THE POLICE AND THE EX-CONVICT

THE POLICE AND THE EXCONVICT

Roger Baldwin - a lthough it is possible to trace several factors which may have contributed to the self-evaluation of and the societal concern about the police image in earlier times, it is generally true that the concern has heightened to national importance since the advent of riots in the ghettoes and elsewhere in the community. The Kerner Report, the Walker Report, and the Report of the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice, especially in their analyses of riots where police behavior is highly visible, contributed to and commented about the image of the police. Studies by academicians reported upon in recent books and at public meetings analyze one or more aspects which form the police image held by the various groups within society.

OBJECTIVE OF THE STUDY

James Q. Wilson (1967: 139) has asked, “To what extent do police officers perceive citizens as hostile?” In his analysis of the police image, he has noted that the oversimplified formula used by police of the “good guy-bad guy” image

AUTHOR’S NOTE: This paper wm presented at the meetings of the American Society of Criminology, Columbus, Ohio, November 2,1969.

ROGER BALDWIN is Associate Professor of Sociology at Muhlenberg College in Allentown, Pennsylvania, and a Lecturer for the Pennsylvania Department of Public Instruction at the Allentown and Philadelpha Police Academies. He received his Ph.D. in sociology from New York University in 1967.

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does not hold, and that there are many other factors which confound the societal image of the policeman. Those people alluded to as the “good guys” are not necessarily supporters of the police and their practices.

The question arises, that if the perception of the police about the general population’s view of the policeman as a group is erroneous, is it possible that their perception of the position of the law violator or “bad guy” is equally as incorrect? Undoubtedly their perception of the public’s attitude toward them not only affects police morale but in large part determines their behavior toward each segment of the population with whom they come into contact. This study explores the law violator’s image of the police and compares it with the image police believe ex-convicts hold about them. Are they congruent images?

THE SAMPLE

As the term law violator is too broad or all-inclusive, describing as it does a range of persons from those who may have violated a local ordinance to those who have committed felonies or those who have been accused of violations to those successfully prosecuted for them, the term ex-convict or, more accurately, the ex-prisoner, was chosen as representative of the law violator f m the purpose of the present research. If anyone could fit the bad guy image held by the police, the ex-convict is the most likely candidate. As Nelson ( 1 967: 85-86) reports,

there [is] an impressive accumulation of studies concerning the effects of penal confinement upon those who experienced it. . . . Prisoners . . . have tended either to “do their own time,” as aloof as possible from all human contact, or to enter into highly developed forms of conflict . . . with the staff. This structuring of relationships has acted to make many offenders more angry, less amenable to rules and laws, and far less able to achieve legitimate success once they are released into the free community.

Baldwin /POLICE AND EX-CONVICT [2811

And, as if their propensity toward law violations were not enough,

many of the difficulties involved in integrating offenders into normal patterns of community life stem from the labeling effects of their past experiences, the negative ways in which they are perceived and reacted to by others as a result of their identifi- cation as criminals [Nelson, 1967: 901.

The questions to be explored are:

(1) What is the ex-convict’s image of the police? (2) How accurately do the police discern the opinions or views of

ex-convicts about the police?

Since, as noted earlier, the good guys in the society do not simply like the “men in blue,” could it be that the bad guys in the society do not simply dislike the police either?

The data for the second question in this study are readily available from general sources. Several have already been cited above. Additionally, in the fall of 1968 while con- ducting a section of a course on Community Relations for the Allentown Police Department (Pennsylvania) on the subject of The Police Image, this author collected the written responses to open-ended questions on the police image from 1 17 policemen.’ The questionnaires were distributed and returned before the class sessions began. All of the respondents knew the instructor of the course from prior contact and were accustomed to a relatively informal relationship with him. They were aware that their anonymity would be maintained. Those sections of their papers which refer to law violators are used for comparison of the police impression of ex-convictsy views with those of actual ex-convicts.

It was particularly appropriate to use the study of the Allentown police data in that a major part of the research on the ex-convict was carried out in the Lehigh Valley area of Pennsylvania where the Allentown Police Department is the

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largest of several forces. As could be expected, many of the responses of the ex-convicts in this study alluded directly to the Allentown force.’

