Seniors hazed Junior to death in Indonesian Police Academy

Aggressive Behavior / Hazing (Bullying)

Muhammad Imam Shiddiq (1706980431)

Urban Psychology A

Mohammad Adam is one of the level two cadets at the police academy that got the hazing
from his seniors and this lead to his death. It all started when 22 cadets from East Indonesian Corps
gathered at the shed in Indonesian Police Academy, Semarang. Juniors is asked to to the acts of
repentance and Mohamad Adam is pulled by the seniors to go to the front. The seniors punching
him in the epigastrium with hands and tools about 5-6 times until he collapsed. After that, the
seniors did the first aid and send him to the room beside the shed. This situation is also known by
the supervisor of the cadets. Mohamad Adam sent to the hospital and declared passed away by the
doctor approximately 2 hours later. The corpse is sent for autopsy with the approval of the family.
The autopsy said that he died because there is heavy injury in the lungs because of the punching,
so he cannot breathe and died in place. The corpse is taken to Jakarta and buried in the cemetery
nearby his house in Kebayoran Lama. Family member’s taking this case to the legal action and
sued approximately 12-14 senior cadets that did the violence.

From this phenomenon, we can see that hazing culture still happening in urban setting such
as Indonesian Police Academy. Hazing is one of a kind with bullying that describe any action
taken or situation created, intentionally, whether on or off fraternity premises, to produce mental
or physical discomfort, embarrassment, harassment, or ridicule (Keller et al., 2015). When hazing
is conducted among men, it is often considered a test to their strength, courage, and determination
for the severe physical hazing and tests where they have to withstand pain, humiliation, or
excessive alcohol consumption, considering them challenges to overcome in the pursuit of the
most worthy elements to integrate the group in this case is the acts of repentance and punching
(Fávero et al., 2015).
 In the case of the military and police department, research at the academies have found that
acts of hazing are ritualized and passed down over generations, contributing to confusion over
whether these acts are sanctioned traditions or illegal actions (Pershing, 2006). Hazing is part of
the counter-curriculum or informal education of teaching method to transmitting values and the
attitudes in the academy and seen as an example of dualistic logic in new police training, pointing
to prospects of democratization while maintaining authoritarian methods of socialization (de
Albuquerque & Paes-Machado, 2004).

Nevertheless, what Mohamad Adam did is one of the adaptive response as supported by
Miller (1970), which to handle the overload in the urban setting that is the academy and social
pressure by joining the corps and he could have a balance of living back again with feels like he
accepted by the group in the academy. On the other side, the adaptive response can be quiet
challenging, not only by the pressure, but also by the adjustment to both of the world which is
social and academic responsibility.
Adaptive response in police department is trained by the seniors to somehow applied in the
real world. By this “training”, the cadets can release their adaptive overt police behaviour to be a
better police and reduce the risk of adverse police outcome such as injuries, accidental death,
brutality, and litigations in the field. Therefore, hazing in which the seniors did to the juniors cadet
is not necessarily just for teasing them, but how aggressive can lead them into a stronger and
tougher person in real life. Eventough when we back to the story of Mohamad Adam is something
that we couldn’t tolerate. We can learn that in Police Academy, aggressive behaviour is applied in
a different form such as hazing

Berdasarkan normative based dari social influences, dikatakan bahwa dimana kita mengerti akan
pergerakan yang mengarah tujuan kelompok yang bergantung pada derajat kebulatan suara
tentang pemahaman akan situasi. Dalam kasus ini, hazing sudah menjadi sesutau hal yang telah
disepakati oleh semua anggota dengan mengikuti ritual ini.

If we asked about how the seniors can do such thing like that, we need to looked at the social
influences that created by the senior who starts to other seniors. If we looked at normative based
of social influence, Festinger, Schachter, and Back (1950) said that the fellows of the group
understand of the movement toward group goal that depends on how the unaminity of
understanding the situation (ross & nisbett, ). Also, if we looked to the case of Mohamad Adam,
the social influence is somehow understandable by the other fellow seniors to do the hazing so
that it will achieved the group goal which is to become more salient and accepted by the group.

Reference
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 Practices of Dominations and Coercions in Hazing in Portugal. Journal of Interpersonal
Violence. 33 (11), 1830-1851

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