These factors all play together and taught Washington that his actions had no consequences (McIntyre 25). All these factors come together, and using the sociological imagination, it becomes clear why Washington raped and killed Sarah Gould–he simply felt that it was no big deal.
Even though Washington was diagnosed as having a “fragile purchase on reality,” he had a very clear understanding of how the reality of the South Side of Chicago operated. His only “mistake” in his crime was that he left the South Side, where the police were uncaring, and his victim was a white woman of affluent status. Donald Black’s sociological theory of law holds that “police officers are least likely to take legal or other coercive action against lower-status persons–especially the poor and racial and ethnic minorities–whose accusers are also of low status, but more likely to take such action against lower-status persons whose accusers are of higher status,” (Worden 24). This disinterest of police in lower-class individuals creates a nationwide apathy for police brutality and stalls the political rhetoric. The lack of sociological imagination not just from the police, but from lawmakers as well, prevents solutions from coming to fruition.
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Differential Association
Differential association is defined as an explanation for crime and deviance that holds that people pursue criminal or deviant behavior to the extent that they identify themselves with real or imaginary people from whose perspective their criminal or deviant behavior seems acceptable (Schmalleger 125). According to Edwin Sutherland in 1939, crime is learned from social interactions. Social pathology, genetic inheritance, biological characteristics, and personality flaws cannot fully explain why people turn to crime. All behavior is learned in much the same way and crime, like behavior, is also learned.
In Elijah Anderson’s article “Code of the Street,” he offers differential association as an explanation for the informal rules governing interpersonal public behavior (75). The ‘code’ allows members to measure each other’s status in the group and influences the overall behavior of a large number of inner-city black youth (Anderson 74). According to Anderson, the behavior of the streets is learned from one another, and the culture surrounding the streets stems from the continuous reinforcement of that behavior. However, the code is not all about rules, as many young black men have adopted a street-oriented demeanor as a way of expressing their blackness (Anderson 85).
In policing, brutality and misconduct are observed and then replicated due to the lack of repercussions associated with that violence. Distinct personalities of police officers can be identified, with the most notable about misconduct being the “tough cop,” (Worden 26). They are most likely to use force improperly, cynical in the sense that they presume that people are motivated by narrow self-interest, conceive the role of police in terms of crime control, focusing especially on serious crime, and they see themselves as a negative force in people; 's lives. The “tough cop” believes that the citizenry is hostile toward police, and they identify with police culture (Worden 26). Police learn their criminality from each other. Of course, this implies that police brutality is a product of the police environment and not an innate characteristic of police officers. This directly contradicts the popular “bad apple” defense and instead brings light to the main issue: police culture. Highlighting organizational properties as influences on police behavior would seem to hold the greatest potential as a guide for police reform, as organizational factors are more readily altered than the demeanors of suspects or the outlooks of officers (Worden 28).
Theories
Routine Activities Theory
Routine activities theory is a theory that examines the interaction of motivated offenders, capable guardians, and suitable targets as an explanation for crime and suggests that an individual’s everyday activities contribute significantly to the likelihood of his or her criminal victimization (Schmalleger 187). Routine activities theory offers a “systems perspective” that explains both “criminal behavior and the likelihood of victimization,” (Duque et al. 1224). There are three parts to this: motivation, means, and opportunity.
In explaining active shooters, motivation is “aggrieved entitlement” among working-class white men, where they “see their jobs going abroad, while they are left to compete for the remaining low-paying jobs with an increasing number of non-white citizens and immigrants,” (Duque et al. 1226). This aggrieved entitlement stems from “the deterioration of our manufacturing, economic base, increasing heterogeneous threats to the U.S. – Anglo identity through immigration and diversity campaigns, which are fanned by conservative media and coupled with untreated mental illness have created a dangerous ethnocentric brew enough to motivate some to attack,” (Duque et al. 1227). The means is the physical capital available to active shooters, as there are an estimated 300 million guns on U.S. streets. Finally, the opportunity is the lack of supervision, legal limitations to exclude those with criminal records during recruitment phases at workplaces, HIPAA compliance making it impossible for mental health records to be available to employers, uncoordinated information sharing among law enforcement agencies, and three minute police times – leading to a possible 180 potential deaths. According to routine activities theory, you become a victim simply by following a routine. It is the “routine of activities” that transforms an individual into a suitable target for a motivated and rationally calculating active shooter.
