The Antisocial Police Personality: A View from the Inside

Holly Bannish and Jim Ruiz

International Journal of Public Administration, 2003, vol. 26, issue 7, 831-881

Abstract: It is argued from a psychiatric standpoint that persons who meet diagnostic criteria for Antisocial Personality Disorder, as defined by the Diagnostic and Statistical Manual of Mental Disorders (DSM‐IV), have a decreased likelihood of existing within the police population. It is claimed that through psychological testing and background checks, police departments are better able to filter out unsuitable applicants. However, the less‐than‐perfect reliability of such tests, as well as loose entrance requirements by individual police departments, present opportunities for applicants with Antisocial Personality Disorder to make their way into policing. Simply, there is no guarantee that these individuals do not or cannot exist within the police population. This research will suggest that police officers with traits of Antisocial Personality Disorder exist, that the types of behavior displayed have become increasingly violent, and the possibility that such traits may well have been acquired through the police subculture and its easy access to deviance. This insight is offered by the one of the authors who is retired from the New Orleans Police Department.

Date: 2003
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DOI: 10.1081/PAD-120019322

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