Stanford Prison Experiment Research Paper

Quis custodiet ipsos custodes?

Who will guard the guards themselves?

On the quiet Sunday morning of August 17th, 1971, police officers arrested nine young men as their neighbors watched in disbelief. They were put in handcuffs and directed into police cars, charged with armed robbery and burglary, for which they were not guilty. They were willing participants in a psychological study into the abuse of power in a prison context, orchestrated by the Stanford University psychology department. The prisoners and guards were assigned their roles and given vague directions on how to act. The situation rapidly deteriorated as prisoners rioted, and guards resorted to excessive use of force in order to assert authority. The guards abused the prisoners,

We all desire power, as it can make us feel confident, and is often seen as a measure of success. However, power is a double edged sword. Power has the ability to corrupt even the best of people. This phenomenon was explored by psychologists through the Stanford Prison Experiment, and its findings relate to issues in our society today such as police brutality. When the findings of the Stanford Prison Experiment went public, it was met with disgust and shock at the abuse of the prisoners and unethical practices during the study. Many believed that the participants should have been screened more thoroughly, and that allowing individuals with sadistic tendencies into the experiment was unethical. That being said, many believed that the results were due to the situation that the participants were put in, not their personal tendencies. The participants felt pressured to create situations that would be interesting to psychologists and so acted dramatically to create an interesting story and differently to how they would usually. They believed that it was external factors that were influencing the guards, not internal

Those with power will continue to exploit and oppress those below them, leading to the breakdown of all decency between human beings, and the loss of all positive human interactions and relationships. This is important in our society today as it relates to issues prevalent in our society such as police brutality. According to the US Department of Justice, 52% of police officers agreed with the statement that it is not unusual for law enforcement officials to turn a blind eye to the improper conduct of other officers, showing how deep-rooted police misconduct is in our institutions. These issues remain to be prevalent in our society and the corrupting effect of power affects every facet of society. Police will continue to abuse their power, leading to civilians constantly fearing for their lives. But what can we do? What can we, the powerless, do to confront those who hold power over us? We are the ones who put these people in power. We train our police yet they continue to flout their ethics. Why does this