Specialization impedes supervision and accountability. Because there are limited opportunities for career advancement in policing, some officers may be tempted to use illegitimate means to enhance their social, organizational, and economic standings. Police may engage in deviance that is internally or externally focused. Those having the greatest organizational power are most likely to engage in acts of domination. This would include sexually exploiting workers, using authority to force compliance, and selling supervisory prerogatives.
Workers having little organizational power are likely to engage in acts of resistance.
Here, deviance may take the form of deception, vandalism, perjury, and false reporting. Opportunities for external deviance are facilitated by the way that the law is structured and applied. The economic structure of society helps determine both types of deviance engaged in by police, and those who are victimized in the process. Essay Questions 1. Explain what is meant when we say that police deviance is structurally induced.