Police performance crime as structurally coerced action

This article will argue that police performance crime can be described as structurally coerced action because it represents the most reasonable response to a sanction‐containing organizational demand set beyond a legitimately attainable threshold. This account of police performance crime recognizes the importance of structural strain, rational choice and social learning experiences as key contours on its contextual landscape. However, the concept of coercion as a moral concept requires a further and vital ingredient ‐ enroachment upon some moral right. The claim of right asserted here is one to have organizational rewards allocated upon the basis of merit‐based criteria. It is strain theory which provides a space for the assertion of encroachment upon this moral right, while the theories of rational choice and social learning help explain the reasonableness of action. The designation of police performance crime as coerced action contains serious implications for criminal responsibility, punishment and cri...