For police officers, routine activities theory can also be used to explain the prevalence of excessive or improper force against American citizens. They have the motivation, whether that is racism or the belief that force is necessary to subdue a perceived threat (Worden 26). The means comes from the authority law enforcement possesses. Citizens are expected to obey every word of police officers, and this power imbalance between an officer and a citizen allows the means to use excessive force. The opportunity comes from a lack of bystanders or witnesses who would speak on behalf of the victim (Worden 33). Due to the “Blue Wall of Silence,” police officers will rarely speak against one another. These three come together and lead to the prevalence of police brutality we see in America today.
Subcultural Theory
Subcultural theory is a sociological perspective that emphasizes the contribution made by various socialized cultural groups to the phenomenon of crime. Culture is a collection of values, ideas, beliefs, and traits that characterize a human group–usually one defined by geographic boundaries, such as a nation. Like the larger culture, or the dominant culture, of which it is a part, a subculture is a collection of values and preferences that is communicated to subcultural participants through a process of socialization. Subcultures differ from the larger culture in that they claim the allegiance of smaller groups of people (Schmalleger 112).
In “Sexual Assault on Campus,” the importance of culture, institutional prejudice, and the normalization of deviance is put on display. There is a cultural expectation that partygoers at college parties will drink heavily and trust party-mates. This culture leads to vulnerability on the part of women, which some men exploit to attract non-consensual sex (Armstrong et al. 484).
Due to this identification with a culture that promotes violence, they learn and adopt the violent tendencies they have learned from their predecessors. Additionally, rookies are quickly led to believe that their academy training is merely a right of passage and that they will learn what they need to know on the street. Thus, according to this line of argument, the police culture is not only the primary reference group for officers but also the principle mechanism of organizational control over the substantive exercise of police discretion (Worden 29).
Conflict Theory
According to Karl Marx, the champion of conflict theory, two fundamental social classes exist within any capitalist society: the bourgeoisie and the proletariat. He defines the bourgeoisie as the wealthy owners of the means of production, and the proletariat encompasses the large mass of people, those who are relatively uneducated and who are without power (Schmalleger 153). George B. Void describes crime as the product of political conflict between groups, a natural expression of the ongoing struggle for power, control, and material well-being. According to Void, powerful groups make laws, and those laws express and protect the groups’ interests. American society is a class system of the wealthy and powerful against marginalized minorities who have to be kept in their place (Lyle 7).
In “Left Behind,” profit motive is a cause for corruption. Teachers “young and old did not love to teach, they were just there to get paid” (Left Behind, 52:33). When monetary value is overly emphasized in comparison to other values, there are dangers in any field of work. The children suffer at the expense of greed. Even if they do attend schools, “they are going to be given a hard time, not be given an education, and the teachers are not going to be caring or not going to be there” (Left Behind, 53:44). There is an over-emphasis on trying to gain personal wealth rather than focusing on education and reform. This shows how there are larger cultural and institutional problems. In “Left Behind”, the school board struggled to prioritize the kids.
When looking at who is more likely to be victimized by the police, the answer lies in the lower class (Worden 33). The videotape of the brutal beating of Rodney King was used by those who would propagandize that American society is a class system of the wealthy and powerful against marginalized minorities who have to be kept in their place (Lyle 7). To uphold the laws written by the elite, police are the “instruments of the power elites in the maintenance of law and order,” (Lyle 11).
Cases
We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists
In the movie “We Are Legion: The Story of the Hacktivists,” the story of Anonymous, a collective group of Internet activists is told. What started from the imageboard 4chan, Anonymous transformed from a group looking for laughs to “operations” involving attacking foreign governments. As described by Anon, “We stand for freedom. We stand for freedom of speech, the power of the people, and the ability for them to protest against the government, to right wrongs. No censorship, especially online but also in real life,” (We Are Legion 3:49).
