Definition of abuse of power
Miscellanea / / July 04, 2021
By Florencia Ucha, in Mar. 2011
The abuse implies the excessive, improper, unfair and improper use of something or someone, while the can It is the domain, the power or the jurisdiction that someone has to command, or, failing that, carry out any action or activity.
An authority makes use of the power it holds and forces a subordinate to do things that do not correspond to his tasks under threat of punishing him or depriving him of something
So, we are in a position to talk about abuse of power or abuse of authoritywhen an authority, superior or leader exceeds the exercise of their functions by demanding from a subordinate, based on threats such as the loss of employment or any other benefit, performing certain actions or activities that are not among those that should develop.
That is, it coerces you to do them because otherwise you will lose your job or the enjoyment of certain licenses you have.
One of the most common forms of this type of abuse occurs at the request of the power precisely, when a person agrees to a position of importance that allows you to make certain decisions and dispose of others, it is common for you to use that influence and power that your position gives you to subdue your subordinates and force them to carry out certain activities with the mission of satisfying their personal interests and that have nothing to do with the functions for which they were hired.
This type of abuse always occurs between two people who are located in different places in relation to the hierarchy.
That is, the boss abuses his subordinate, the public authority executes the same action against those who They are in an inferior position because they do not have the power that gives them the position they occupy, among others examples.
It occurs in contexts such as politics, work and family
Meanwhile, the abuse of power or authority occurs in various contexts, in the workplace, in the politics, and in families.
Now, whatever the context, the coincidence is that whoever holds power shows the himself to subdue those who are in inferior conditions and thus achieve the objectives proposed.
Various mechanisms are used, but the most common are the threat physical, verbal, and of course violence physical.
The latter can often have a tragic trigger with the death of the subordinate.
In politics it is an action that is commonly seen when an authority threatens someone from the opposition with arresting him if he does not cease his denunciations.
And in families, likewise, abuse of authority is common, for example, from a father to a son, the father punishes him if he gets a bad note, and also between spouses, especially this situation occurs when one of the two is weaker than the other and has an attitude submissive; are usually the cases of many women who endure violence of all kinds because they do not have resources to leave their husbands.
This last type of abuse is known today as gender violence and we must say that it has been increasing in recent times not only in the number of cases but also in the level of violence.
For example, in many countries of the world the crime of murder of the female spouse has been classified as femicide, sentencing those who are found to have committed it to life imprisonment.
It turns out to be quite frequent that some individuals who work in the forces of safety of a Nation incur in abuse of power, especially when they exceed the use of violence and the attributions that correspond to them.
Some clear examples of abuse of power by public security forces are: when an individual is detained without justification any and without a court order authorizing it to do so, when an arrested individual is beaten to confess a crime in which it is believed is involved, or when they do not allow a detainee to communicate with a lawyer to defend himself against what he is accused of, among others possibilities.
The abuse of power is an undesirable behavior that is criminally classified as a crime in most of the laws of the world and that as such has a punishment 'for the one who exercises it.
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