Police corruption is the abusement of higher authority power for any personal

gains or misconduct reasonings. It hurts both law enforcement and the community.
Instead of building a stable and positive society, police takes advantage of their social
power to corrupt society and lose trust in their community. Throughout the years,
safeguards and codes of conducts have been established to protect people from police
corruption or brutality. Any police department receiving federal funding is covered by
Title VI of the Civil Rights Act of 1964 and the Office of Justice Programs statute,which
prohibit discrimination on the basis of race, color, national origin, sex, and religion.
These laws prohibit conduct ranging from racial slurs and unjustified arrests to the
refusal of departments to respond to discrimination complaints (Police Corruption and
Misconduct 5).
Racial profiling is any law enforcement initiation and suspicion based on race or
ethnicity rather than the individuals behavior itself. For many years, society has
acknowledged the controversy of racial profiling and discrimination against members of
minorities. The shooting case of Trayvon Martin was one of the popular controversy of
racial profiling in the African American community. In the article, What Happened the
night Trayvon Martin Died, Martin was wearing a dark grey sweater purchasing a bag
of skittles and a can of Arizona iced tea. Martin was walking on the streets as a White
male, George Zimmerman, who was the neighborhood watch volunteer, spotted Martin.
Zimmerman calls 911 and explains that This guy looks like he's up to no good, or he's
on drugs or something. It's raining, and he's just walking around. The dispatcher told
Zimmerman that he didnt need to follow him, but he did anyways. What happened next

is a mystery. Martin and Zimmerman were claimed to have a commotion as Martin was
shot and killed. Neighbors reported that they heard Martin screaming for help during
that night. Zimmerman refused to be transported to the hospital despite his apparent
injuries from the fight. There was no indication that Trayvon Martin was involved in any
criminal activity or attacked Zimmerman as Zimmerman claims. Jon Witt states in his
book, Blacks and Whites have significantly different perceptions of local law
enforcement. In a national survey, when asked how much confidence they had in local
police, 38 percent of Whites and 14 percent of Blacks had a great deal, while 34
percent of Blacks and 9 percent of Whites had very little (Witt 326).
By applying the conflict theory, it states that law and the mechanisms of its
enforcement are used by dominant groups in society. In an effort to keep their power,
the dominant groups take advantage of their social power to minimize threats posed by
those whom they label as dangerous or who are not like them, such as minorities and
the poor. This strong desire to keep their social status and power is what drives these
dominant groups into conflicts within groups. This correlates to racial profiling and the
case study of Trayvon Martin. Racial profiling is used by those in power. Trayvon Martin
is a minority as he is an African American and Zimmerman is the majority and part of
the dominant group as he has authority power over citizens.
According to Karl Marx, he sees the population in two groups, which are the
proletariat and the bourgeois. The bourgeois are the small part of the population who
are wealthy and regulate laws and control production. The proletariat whose social
status is below the bourgeois rely on that production and laws in order to survive. The

bourgeois have that social power as they control how society is coordinated from laws
to social norms. In Marxs eyes, police and law enforcements symbolizes bourgeois
while the citizens below them are proletariat. Government are those in control of society
as racial profiling is part of the law they regulated. Crime is also seen as a conflict
theory as there is a class conflict between those who are wealthy and powerful as
oppose to those who lack wealth and power. Social norms and laws are based on the
interests of the wealthy and those in power which then leads to the idea that those
individuals are less likely to commit crime and accused of breaking the law. Even if the
wealthy and powerful are accused, they have more rights based on their social class
status which means they will likely be avoiding any punishment. In regards to the
Trayvon Martin case, Zimmerman took advantage of those without power to avoid
confrontations with the law. Zimmerman knew that based on his class status, he has
more rights than an African American and the society will use the stereotype of an
African American as dangerous to the case.
Sometimes society are too focused on the racial problem within police corruption
that they forget about the gender differences. Not only is race and ethnicity are used as
a tactic for police, but gender as an important significant factor that plays a big role in
who police shoot. There are power struggles within gender gaps. When it comes to
shooting, males are being shot more in comparison to females. This is because over 90
percent of homicides are committed by males, so it creates a stereotype in polices
eyes. According to the article, When We Talk About Police Shootings, We Need To
Talk About Gender, scientific experiments were performed to test gender bias

perceptions on whether police shot an unarmed individual. It showed that police were
more likely to target an unarmed male in comparison to a female. Although males are
perceived to be more dangerous, they are seen to be more powerful than women. The
CATO institute found, in 2010, that sexual assault was the second most common form
of police misconduct though the more correct term would be male police misconduct
and that women of color are disproportionately targeted (Poole 12). The
gender-blind spot on the shootings on males also hides the fact that women are more
victimized by the state. Even though cops arent shooting and killing most women, they
are raping them striping away their rights and self worth. This creates more problems as
women cant turn to cops as they are the ones abusing women because they see them
as inferior and weak. In the article, What Cops Are Really Thinking When A Woman
Claims She Was Raped, Amanda Hess states, And often, responding officers never
learn how the cases pan outso even if a report theyve deemed fishy turns out to be
credible, they never think to challenge their initial assumptions about the victim (Hess
4). There is a class struggle between the status of a superior male and a inferior female.
Male cops force women into sexual activities because they know that society will
question women based on the way they dressed or the status they have about lying
about rape. Police mistreatment is another reason why women wont report rape to cops
and it is found that women are better off staying quiet.
Conflict theory depicts that tensions arise when resources, status, and power are
unevenly distributed amongst groups. Instead of providing stability and protecting their
community, corrupt law enforcements misuse their power to their immoral advantage.

This creates tension amongst community as groups especially minorities come together
and protest causing more destruction and segregation within society.

Botelho, Greg. "What Happened the Night Trayvon Martin Died." CNN. Cable
News Network, 23 May 2012. Web. 18 Dec. 2016.
Hess, Amanda. "What Cops Are Really Thinking When a Woman Claims She
Was Raped." Slate Magazine. N.p., 18 Nov. 2014. Web. 18 Dec. 2016.
"Police Corruption and Misconduct Legal Definition of Police Corruption and
Misconduct." The Free Dictionary. Farlex, n.d. Web. 18 Dec. 2016.
Poole, Melanie. "When We Talk About Police Shootings, We Need To Talk About
Gender." Feministing. N.p., n.d. Web. 18 Dec. 2016.
Witt, Jon. Soc. New York: Mcgraw-Hill, 2014. Print.