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Focusing on the nation of Trinidad and Tobago (T&T), the current study seeks to add to the very small body of literature on police deviance in the Caribbean. With a population of almost 1.25 million, Trinidad and the smaller Tobago are small islands that sit between the Caribbean Sea and the North Atlantic Ocean, off the coast of South America just northeast of Venezuela ([10] CIA, 2009). Generally, police deviance involves the violation of established boundaries dictating acceptable police behavior ([22] Ivkovic, 2005). For the purpose of this analysis, a broad definition of "police deviance" is accepted to include several possible forms of misconduct. Police misconduct involves not only the violation of criminal and civil laws but governmental and departmental policies establishing rules, procedures, and regulations as well ([27] Lynch and Diamond, 1983). Types of behavior include brutality/excessive force, harassment, minor and serious corruption, violating constitutional rights, and failure to perform duties ([17] Geller, 1984).
Police deviance has consequences that reach beyond management problems (including lawsuits) for police departments; it damages the relationship between citizens and the police at the local and societal levels. Social costs include a lack of public faith in, trust of, and support for law enforcement ([5] Bayley, 2002). Citizens may generalize incidents of police deviance in developing their perceptions of police organizations or even the entire criminal justice system. The danger lies in that there is a mutual dependency between citizens and police; citizens need police for public safety and police need the cooperation of the community in order to provide public safety. Awareness of police deviance undermines the public's acceptance of police power as legitimate. Poor perceptions of the police reduce the community's willingness to assist police in conducting their activities, for instance in aiding and cooperating in investigations ([5] Bayley, 2002). In response, officers may form unfavorable views of citizens. Police deviance, then, fosters a cycle of mutual police-citizen antagonism dysfunctional to the provision of public safety and administration of justice.
The importance of studying police deviance in T&T is elevated by the country's increasing violent crime rates. Police integrity and community cooperation are of course essential in confronting crime problems. While property crimes declined somewhat since the mid 1990s, violent crime has increased. Murders for example have...