Michael Dowd and his colleague’s behavior are despicable, they are what we would consider as rotten pocket; a term used in chapter 9 of burns describing “a group of officers engaging in corruption collectively” (Burns, 2013, p.392). However, before we start judging his colleague, we must take into consideration what may have prompted them to commit these crimes. Be mindful that they were surrounded by an inhuman individual; Michael Dowd, the perfect example of corruption, even his own partners called him a “crook in a cop uniform.” Dowd had allowed greed to get the best of him, resulting in him engaging in extortion and shakedown. Even though his partners were at fault too; their behavior is explanatory. Why they chose to get involved is something we can understand once we put sociology into context. Informal socialization a theory …show more content…
This controversy took place during the 1980s, a period that clears up the confusion I had as to why any cop would want to get involved in such a scandal. The 1980s was the period when new drugs like crack cocaine were being introduced; Crack cocaine was a money-making industry, those selling it were making large profits. According to Dowd, a kilo of coke was sold for $30,000 (Russell, 2015). These officers knew that drug dealers were making a lot, and they tried to profit off them, instead of arresting whenever they caught them with drugs, they were requesting money to ignore the criminal behavior. This was known as extortion (Burns, 2013 p. 361). The differential reinforcement theory is a great theory to explain their behavior. According to this theory rewards and punishment strengthens behavior (Walsh, 2014, p. 189). In the officer’s case, the money they were receiving were rewarded, and their behavior began to strengthen every time they got a paycheck from drug cartels and also stealing money from drug