Forces of Deviance
...nality traits exhibited by those entering the law enforcement field. This collection of personality trait has come to be called the “police personality”. One of the character traits exhibited by new recruits is one of authoritarianism. Typically these recruits exhibit often aggressive, cynical and rigid behaviors. They don’t see any grey area, but see things as pretty much cut and dry, black and white. The people they will encounter are either friend or foe, and in the mind of the cynic it’s “us against them”. They are “defenders of the status quo”, having a dislike of liberal values, sentiments and ideals. This idea though, of officers having a fixed, static personality has come under scrutiny. Many view behavior from individualistic perspective, believing that unique experiences help to shape each individual’s personality. The sociological school of thought holds that behavior is based on group socialization and professionalization, which is “the process by which norms and values are internalized as workers learn their occupation”. Just as many other professions learn their values through training and practice, so is the case with police. Police learn from shared experience with other police. This perspective may give some credibility to the concept of the “thin blue line”. The shared experiences, along with the shared joys and sorrows of the job, he...