in uniform. However, some also believe that, in recent years, findings luff that cynicism is to be considered a police survival tool (Caplan, 2003). The police personality based on Skolnicks (1977) idea of the working personality is self-possessed of three main elements danger, authority, and efficiency. The dangerous nature of being a police officer not only draws officers closer together but also makes them alienated from the general population. The sense of authority by police officers, undergo by interacting with the public, further makes them feel isolated. So is the notion of efficiency in which the use deception as a means of getting the job done. Some experts believe though, that the idea of alienation is not intrinsic to police officers, it rather lies in the communitys perceptions of the policemen.It is important that the community and the force work hand in hand in trying to relinquish the locale of criminality. In countries that are just develo ping, criminal cases are usually very high. Thus, the police force must be able to read their image as a widely feared and despised organization to a friendly and service-driven institution that works in close partnership with the community. This is especially hard when the image of a certain department for example is a corrupt and brutal one. People tend to generalize that idea, and view the force being corrupt and all as a whole. Examining the psychological and sociological paradigms on police personality we get a clearer view of what makes the police men different from the rest of the population. The psychological paradigm posits that people with certain personalities are drawn to join the force (predisposition model). On the other hand, the sociological model suggests that these traits are developed along the way (based from the day to day experiences of police officers). Police personality, as a distinct entity, does exist. It exists as a result of the convergence of a specifi c baseline set of preferable personalities and work-related socialization. It is also a utility of, and is strongly characterized by, a police culture, regulate by the needs of officers to uphold personal safety and augment their professional potentials. (Twersky-Glasner, 2005).ReferencesAllport, G. (1937). reputation A Psychological Interpretation. New York Henry Holt.Balch, R., (1977). The police personality Fact or fiction. In D.B. Kennedy (Ed.). The Dysfunctional Alliance Emotion and motive in justice administration. (pp. 10-25). Cincinnati, OH. Anderson Publishing Company.Caplan, Joel. (2003). Police Cynicism Police Survival cocksucker?. The Police Journal Vol. 76. Rutgers University.Skolnick, J., (1966). Justice without trial. New York John Wiley and Sons, Inc.Twersky-Glasner, A. (2005). Police Personality What Is It and Why Are They Like That? Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, 2005, masses 20, Number 1. New York.