RESEARCH PLAN

The primary subjects of the study, the ex-convicts, were not as easily located as policemen, that is, easily located under the primary criterion established by the researcher that the ex-convict be involved in the study by his own volition and not by official direction. The policemen who responded to the questionnaires in the earlier part of the study, as indicated, knew and trusted the researcher, were volunteers, and were not obliged to fill out the forms. Their positions on the police force could in no way be affected by their responses and they knew it. The responses of the ex-convicts, on the other hand, could not be assured to be free of bias if the respondents were referred to the researcher by an official agency such as a department of parole. The lack of a long-standing informal relationship between the researcher and the ex-convicts and the lack of assurance that the material gathered would not be used by the parole department made the use of direct referral from that department unsuitable. Short and Nye (1968: 282) have asserted,

It is our experience that major categories of deviant behavior can be studied in a general population provided proper attention is given to public regulations and provided the anonymity of the individual is protected. It is our contention that this eliminates biases related to the differential classification of deviants. . . . It likewise minimizes the influence of the criterion variable upon the independent variable.

Therefore, in an attempt to follow the suggestions of Short and Nye, a plan was designed to reach ex-convicts unofficially.


In the city of Allentown there is an ex-convict who has maintained himself satisfactorily in the community for the past nine years after a period of approximately twenty-seven years of incarceration in various prisons. He has recently opened up his home as a temporary shelter to other ex-convicts. In order to get support to establish a permanent Halfway House in his home, the ex-convict has made himself known in civic circles and wherever people will permit him to speak of his project. Following the Short and Nye formula, this researcher made it known to the ex-convict Halfway House Director that he would like to speak to him and others about their attitudes toward the police. In the summer of 1969 “the word was spread.” In the fall, mainly through repeated contact with the Halfway House Director, respondents slowly dribbled in to be interviewed. As it became clear almost from the outset of the project that the number of respondents would be very few (determined from the amount of time which elapsed between the time that the word was spread and the time when the first respondents appeared), it was decided to use a series of open-ended questions rather than a questionnaire which could be statistically tabulated and cited as concrete documentation of specific attitude^.^ As an exploratory study, some preliminary clues to the attitudes of ex-convicts about policemen were elicited from a sample of eighteen men.

While the present study was under way, a group of ex-convicts who have established a voluntary association for the dissemination of information about prison conditions sent representatives into the Lehigh Valley for a speaking engagement, and they too were questioned. Their responses could be interpreted as representative of a subgroup of ex-convicts who are highly articulate, or they could be considered not representative because they are articulate and anxious to respond. They do, in either case, meet the qualification that they responded voluntarily.

Considering the size of the sample, it was not feasible to separate the responses of minority group members within the

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study from the others. It is recognized (Winslow, 1968: 282), “that abusive treatment of minority groups [by the police] and the poor continues to occur,” giving rise to the likelihood that responses of ex-convicts who are from minority groups may be dominated by minority group rather than ex-convict reactions. In a larger study (Winslow, 1968: 272), questions designed to separate the two types of responses would be more appropriate.

The Commission’s [President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice] studies of police-community relations in eleven localities throughout the country showed serious problems of Negro hostility to the police in virtually all medium and large cities.

THE EXCONVICTS

The majority of the men in the present study were between the ages of thirty and thirty-nine, and most had a career in crime with their first commitment during their juvenile years. There were almost four times as many property offenders as those who committed crimes of injury to persons. The majority of the men were released from prison for a period of at least two to seven years with about as many out for the first three-year period as in the second. About three-quarters of them had at least a seventh-grade education and slightly less than half of that group had some high school e x p o ~ u r e . ~

THE INTERVIEWS

At the outset of the first interview, it did not seem particularly notable that the respondent wished to make it exceedingly clear that he was not representative of all ex-convicts, but that he was speaking solely for himself. When most of the ensuing interviews began in the same


fashion, it became apparent that each man considered his experiences unique, and one could even get undertones that the ex-convict saw himself as someone special. He would take pride, when supplying background material, in recounting the exploits which got him into trouble with the law. Although the study avoided any question of the continuance of antisocial activity by the participants, and the time elapsed since imprisonment implied that the ex-convict was “going straight,” one could not help but feel that an antisocial attitude still prevailed within the respondents. Yet, those who participated in the study were especially eager to make suggestions to the interviewer to aid him in obtaining a more accurate picture of the ex-convict and his attitude toward the police. For example, several of the men pointed out that they thought their attitudes would be different from ex-convicts who were arrested in “big cities” (Allentown is a medium-sized city of approximately 100,000 population). A few who had been arrested elsewhere in the nation said they found the “big city cop” more impersonal than those at home. This could be true, or it may be that the Lehigh Valley lawbreaker who is picked up in the big city is not a “regular customer” for that force; his status is not established there, though it is at home. Despite the protests to the contrary and the limited size of the sample, the responses to the questions posed were relatively uniform.

