Introduction
On May 25, 2020, Mr. George Floyd was detained by four Minneapolis Police Department (MPD) officers on suspicion of using fake $20 dollars at a supermarket. Mr. Derek Chauvin was one of the four officers involved in the detention. Floyd was shackled and lying face down in the street when Chauvin kneeled on his neck for 8 minutes and 29 seconds (Hill et al., 2020). As a result, Mr. Floyd had no pulse and remained still for the last two minutes until he died. As such, Officer Derek Chauvin was charged with third-degree murder and second-degree manslaughter on May 29, 2020 (Hill et al., 2020). A time-stamped video examined by The Times shows that Chauvin, a Caucasian, rested his knee on Floyd’s neck (Hill et al., 2020). The video from the incident revealed that Chauvin continued to hold on to Floyd’s body after he passed out for a minute and 20 seconds after the paramedics arrived (Hill et al., 2020). Witnesses for the prosecution in the Floyd murder case included Mr. Donald Williams and Mr. Darnella Frazier.
Identification and a Summary of at Least Three Theories
Labeling Theory
In the Labeling Theory, it is assumed that no illegal conduct is intrinsic and that people in authority construct standards for what constitutes aberrant behavior. Those in positions of authority, such as judges, penal institutions, and police, create and interpret laws unilaterally. As a result, deviant conduct is a process of interaction between deviants and non-deviants, which includes the environment in which crime is viewed (Bernburg, 2019). To emphasize, some activities are classified as deviant or illegal by actors responsible for enforcing normative norms in society, such as judges, police, and educators, thus, strengthening the social power system (Bernburg, 2019). Ethnic majority groups define deviance for subgroups, causing such minorities as African Americans to feel powerless under the labels imposed by majority groups.
Social Disorganization model
According to the Social Disorganization Theory, crime has a tendency to predominate in some communities, prompting the authorities to categorize residents as prospective lawbreakers. The idea examines the pathology of geographical locations rather than the conventional causes of individuals when analyzing crime. According to the Social Disorganization Theory, criminality is not a random occurrence in a given metropolitan but instead tends to occur in disadvantaged neighborhoods next to industrial or commercial centers (Bellair, 2017). As a consequence, underprivileged areas are always changing and have many people moving in and out. The majority of such communities constitute recent immigrants of African American ethnicity. Overall, young people are exposed to criminal behavior, and people who live in these locations do not have enough social ties to stop crime.
Similarly, family processes are impacted by societal disorder, which impacts their stability and structures. For example, social disorganization disrupts crucial structures used to manage and regulate the behavior of adolescents. In essence, societal disorganization fosters an atmosphere conducive to victimization by criminals. Due to social disorder, neighborhood mechanisms that offer informal social controls are also impacted. In the absence of local youth support networks and unsupervised peer groups, deviant behavior is encouraged. Compared to other localities with social order, the absence of such essential societal activities renders a person in the impacted region very susceptible to criminal activity (Charis & Ronald, 2017). In general, places with social disorder have high levels of deviance because people move around a lot, have low socioeconomic status, and come from different ethnic backgrounds.
Broken Windows Theory
In a 1982 article, social scientists James Q. Wilson and George L. Kelling proposed the theory Broken Windows Theory. In criminology, the theory asserts that apparent indicators of crime, antisocial conduct, and civil disturbance produce an urban atmosphere that fosters further delinquency and disorder, including major criminalities (Schuster, 2021). The theory proposes that police strategies that target minor offenses like vandalism; loitering, public drinking, jaywalking, and fare evasion contribute to the establishment of a legal environment. Specifically, the model predicts that a series of subsequent occurrences (such as windows breaking) will occur when the first crimes are not addressed. The series includes; First, the neighborhood’s continual escalation in disturbances increases. Second, people will believe that violent crime is rising and start to dread living in their neighborhood. Third, people will be less likely to intervene in the area and will utilize less of the public spaces as a result of the elevated levels of criminal anxiety. Fourth, there will be a change in the local population as those who may leave are replaced by newcomers who have no connection to the area. Lastly, there will be an increase in serious crimes like drug trafficking, prostitution, robberies, vehicle theft, and other violent crimes.
The idea of Broken Windows Theory is mainly concerned with physical and social dysfunction. The maintenance level of a neighborhood’s physical environment is represented by its degree of disorder. This encompasses the state of buildings, neighboring property, and undeveloped land. As such, social disorder is a pattern of communal activities or interactions that are observable to the public and are deemed deviant or inappropriate by the majority of people. Just as the physical disorder of a neighborhood is expected to signal to prospective criminals that they may act without constraint, social disorder is also expected to have a similar impact.
Analysis
Application of Broken Windows Theory
Police officer, Mr. Derek Chauvin, killed George Floyd by acting outside his authority. According to the broken window theory, police discretion refers to a formal action taken by a criminal justice official, such as a police officer, attorney, or judge, who uses their own discretion to choose the appropriate course of action. Mr. Chauvin kneeled on the victim’s neck in the Floyd murder case because he believed the victim was a powerful man who required more force to manage. However, the theory’s detractor claims that the Broken Windows Theory is a mass arrest program that unfairly targets impoverished, primarily minority populations, and exacerbates conflict between police and communities exposed to Broken Windows Theory policing and its offspring Stop, Question, and Frisk.
Nonetheless, since the Broken Windows Theory has been ingrained in generations of police officers, low-level arrests are now more common than not. In the prosecution of Derek Chauvin, for instance, Minneapolis Police Chief Medaria Arradondo stated that possessing $20 in fake money is “typically not” a charge that results in someone being jailed since it is not a violent crime (Roman, 2021). So, broken windows have become a part of the language of law enforcement and have been reinforced by rewards, even though some police commanders refuse to give in to this vague tool for reducing crime. To lower the incidence of crime, the Broken Windows Theory advocates for over-policing in areas with low civilizations. According to this theory, if one window in a structure is broken and is not restored, the rest of the windows will soon follow (Schuster, 2021). This theory has support from both social psychologists and police personnel. Even when the victim was unarmed, the cops responsible for the death are often never charged, much less put on trial.
