A comparative analysis of police corruption in the US and Turkey

Although police represent the law and justice system, police corruption cases still occur in many police organizations around the world. This cross national study examined and compared the perceptions of Turkish and American police officers regarding police corruption. The data that was collected by the researcher from TNP was used as a primary data; on the other hand, the dataset of Klockars et al’s study was used as a secondary data. This research examined the police corruption problem on the basis of organizational level explanations considering individual and societal approaches rather than the traditional limited view. In this study, a cross-sectional survey research design including a survey questionnaire, along with hypothetical scenarios based primarily on temptations faced by officers in their daily work was applied. The findings of this study demonstrated significant agreements between the Turkish and American police officers’ perceptions especially on the most serious cases. This agreement showed a consensus between the American and Turkish police officers perception about what they considered as being serious. While the Turkish and American police officers come from different economic, social, political, cultural environments, they share a common understanding of corruption seriousness. According to the findings, both the Turkish and American respondents are not willing to report all the misbehaviors of their colleagues even they perceive those behaviors as being unethical. The results showed that ‘the code of silence’ and ‘loyalty’ to colleagues exist in the TNP and American police agencies. This research also investigated factors contributing to officers’ perception of seriousness. “Income satisfaction level” and “supervisory position” have significant effects on Turkish police officers’ attitude toward corruption. “Supervisory position”, “length of service” and “current assignment unit” have significant effects on American police officers. This study did not aim to measure the extent of police corruption in any police agency of Turkey or the US, but tried to shed light on some scientifically unexplored aspects of the police corruption phenomena in the US and Turkey.Ph.D.Includes bibliographical referencesby Yusuf Sarikay