THE RESPONSES TO QUESTIONS

In answer to the question, “How do you feel about cops?” the ex-convict typically expressed an attitude that policemen were doing their jobs when they arrested the respondents and therefore no hard feelings were harbored. In fact, one respondent answered that if there was one person in the whole correctional system who meant him no harm, it was the policeman. Several men indicated that it was part of the social expectancy of the persistent law violator that he will be beaten by the arresting officer and that no hard feelings


were held. A dominant theme throughout the interviews was that when one becomes a part of the criminal society, the entire process-from the decision t o commit a crime to the time when one is released from prison-is all part of a game which contains both punishments and rewards. The policeman is not only expected t o beat the criminal, he is even expected t o lie in the courtroom in order t o get a conviction of the offender. The ex-convict understands that a policeman’s promotion is dependent upon arrests and convictions and therefore perjury is justifiable to that end. Detectives need not be as harsh since they already have status in the department. Westley, in a study in 1953, found that the police rationalized their use of violence and other illegal techniques in the apprehension of offenders. The ex-convicts share this rationalization with the police.

The apprehension and conviction of the felon is, for the policeman, the essence of police work.. It is the source of prestige both within and outside police circles, it has career implications, and it is a major source of justification for the existence of the police before a critical and often hostile public. Out of these conditions a legitimization for the illegal use of violence is wrought [Westley, 1968: 1571.

What the ex-convict has done is to give an evasive answer t o the question about his feelings toward the police and implied through his understanding of police behavior that the relationship is a friendly one. However, the following quotation (Bittner, 1968: 153), when read to each of the respondents, elicited a contrary response.

Moreover, patrolmen find that disciplinary and coercive actions apparently do not affect their friendly relations with the persons against whom these actions are taken. Those who greet and chat with them are the very same men who have been disciplined, arrested, and ordered around in the past, and who expect t o be thus treated again in the future.

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It would seem to be true, as implied by the shared understanding of the role of the policeman and his use of force, and as Bittner in the above quotation has noted, that friendly greeting and chatting shows that a friendship exists. Nevertheless, without exception, each of the respondents in the exploratory study, with varying degrees of irritation after the reading of the quotation, responded that the police stand aloof from the ex-convict. A second persistent theme was developed, that is, that the police, just as other correctional personnel, treat the ex-convict as though he were less than human. The irritation arises out of a resentment that although the ex-convict understands and accepts the policeman’s punitive behavior, the policeman does not reciprocate in understanding but often responds with derogatory verbal references and beatings designed t o be humiliating rather than punishing.

Nothing seems t o be more frustrating to the ex-convict than what he believes t o be a societal attitude reflected strongly in his interactions with the police, the attitude that he, the ex-convict, is something less than human. This finding is not totally unexpected. However, when matched with the following quotation from the Allentown Police Study of 1968, it shows strikingly that they share an image with the police. When asked why people dislike the police, an answer which was repeated in many ways was best stated by one officer when he said, “because they [the public] believe we aren’t human.” Both groups, the ex-convicts and the police, share a negative self-image which precipitates a defensive stance in their daily activities.

In answer to the question, “Is your attitude toward cops different from before you were sent up?” most of the men were initially neutral in their response, that is, they indicated that they generally had not thought about the subject before. One only considers “cops” when he is in contact with them. Prodding in this area by asking the respondents to think about the subject now resulted in most of the men


recounting their last experiences with the police. For those who were out of prison the longest, it produced tales about “bad cops” whom they knew in the past and whom they avoid even now.

Almost all of the remaining questions in the interview schedule were touched upon in response to this second question. Therefore, in the following paragraphs, the questions and answers will not be repeated chronologically. There was no attempt to maintain the separation during the interviews. The primary goal was to get as complete a response as each man would offer.

Although the majority of the men felt that the police paid more attention to them than to the average citizen, they did not appear to believe that the attention reflected “picking upon them” or was unwarranted. There was an ambivalence expressed. On the one hand, since they were known to have committed crimes which they recounted with great relish, they felt that the police had every reason to suspect them and keep them under surveillance. While the societal and police attitudes reported earlier placed them in the “less than human” category, that image, which they had internalized, was counteracted by a “superhuman or cunning” self- categorization. What choice did the police have but to use their full powers of detection and surveillance with such people around? On the other hand, they resented police attention because it did reinforce the less than human notion and placed undue and unfair attention upon them. Their feelings could be summed up as being both proud and resentful of attention by the police as it related to themselves, although some seemed to feel that other ex-convicts should definitely be watched. In this last category, those who should definitely be watched, there were strong undertones that the ex-convicts were describing other ex-convicts as members of the less than human category which they so thoroughly despised as it related to themselves. One ex- convict responded to the question, “Should cops keep a close eye on ex-cons?”

