Social bonds and police misconduct An examination of social control theory and its relationship to workplace deviance among police supervisors

Purpose - The purpose of this paper is to examine the relationship between social control (adult social bonds) and police misconduct. Design/methodology/approach - Multiple regression methods are used to analyze survey data from a sample of 101 first-line police supervisors. A consequence-based measure is used to capture social bonds and workplace deviance is measured as the self-reported likelihood of future misconduct. Findings - Police supervisors reported varying likelihoods of future workplace deviance across four acts of misconduct. Social control was found to be negatively related to three of the four acts, which provides general support for the theory and study hypothesis. Practical implications - The results are discussed in terms of research and policy implications. Originality/value - Acknowledging important gaps in the literature, this study explores the validity of social control theory for explaining police misconduct.