The application of the slippery slope theory to police corruption

Abstract

Two purposes were addressed in this study. One purpose was to see if the slippery slope theory applies to police corruption. It was assumed that it did exist. The second purpose was to explore the effect demographic factors of police officers have on police corruption. It was assumed that officers of higher rank, more work experience, and who work for larger agencies are the most likely to be corrupt. The assumptions and hypotheses used in this study stemmed from early literature. The data used in this study was secondary in nature, whose original research was performed to explore police officers' understandings and thoughts of police corruption as it applied to the agency in which they work. Questionnaires were used to survey officers from 30 agencies in the United States who had previous contact with the original researcher. The first part of the questionnaire listed eleven case scenarios that could be considered acts of police corruption, and asked officers how serious they thought the scenario would be, and how serious they thought other officers would answer. The second part of the questionnaire asked about the respondent's demographic factors including rank, years of experience, and the size of the agency employing them. Results showed that none of the demographic factors in the current study had any significant influence on police corruption. Similarly there was no indication from the results that the slippery slope theory exists in police corruption. Implications for future research were discussed that might add further insight to studying police corruption and its predictors.