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Yes, they’ll repeat most times. We’re all crooks. . . . Some guys are just no good all the way. There ain’t nuthin’ you can do with them. When they get locked up, they should throw away the key. They ain’t nuthin’ but animals.

Most respondents could and did cite at least one local policeman whom he knew who was brutal in his treatment of ex-convicts. Several men said that these policemen would wait for particular prisoners to be released just to get after them again and that the recently released prisoner would “get the word” that a particular cop was looking for him. With the exception of the brutal and humiliating individual policeman and the allegedly superior attitude of the officer, the ex-convicts considered the police as a group of men dedicated to their job and doing it reasonably well. One could say that their image of the police is possibly more favorable than that held by the public, and that they are certainly more tolerant of illegal procedures sometimes employed by the police.

The older men, who were more likely to have been out of prison the longest and who have less recent and frequent contact with the police than the younger men but who still have contact, claimed that since the recent Supreme Court decisions, beatings have decreased in number and intensity. The younger men confirmed the story. As one man put it in answer to the questions about when he was stopped last and how he was treated by the arresting officer,

I’ve only had two or three beatings [in recent years] and I asked for it. [How?] The last time I was picked up, I was drunk and the cops were shoving me in the front seat of their car. As I slid under the wheel, I saw the keys and tried to start the car. They pulled me out and beat me up. I deserved it.

In answer to the questions requesting their ideas on how they would like to see the police officer change, as might be expected by this point in the study, the ex-convict offered very few suggestions. Some, especially the more articulate ones mentioned early in this paper, saw the police as the

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slightest obstacle in the correctional system toward the attainment of justice, and looked upon them as a necessary evil. They preferred to discuss other personnel in the correctional system. That was to be expected because of the nature of that subgroup. All, including the subgroup, saw the entire process as a type of game of life in which the police played their part. It is interesting to note that even when the ex-convict talked of those policemen who played their parts poorly-the bad cops-they did not refer t o the policemen who stole, took graft, and so on, but to the brutal, humiliating ones.

THEMES

There are four themes which recur within the present study. Though the evidence from which they are derived is not expansive, it is intensive and leads one to believe that further study would corroborate their persistence. The first and most dominant theme is frequently implied and occa- sionally explicitly stated by ex-convicts; crime is a game like any other game. One enters into it with a sense of challenge and excitement that varies from time to time in intensity but that is always present. The law violator does not expect to get caught, nor does he usually think of that possibility. He trusts his precautions taken or his skill in eluding the representatives of the law. If, however, he is caught, he expects to be processed through the correctional system consisting of the police, courts, prisons, and parole. Whatever hardships the correctional agencies impose, especially the prison with all of its resented practices, the ex-convict accepts them as punishments for losing the game. One frequently hears variations of the following statement from prisoners and ex-prisoners, “Don’t enter crime unless you’re willing to do your time.” The ex-convict expects that in the game of crime, which includes crime control, the police may


beat him, although this occurs less today than it did before the Supreme Court decisions of the 1960s. He also expects the police to lie if necessary to obtain a conviction of an offender.

The second theme is that the exconvicts accept and understand police behavior, with the exception that they are outraged by a feeling that the police consider them to be something less than human. The irony of the situation is that the study of the police showed that they also are agonized by a feeling that they are held to be in a less than human state by the general public. Both groups then, the ex-convicts and the police, share a feeling of oppression, the less than human stigma.

The third theme is that the ex-convicts enjoy and resent the extra attention paid to them by the police. The enjoyment derives from their feeling that they are important enough to warrant special attention, and their hostility derives from the stigma attached to being a second-class citizen, someone who is not trusted and free from intrusion upon his privacy.

The fourth and final theme is that the perceptions of the police about the image of them held by ex-convicts is as erroneous as their overgeneralized perceptions of the images of them held by the public in general. Ex-convicts-the bad guys-do not simply dislike the police. They accept police behavior, legal or illegal, as part of the game, but reject the attitude which reflects a gross disdain for the ex-convicts, the less than human categorization.

