Just Following Orders: A Meta-Analysis of the Correlates of American Police Officer Use of Force Decisions

2014 ◽  
Vol 40 (3) ◽  
pp. 466-492 ◽  
Author(s):  
P. Colin Bolger
Keyword(s):  
Police Officer ◽  
Meta Analysis ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
American Police

scholarly journals A Simple Solution to Policing Problems: Women!

2016 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 590-597 ◽  
Author(s):  
Mindy E. Bergman ◽  
Jessica M. Walker ◽  
Vanessa A. Jean
Keyword(s):  
United States ◽  
Civil Rights ◽  
Police Officer ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
The United States ◽  
Police Departments ◽  
Civil Rights Act ◽  
Police Organizations ◽  
Female Officers ◽  
Organizational Climates

Ruggs et al. (2016) describe paths through which industrial–organizational (I-O) psychology can make a dent in the ongoing policing problems in the United States. These paths include traditional I-O areas such as improved selection models, increased training, and changed organizational climates. However, there might be one fairly straightforward way in which police organizations can quickly reduce use-of-force problems: women. Because Title VII of the Civil Rights Act prevents selection based on sex, police departments obviously cannot hire women just because they are women. But police departments can and, we argue, should recruit more women to apply for police officer positions, create work practices and experiences that are attractive to and supportive of women (Hassell & Brandl, 2009), and make efforts to retain female officers because of the evidence that female officers use less force when policing (Bolger, 2015). Additionally, police organizations and I-O psychologists should also work together to discover why women are less likely to use force and, subsequently, determine whether these characteristics can be selected or trained for in either sex.

scholarly journals Police use of force: individualistic, situational, and organizational approachPolisin zor kullanmasi: bireysel, durumsal ve organizasyonel yaklaşım

2015 ◽  
Vol 12 (1) ◽  
pp. 1280
Author(s):  
İlyas Özgentürk
Keyword(s):  
Police Officer ◽  
Police Officers ◽  
Complex Structure ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
Fundamental Rights ◽  
Situational Factors ◽  
Institutional Factors ◽  
Police Culture ◽  
Police Use Of Force ◽  
Physical Strength

<p>While ensuring public safety and fighting against criminals the police are given exceptional powers such as the use of force to protect themselves as well as others in the process of fighting criminals. In a democratic society the limits of the use of force given by the state to the police is regulated by law. Misuse of power by the police, regarding humanitarian concerns, in terms of philosophical dilemmas and political implications has great impact on people. Use of force is defined as; use of physical strength and any equipment in increased proportion to neutralize acts of resistance or attack. The power to use of force is a direct intervention to the fundamental rights and freedoms of persons. Therefore, use of excessive force is considered as a direct violation of human rights. There have been numerous researches and studies about Police use of force. However, the complex structure of use of force, and it association with many factors creates a lot of limitations in this area. Therefore, the researchers have systematized the use of force by the police and focused on situational and institutional factors. Individual factors affecting the use of power and force by the police officers are defined as; The age of the police officer, education level and occupational experience. Regarding situational factors the researchers have focused on characteristics like; type of event that the police officer has encountered the public and the characteristics the suspects. Regarding explaining the Institutional factors it is focused on; the affect of the police culture (subculture) and service delivery philosophy of de unit that the officer is working at.</p><p align="left"> </p><p align="left"><strong>Özet</strong></p><p align="left">Kamunun güvenliğini sağlama ve suçlularla mücadele etme görevini yerine getirirken polise hem kendisini hem de başkalarını koruması ve suçlularla mücadele edebilmesi için zor kullanma gibi bir takım istisnai yetkiler verilmiştir.  Demokratik toplumlarda devletin polise vermiş olduğu zor kullanma yetkisinin sınırları hukuk tarafından düzenlenmiştir. Polisin sahip olduğu gücü suiistimal etmesi insani kaygılar, felsefi ikilemler ve politik sonuçlar açısından halk üzerinde büyük etkilere sahiptir. Zor kullanma; direnme ve saldırı karşısında bu fiilleri etkisiz hale getirecek derecede artan nispette bedeni kuvvet her türlü teçhizatı kullanmak şeklinde tanımlanmaktadır. Zor kullanma yetkisi kişilerin temel hak ve özgürlüklerine doğrudan bir müdahaledir.  Bu nedenle zor kullanma yetkisinin aşılması doğrudan insan hakları ihlali sayılmaktadır. Polisin zor kullanması ile ilgili sayısız araştırmalar ve çalışmalar yapılmıştır.  Ancak, zor kullanmanın kompleks yapısı ve  çok çeşitli nedenlerle ilişkili olmasından dolayı bu alanda oldukça fazla sınırlamalar vardır.  Bu nedenle, araştırmacılar polisin kuvvet kullanmasını sistematize ederek bireysel, durumsal ve kurumsal faktörlerin üzerinde durmuşlardır. Polis memurlarının güç ve kuvvet kullanmasını etkileyen bireysel faktörler; polis memurlarının yaşı, eğitim seviyesi, mesleki tecrübesi gibi karakteristikleri üzerinde durulmuştur. Durumsal faktörler; polislerin halk ile karşı karşıya geldikleri olayların cinsi ve şüphelilerin karakteristikleri üzerinde yoğunlaşmıştır. Kurumsal faktörler; polisin memurlarının görev yaptığı polis biriminin kurumsal kültürü ve hizmet anlayışının etkilerini açıklamaya çalışmaktadır.</p>

