Continuum of police crime: an empirical study of court cases

The great majority of police officers are committed to honourable and competent public service and consistently demonstrate integrity and accountability in carrying out the often difficult, complex and sometimes dangerous, activities involved in policing by consent. However, in every police agency there exists an element of dishonesty, lack of professionalism and criminal behaviour. This article is based on archival research of criminal behaviour in the Norwegian police force. A total of 60 police employees were prosecuted in court because of misconduct and crime from 2005 to 2010. Court cases were coded as two potential predictors of court sentence in terms of imprisonment days, ie, type of deviance and level of deviance. Categories of police crime and levels were organised according to a conceptual framework developed for assessing and managing police deviance. Empirical findings support the hypothesis that as the seriousness of police crime increases in breadth and depth so also does the severity of the court sentence as measured by time in prison

The dark figure of disablist violence

While there is a paucity of research pertaining to the phenomenon of disablist violence, one key feature has emerged: it is widely under-reported and under-recorded. The reasons for this are diverse: many are representative of reporting issues attributable to all forms of (hate) crime, and others are unique to the individual and social conditions of living with a disability (Sin 2013). This article provides a conceptual and contextual overview of disablist violence before proceeding to a critical literature review of the reasons why the phenomenon is largely under-reported. Against this backdrop, we offer a critical examination of the various policing strategies necessary for addressing the problem of under-reporting of disablist violence

Is the 2008 NMC Code ethical?

In 2008 the United Kingdom Nursing and Midwifery Council (NMC) published the latest version of its code of conduct (The code: standards of conduct, performance and ethics for nurses and midwives). The new version marked a significant change of style in the Code compared with previous versions. There has been considerable controversy and the accrual of an extensive body of literature over the years in the UK and Europe criticizing nursing codes of ethics and questioning their ethical standing and their usefulness. In this article we review the current NMC Code. We argue that the NMC has been misguided in labelling the Code as a code of ethics, and suggest that the new document falls short in many respects