Police Personality In The Criminal Justice System

2236 Words9 Pages
Police Personality

Joe (Ty) Trail
Final Paper
CRJ 451
Professor Barthe
12/10/2014

Altogether, there are a vast number of jobs whether it is a lawyer, teacher and doctor that many people inspire to be. For every job, each person develops distinctive qualities in order to adapt and respond in their environment. For a police officer, however, they are mainly focused on authority, danger and efficiency. To be a police officer is a challenging and dangerous job. A police officer protects and serves the public. In a way, they control order in a society. A police officer possesses courage, integrity, loyalty, trust, and passion. Many individuals that become police officers are affected by the stress of the job and adapt a police personality. A police personality is based upon the belief that police officers possess different characteristics from the public. For instance, police officers are faced with danger and authority on a daily basis. Therefore, the police are always suspicious, on the lookout, and they do not trust anyone. The police are subject to isolation, solidarity and cohesion. There are many officers that are able to balance the job and their personal lives, while some abuse their power. Therefore, a contemporary issue in the criminal justice system is police personality. The police personality came to be a problem with the criminal justice system through the working personality of police officers. Working personality as described by Skolnick is, “