Re: Violent Police-Citizen Encounters: An Analysis of Major
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Power-Conflict Theory as Applied to Police Deviance
The power-conflict perspective will be used to better understand the phenomenon of police brutality. Power-conflict theorists focus on the great disparity in the distribution of power and resources in United States society. These inequalities may exist along lines of race, class, or gender. According to critical power-conflict theorists, the structure of capitalism in the United States in which a great proportion of the wealth is held by white corporate capitalists leads to a social system marked by exploitation and domination. Theoretical elaboration within the power-conflict perspective began historically with the works of Karl Marx and has continued to develop through the works of C. Wright Mills and others.
Feagin and Feagin (1990) developed a series of propositions to describe the power-conflict perspective: in society certain groups of people dominate over others due to their control of various important societal resources, such as wealth and income, private property that may serve to generate further wealth, and greater control over the police and military forces. As a group, white Americans are in a better position to use and mobilize both economic and political resources in times of conflict than do black Americans or other minority groups.
As applied to the problem of police deviance, power-conflict theory develops from the history of policing and the growth of capitalism within the United States. Focusing on the competition for power by various groups within society, power-conflict theorists view police brutality as a tool of subordination used by the dominant white group to protect its stronghold on limited resources. Minorities and others without political and economic power are more likely to be processed by law enforcement agents (Vold and Bernard, 1986) and experience differential enforcement of the law (Leinen, 1984; Smith and Visher, 1981).
The power-conflict perspective will be used to better understand the phenomenon of police brutality. Power-conflict theorists focus on the great disparity in the distribution of power and resources in United States society. These inequalities may exist along lines of race, class, or gender. According to critical power-conflict theorists, the structure of capitalism in the United States in which a great proportion of the wealth is held by white corporate capitalists leads to a social system marked by exploitation and domination. Theoretical elaboration within the power-conflict perspective began historically with the works of Karl Marx and has continued to develop through the works of C. Wright Mills and others.
Feagin and Feagin (1990) developed a series of propositions to describe the power-conflict perspective: in society certain groups of people dominate over others due to their control of various important societal resources, such as wealth and income, private property that may serve to generate further wealth, and greater control over the police and military forces. As a group, white Americans are in a better position to use and mobilize both economic and political resources in times of conflict than do black Americans or other minority groups.
As applied to the problem of police deviance, power-conflict theory develops from the history of policing and the growth of capitalism within the United States. Focusing on the competition for power by various groups within society, power-conflict theorists view police brutality as a tool of subordination used by the dominant white group to protect its stronghold on limited resources. Minorities and others without political and economic power are more likely to be processed by law enforcement agents (Vold and Bernard, 1986) and experience differential enforcement of the law (Leinen, 1984; Smith and Visher, 1981).