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1. Running head: POLICE CORRUPTION
Police Corruption in the Caribbean
March 11, 2019

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“Write or left?”, said a busy police officer as he approached the anxious driver caught
speeding on Highway 2000. This is merely one of the many unlawful activities that can go on
to any motorist when they breach the road traffic act.
In Jamaica alone, traffic tickets, arrests and seizures by the people that are placed to
serve and protect are being substituted with bribes, extortions, and larceny daily. Because of
these illegal activities, the phrase “corruption” might be the first thing that pops up in the
minds of the Jamaican citizens when they think of police officers or the general judiciary
system.
According to the Merriam-Webster Dictionary (2019), corruption is defined as
dishonest or illegal behaviour especially by powerful people. Additionally, (“Jamaica Falls
Two,” 2019) asserted in the Jamaica Gleaner that in the recent report from the Transparency
International Corruption Perception Index (which measures a country’s perceived level of
public sector corruptness based on professionals and entrepreneurs), displayed Jamaica now
ranking at the 70th place out of 180 countries with a Corruption Perception Index score of 44.
Police corruption could be considered as one of the most prevalent instances of corruption in
the Caribbean.
Nieuwenboer & Kaptein (2007), asserted that the Social Identity Theory by Tajfel
and Turner in 1979 provides adequate information about who people are in social terms.
Groups isolate and create inter-group comparisons and disconnections from other groups
because of their ambition to be positively distinctive. Therefore, the police develop intra-
group comparisons to manage and maintain dominance over civilians. Chappell & Piquero
(2004), identified that, because subcultures are formed with shared value systems, it grows
the chance for justification of their deviance spanning from one generation to the next. This
societal barrier of collective salience among the police, ultimately aids to promote a higher
value and positive social identity for them. However, with their creation of norms outside

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general citizens' beliefs, collective norms decline, and overtime officers will fail and succumb
to the growth of corruption.
Besides, when corruption becomes a way of increasing one’s status and salary, then
the likelihood of it happening is even higher. Nonetheless, if the people in higher authority
fall short on correcting corruption, it becomes increasingly difficult to punish corrupted
behaviour. The former prime minister of Trinidad and Tobago Basdeo Panday, in The
Guardian, stated that, “The whole system is corrupt. I don’t blame the people. I blame the
system. And the present political system does not allow for control” (Hassanali, 2018, p. 10),
in his rant about corruption in the country’s police service. Therefore, when someone is
trapped in the cycle of corruption there is an increased pressure to execute more violations to
reach a specific target and, the threat of losing their status if caught is also increased.
Hence, the upsurge of corruption calls for the government and the citizens to find new
ways of reducing or eliminating this problem that impedes the process of development in the
Caribbean. Pamula (2015) affirmed that, with the introduction of outsiders to a group,
participants tap into their self-categorization and trigger feelings of guilt. Hence, police
officers act against their unethical violations of their in-group members with civilians.
Additionally, by incorporating the information viewed in this paper, governments can create
or revamp their anticorruption laws and utilize them in police training sessions. This breeds
the importance for recognizing and responding to the corrupt actions in legal ways.
Moreover, fellow police officers should develop a sense of courage to report illegal
misconduct of their colleagues without fear of being criticised. Finally, we as citizens also
have the right to report to the necessary, authorizes by written letter or a telephone call about
corruptive acts of the police.

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References
Corruption [Def. 1]. (2019). In Merriam Webster Online, Retrieved March 6, 2019, from
https://www.merriam-webster.com/dictionary/corruption
Jamaica Falls Two Spaces on Corruption Index 2018. (2019, January 29). The Gleaner.
Retrieved from http://jamaica-gleaner.com/article/news/20190129/jamaica-falls-two-
spaces-corruption-index-2018
den Nieuwenboer, N.A, & Kaptein, S.P. (2007). Spiraling Down into Corruption: A Dynamic
Analysis of the Social Identity Processes that Cause Corruption in Organizations to
Grow (No. ERS-2007-086-ORG). ERIM report series research in management
Erasmus Research Institute of Management. Erasmus Research Institute of
Management. Retrieved from http://hdl.handle.net/1765/10772
Chappell, A., & Piquero, A. (2004). Applying Social Learning Theory to Police
Misconduct. Deviant Behaviour, 25(2), 89-108. doi:10.1080=01639620490251642
Hassanali, S. (2018, January 11). Corruption main problem in Police Service —former
PM..The Guardian. Retrieved from http://www4.guardian.co.tt/news/2018-01-
10/corruption-main-problem-police-service-%E2%80%94former-pm
Pamula, A. (2015, August 28). The Social of Corruption [web log post]. Retrieved from
https://globalanticorruptionblog.com/2015/08/28/the-social-psychology-of-
corruption-lack-thereof/