QUEST IONS

The primary function of a pilot or exploratory study is to ascertain some preliminary clues and establish directions to take in future researches on the subject. A number of questions are generated. The themes cited above as prelimi-

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nary clues, and the questions below, should help to pinpoint the areas which need fuller exploration t o arrive at more definitive answers about the ex-convict’s image of the police.

(1 ) Since social distance between ex-convicts and the police is less than between the general public and the police (similar working-class background and frequent contact), the understanding and acceptance shown by ex-convicts of police behavior could be expected. Using the same social distance factors, how can the lack of understanding of ex-convicts exhibited by the police be explained?

(2) Following up question number one, when the social distance factor is changed and the ex-convicts are not of the same socioeconomic backgrounds as the police, and their involvement in serious crimes is greater than that of the present sample, how much understanding and acceptance d o ex-convicts show toward the police?

(3) Is there a significant difference between the responses obtained in the present sample from those which would be obtained from an official sample, of, for example, men on parole?

(4) Is there an inverse relationship between the amount of pride exhibited in the recounting of crimes and the process of “going straight?”

(5) Would there be significant differences in the images of the police held by police and ex-convicts in big cities rather than medium cities?

( 6 ) Why is it that, when prodded about the subject of bad cops, the ex-convicts (in the present study) chose to focus only upon the subject of police who beat and humiliate ex-convicts, and did not discuss the officer who is involved in stealing, graft, and so on? Is this typical?

(7) How different are the responses of the recently arrested convict from those of the ex-convict?

(8) In a larger sample, which responses of the nonwhite are primarily minority group responses and which are ex-convict responses?


NOTES 1. The questions asked were: Some people think that cops are the greatest.

Give three reasons why they think so; some people think that cops are the lowest. Give three reasons why they think so.

2. Allentown has a population of approximately 100,000. Together with the cities of Bethlehem and Easton and their environs, the Lehigh Valley area has a population of approximately one-half million people. The Allentown Police Department has 154 officers; Bethlehem, 118; Easton, 53.

3. Interview Schedule Used With ExConvicts (a) How do you feel about cops? (b) Is your attitude different from before you were sent up? How? (c) Do cops pick on you? (More than anyone else? How?)

(d) Should cops keep a close eye on ex-cons? (e) Is there any change in cops since the Supreme Court Laws? (Rights to

(f) When is the last time a cop stopped you? (g) Did he give you a “bad time?” (If so-how?) (h) (If yes to Q. 7) Do you think he was right in doing what he did?

counsel and about beatings)

others

(i ) How would you have cops change? As the questions were open-ended and sometimes produced the answers to

I on the list when one was asked, on occasion, particular questions were not asked by the interviewer. Prodding to elaborate rather than additional questioning was used by the interviewer.

4. General Background Information About Respondents (a) Ages (at time of the study)

40-50 4 30-39 11 20-29 2

(b) First Commitment as: Juvenile 12 Adult 6

(c) Usual or Last Offense For Which Incarcerated Injury to Person 5 (Robbery and Aggravated Assault) Property Offenses 13* (Burglary, Larceny, Embezzlement) *Most often combined in this study with No Victim Crimes-e.g., burglary for money to purchase alcohol or drugs-and arrested for either.

(d) When Released Within 8-10 years 3

5-7 6 2 4 7

1 2

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(e) Marital Status Married 16 Single 2

(0 Education 9th-12th grade 6 7th-8th 8 6th or below 4

REFERENCES

BITTNER, E. (1968) “The police on skid-row: a study of peace keeping,” pp. 135-155 in W. J. Chamblis (ed.) Crime and the Legal Process. New York: McGraw-Hill.

NELSON, E. K. (1967) “Community-based correctional treatment: rationale and problems.” Annals 374 (November): 82-91.

SHORT, J . F. and F. 1. NYE (1968) “Reported behavior as a criterion of deviant behavior.” Social Problems 5 (Winter): 207-2 13.

WESTLEY, W. A. (1968) “Violence and the police,” pp. 155-164 in W. J. Chamblis (ed.) Crime and the Legal Process. New York: McGraw-Hill.

WILSON, J. Q. (1967) “Police morale, reform and citizen respect: the Chicago case,” pp. 137-162 in D. J. Bordua (ed.) The Police: Six Sociological Essays. New York: John Wiley.

WINSLOW, R. W. [ed.] (1968) Crime in a Free Society: Selections from the President’s Commission on Law Enforcement and Administration of Justice. Belmont, California: Dickenson Publishing: 257-288.

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THE POLICE AND THE EX-CONVICT