Polisens Moral : En formande process

Sammanfattning: Inspired by Durkheim’s (2002) moral sociology, this bachelor thesis examines what morally form individuals who take on work within the police. Specifically, this thesis identifies and analyses the steps that morally form police officers in southern Sweden from their childhood to professional life through qualitative interviews. Three police officers in chief positions were interviewed, three newly graduated police officers and two police students. The respondents spoke about a strong moral ideal from youth and this conviction was strengthened when they realized their wish to join the police force. When closing in on their goal to join the police the pressure to act morally from their peers increased. Through the statements collected this thesis identified four steps which the interviewees followed when they approached a moral code which society at large internalize. It also identified how a mission can be used to justify otherwise immoral behavior. The identified steps are: Ideal indifference and norm conformity, ideal realization, ideal and norm reinforcement and, ideal and norm insurance. The first step identified matched with the results of Jacobsson and Lindblom (2016) while the remaining were interpreted from the expressed statements of the interviewees. The second step this thesis interpreted was ideal realization, this step was defined by individuals who realized their desire to work within the police later in life. Working in tandem with ideal realization is the step ideal and norm reinforcement, this step was characterized by a phase in the interviewee life where they took steps to achieve their goal. Lastly ideal and norm insurance is the step identified when the interviewees had joined the police, distinctive for this step was their drive to ensure that every day norms was ensured and trust for the police was maintained within the populace.