Scandal and Reform: Controlling Police Corruption

Lawrence W. Sherman’s Scandal and Reform reframes corruption not as the failing of individual officers but as an organizational condition rooted in culture, structure, and leadership. Drawing on fieldwork in New York, Oakland, Newburgh, and a pseudonymous “Central City,” Sherman shows how corruption flourishes in deviant organizations and how scandals erupt when breaches of public trust trigger collective outrage. He demonstrates that scandals act as both sanction and catalyst: they topple ...