Due to the fact that the window—in this example, police killings—was not fixed or otherwise addressed, it has continued to grow. According to Vincent (2021), at least 17 complaints were made against Chauvin throughout his almost 20 years as a police officer, but only twice was he penalized with a letter of reprimand. This indicates a police window that was damaged and not fixed. Furthermore, Chauvin was one of six cops who shot and killed a guy in 2006 at the scene of a stabbing, according to Vincent (2021). The police department took no more measures to find out what happened despite an inquiry that concluded that the issue was “unclear” (Vincent, 2021). Therefore, even though the Broken Windows Theory was used in policing with the goal of reducing crime in minority groups, the idea of over-policing made crime worse.
Application of Social Disorganization Theory
The majority of the time, police officers are given a great deal of latitude over when and how to use excessive force, which is consistent with a high prevalence of police brutality. More proactive restrictions on the circumstances in which police may use excessive force might help reduce incidents of police brutality. Furthermore, excessive use of force is rarely disciplined at the level of the police agency. Lack of supervision from police agencies has the effect of encouraging police officers to use force more often (Gerber & Jackson, 2017). Martin and Kaminski (2021) argue that suspects stopped in zones marked by concerted communal disadvantage are less likely to obtain higher levels of police brutality. In this case, invoking the social disorganization theory, police officers decide whether to use excessive force based on the risks and benefits and the likelihood that they would not face legal consequences, which motivates them to use force.
Building on the principles of social disorganization theory, it is imperative to claim that the same factors contribute to crime in both black and white populations. However, the ecological circumstances in which impoverished Black people reside and the corresponding structural disarray that distinguishes such communities are what fuel crime and violence. In this instance, Mr. Chauvin was influenced by the Social Disorganization Theory to determine that Mr. George Floyd had committed a crime, leading to the use of violent force that resulted in his death. To that end, the majority of people living in areas of concentrated deprivation are Black.
Application of Labeling Theory
According to the labeling theory’s application to police brutality, African Americans are more likely to commit crimes or engage in violent behavior. Labeling encompasses the whole social power system that establishes standards for the entire society, going beyond racial epithets. For example, despite the fact that Floyd was just summoned to help with a suspect of a $20 counterfeit bill, Mr. Chauvin branded him as likely to have committed a crime since he was an African American (Roman, 2021). It is feasible to flout the rules in an effort to criminalize as many characteristics of a certain ethnic minority group as you can. However, there should be serious concern about the indiscriminate generalization of an entire ethnic group. For emphasis, some police officers use the presumption that African Americans are violent or criminally inclined as justification for using excessive force against them (Bernburg, 2019). African Americans can accept the stigma associated with crime and live by it by engaging in criminal activity because they feel helpless to change it.
Because of the categorization, there is animosity between law enforcement and the target population, which increases the likelihood of police brutality and, as a result, the force’s involvement in crime. For instance, Mr. George Floyd, an African American, voluntarily submitted to arrest despite having the ability to eject himself since he knew he would likely be murdered by the police officers who arrived to make the arrest. According to the idea, Mr. Chauvin believed Mr. Floyd had a high tendency to break the law and stop him. Due to the stigma associated with this categorization, African Americans are more likely to engage in risky interactions with police officers. However, when confronted with male African American suspects, the police are very vigilant and will not hesitate to use deadly force against them (Nix et al., 2021). In sum, the picture uses the label theory to explain how crimes against minorities are committed in society.
Conclusion
In conclusion, Broken Windows Theory, Social Disorganization Theory, and Labeling Theory all contributed to the framework for understanding police brutality, especially against African Americans. In the case of Mr. Chauvin and Mr. George Floyd, it is evident that police violence against members of ethnic minorities is pervasive and not merely driven by racial prejudice but also by the erroneous linking of an ethnic minority to a crime. Lack of uniform training programs, oversight, and police militarization raise the possibility of police brutality. Compared to other ethnic groups and genders, police are more likely to profile and use violence against African American men. Therefore, police training has to be reviewed and standardized, and there needs to be more oversight and supervision of how much force the police use.
References
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Bernburg, J. G. (2019). Labeling theory. Springer.
Charis, E. K., & Ronald, W. (2017). New directions in social disorganization theory. Routledge.
Gerber, M. M., & Jackson, J. (2017). Justifying violence: Legitimacy, ideology and public support for police use of force. Psychology, Crime & Law, 23(1), 79-95. Web.
Hill, E., Tiefenthäler, A., Triebert, C., Jordan, D., Willis, H., & Stein, R. (2020). How George Floyd was killed in police custody. The New York Times, Web.
Martin, A., & Kaminski, R. J. (2021). On the relationship between social disorganization and police coercive action (s) in the New York City Police Department. Police Practice and Research, 22(1), 1095-1114. Web.
Nix, J., Campbell, B. A., Byers, E. H., & Alpert, G. P. (2017). A bird’s eye view of civilians killed by police in 2015: Further evidence of implicit bias. Criminology & Public Policy, 16(1), 309-340. Web.
Roman, I. (2021). Opinion: Police in the U.S. have embraced a flawed model to do their job and a new approach could save lives. The Market Watch. Web.
Schuster, M. L. (2021). Homeless voices: Stigma, space, and social media. The Rowman & Littlefield Publishing.
Vincent, M. (2021). George Floyd’s killer Derek Chauvin had a long history of violence and abuse as an officer. Web.