Research into police misconduct traditionally considers the correlates and antecedents of misconduct among individual officers, as a means of disruption or prevention. However, more recently, deviance among police has been considered through network perspectives. This study considered 7755 allegations of misconduct accrued by 1495 officers from the Baltimore Police Department between January 2015 to January 2020. A social network analysis was employed to consider the characteristics and differences of misconduct networks between assignments and to identify key officers within these networks. Findings suggested that the misconduct networks of patrol assignments functioned marginally different to investigations or specialist duties. Discrete communities of misconduct were identified within each assignment, including a small number of officers that were particularly important to supporting these networks. This study holds practical implications for the identification and disruption of misconduct networks among law enforcement agencies.

Item Type:	Refereed Article
Keywords:	police misconduct, social network analysis, police administration, accountability, police corruption
Research Division:	Human Society
Research Group:	Criminology
Research Field:	Police administration, procedures and practice
Objective Division:	Law, Politics and Community Services
Objective Group:	Justice and the law
Objective Field:	Law enforcement
UTAS Author:	Cubitt, TIC (Dr Tim Cubitt)
ID Code:	148413
Year Published:	2021
Deposited By:	Office of the School of Social Sciences
Deposited On:	2022-01-10
Last Modified:	2022-03-30
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