The sharks and the fishermen: An exploratory content analysis of police officers who abused their positions for a sexual purpose
| Published date | 01 December 2023 |
| DOI | http://doi.org/10.1177/14613557231173509 |
| Author | Fay Sweeting,Terri Cole |
| Date | 01 December 2023 |
| Subject Matter | Original Research Articles |
The sharks and the fishermen:
An exploratory content analysis
of police officers who abused their
positions for a sexual purpose
Fay Sweeting
Department of Psychology, Bournemouth University, UK
Terri Cole
Department of Psychology, Bournemouth University, UK
Abstract
Abuse of position for a sexual purpose (APSP) in police officers is a serious form of corruption that often re-victimises
highly vulnerable people such as victims of domestic abuse and rape. It is thought to be underreported by victims because
they fear disbelief and negative repercussions. As a consequence, such behaviour may go undetected for a long time. Using
a content analysis of 10 completed APSP investigations conducted by an English police force, the research explored the
characteristics and behaviour of both the police officers and victims involved. The results suggest that there may be dif-
ferences in behaviours and victim selection within APSP perpetrators. Two perpetrator types are tentatively suggested:
the shark and the fisherman. The shark is characterised by those who make rapid sexual contact with a specifically tar-
geted highly vulnerable victim, often causing lasting harm. The fisherman uses a more tentative approach, casting a wide
net to many potential victims (with similarities to grooming) but often failing to make sexual contact. The behaviour of
both offending styles, and the implications for internal police investigations, is discussed.
Keywords
Police, sexual misconduct, abuse of position, vulnerability
Submitted 16 Mar 2023, accepted 5 Apr 2023
Introduction
Since 1829, the philosophy of British policing has been one
of policing by consent. This philosophy–attributed to prime
minister and father of modern policing, Robert Peel, but
most likely originating from Police Commissioner Richard
Mayne –is one of policing with public cooperation, trust
and respect (Jackson et al., 2012; Lentz and Chaires,
2007). When police officers are involved in corruption and
misconduct, public trust and respect can be hugely under-
mined. It is therefore essential that corruption is dealt with
promptly and robustly (College of Policing, 2015). The
terms corruption and misconduct when applied to policing
are used interchangeably; however, corruption generally
involves violating the policing role for the purposes of per-
sonal gain and misconduct refers to breaking internal pol-
icies and procedures (Porter and Warrender, 2009).
Corresponding author:
Fay Sweeting, Department of Psychology, Faculty of Science and
Technology, Bournemouth University, Talbot Campus, Poole, BH12 5BB,
UK.
Email: fsweeting@bournemouth.ac.uk
Original Research Article
International Journal of
Police Science & Management
2023, Vol. 25(4) 368–378
© The Author(s) 2023
Article reuse guidelines:
sagepub.com/journals-permissions
DOI: 10.1177/14613557231173509
journals.sagepub.com/home/psm
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