Violence and the Police

A case-study of a municipal police force in the United States suggests that the illegal use of violence by the police is a consequence of their occupational experience and that the policeman's colleague group sanctions such usage. Policemen see this use of violence as morally acceptable and legitimate it in terms of ends defined by the colleague group in preference to legal ends. They see these colleague-group ends as constituting a legitimation for violence which is equal or superior to the legitimation derived from the law. They conceive of violence as a personal property to be used at discretion.