The term “hacktivism” has its origins in writing software that people in other countries could use to communicate securely, even if their government was spying on them. It was about freedom of speech (We Are Legion 8:57). The main turning point from online “trolling” to political activism occurred with an attack on the Church of Scientology. After attempting to censor a video of Tom Cruz from the Internet, Anonymous put a video for the first time collectively referring to themselves as Anonymous. In the video, they said, “Anonymous invites you to take up the banner of free speech, of human rights, of family and freedom,” an emphasis on their moral standings, distinctly separating them from the “trolling” they did in the past (We Are Legion 37:17).
After the world drastically changed post 9/11, many online users noticed how government surveillance became commonplace in America. The right to privacy was a privilege only for the rich (We Are Legion 11:05). This was an injustice that many users refused to stand for. According to one Anon, “They don’t care to use the legal system to get you thrown in jail, they care to use the legal system to get you to stop,” (We Are Legion 48:08). This represents conflict theory, where the rich use their vast resources (the police) to go after the proletariat (the “hacktivists”) to keep them in their place. The police, in this example, exist solely not to do their job and follow the legal steps, but to prevent a behavior the elite deems undesirable.
The Newburgh Sting
After 9/11, the War on Terror reached new levels within the United States. In the Federal Bureau of Investigations (FBI), the consensus was that the “rules don’t apply anymore,” and that anything goes wrong when looking for potential terrorists (17:02). Unfortunately, part of what the FBI did was treat the entire Muslim community as suspects. It was this attitude that led to the entrapment of James Cromitie by FBI informant Shaheed Hussain.
From start to finish, the plot to blow up cars in the parking lot of a Synagogue and a military plane was entirely started, conceived, funded, and brought into being by Hussain. Led by Hussain, Cromitie, David Williams, Onta Williams, and Laguerre Payen planted a fake bomb constructed by the government in the parking lot of a Riverdale Synagogue to have the appearance of Jihad extremists (56:41). Julian Joslin, a paralegal on Onta Williams defense team, explained the entrapment as follows:
The government did not just choose Riverdale at random. Riverdale is directly above Manhattan, so it's going to get attention as another terrorist plot being foiled right by the spot where 9/11 occurred. Shaheed Hussain had put a lot of pressure on Mr. Cromitie to find some bodies. From the FBI’s point of view, what they meant was. “We need to get some other people so we can say there's a conspiracy,” because if Cromitie was the only person there can’t be a conspiracy, because the only other conspirator was a government agent. Shaheed Hussain tells the defendants we have to go pick these weapons up in Connecticut. But the reason was that if they hadn’t driven to Connecticut to pick these bombs up, it wouldn’t have been a federal crime. These guys had to cross state lines (45:50).
This broad overbreadth of law enforcement to convict four poor African American men is indicative of all branches of policing. Police in America will use their power, influence, and authority to keep the lower class out of society (Lyle 7).
Conclusion
In the past, sociologists have attempted to identify the reasoning for police brutality and misconduct in America to offer policy solutions. Despite this, the rate of instances of brutality has remained relatively constant throughout the years (Washington Post). A lack of empathy from the American people because those victimized by police tend to be of lower class contributes to the lack of accountability taken by police officers who engage in brutality (Worden 24).
Applying the sociological imagination and differential association provides different perspectives–the former explaining the lack of empathy of police officers and the latter explaining how this behavior occurs in police culture. Routine activities theory, subcultural theory, and conflict theory offer glimpses of how and why police brutality occurs. With routine activities theory, the police officers have the motivation, means, and opportunity to commit misconduct, and the victims are more likely to be victims due to their daily activities (being lower class or a minority). Finally, connecting “We Are Legion” and “The Newburgh Sting” together shows the wide overbreadth and control the police and by extension, the government has over its citizens.
Past solutions for solving police brutality have not effectively reduced the occurrence of violent events. Therefore, a more intricate and detailed approach needs to be made to prevent more instances of police brutality in America. Instead of focusing on reducing the opportunity via body cameras, more emphasis should be placed on reducing motivation. This can be achieved by focusing on the culture of policing and seeking to eliminate misconduct at the source.
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