A Comparative Study of The Code of Silence

• In Event: Studying Policing Comparatively. Obstacles, Preliminary Results and Promises

Abstract

This paper explores the contours of the police code of silence, a critical component of the ability to control misconduct and enhance integrity within any police agency. Unlike the extant research that is dominated by single-country studies, this paper provides an in-depth exploration of the code across five countries. The police integrity survey was used to measure the contours of the code of silence among line officers and supervisors. Samples of police officers from Australia, Croatia, South Africa, South Korea, and the United States evaluated eleven hypothetical scenarios describing various forms of police misconduct. Bivariate analyses reveal considerable divergence in the characteristics of the code of silence across the five countries. Multivariate models of the code of silence show that the country effect remains strong in the majority of the scenarios even in the presence of numerous controls.

Authors

• Adri Sauerman, University of Michigan

• Maria Haberfeld, John Jay College of Criminal Justice

• Wook Kang, Korean National Police University

• Sanja Kutnjak Ivkovich, Michigan State University

• Robert Peacock, Michigan State University

• Louise Porter, Griffith University

• Timothy Prenzler, University of the Sunshine Coast