scholarly journals The logic of the slave patrol: the fantasy of black predatory violence and the use of force by the police

2019 ◽  
Vol 5 (1) ◽  
Author(s):  
Laurence Ralph
Keyword(s):  
Police Officer ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
The United States ◽  
City Government ◽  
Structured Interviews ◽  
Murder Trial ◽  
The Right ◽  
Predatory Violence ◽  
The City

Abstract The background context for this study is the relationship between the right to bear arms and the role of policing in the United States. The fact that the second amendment guarantees the right to bear arms and the correlative right to form “a well-regulated militia” have long been central to the scholarly understanding of the role of guns in American society. Yet few social scientific studies have taken the friction between militias and the burgeoning police departments of the 1800s as a point of departure for present-day debates about the police’s use of force. For the early part of US history, many citizens feared that the police would attempt to supplant militias. In some southern cities, like New Orleans, residents argued that if the city government was going to let the police patrol the city, they should do so without guns. It was the threat of slave uprisings that ended the conflict between militias and the police. A major implication of this study is that rooting the contemporary understanding of police violence in early debates about the police’s use of force can help social scientists better understand how policing is understood and experienced today. Indeed, the African Americans interviewed for this study view the gun in the hands of a police officer as a technology that is rooted in the slave patrol. This is because it is the descendants of enslaved people who are disproportionately subject to police shootings. The article demonstrates this point by exploring a 2014 police shooting. The shooting of Laquan McDonald garnered national attention when, on October 20, 2014, Chicago police Officer, Jason Van Dyke, shot the 17-year-old Black teenager 16 times. The methods employed in this study include: archival data on the early use of force debate, discourse analysis of court testimony from Van Dyke’s 2018 first degree murder trial, and semi-structured interviews with Chicago residents who discuss this case. Ultimately, this study finds that in the McDonald shooting, the gun helps to reproduce the fantasy of Black predatory violence that is rooted in slavery.

Understanding Body-Worn Camera Diffusion in U.S. Policing

2020 ◽  
Vol 23 (3) ◽  
pp. 396-422 ◽  
Author(s):  
Justin Nix ◽  
Natalie Todak ◽  
Brandon Tregle
Keyword(s):  
Diffusion Of Innovations ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
Police Agencies ◽  
Police Executives ◽  
Growing Body ◽  
Municipal Police ◽  
Perceptions Of Police ◽  
American Police ◽  
National Probability Sample ◽  
The Impact

By 2016, approximately one half of American police agencies had adopted body-worn cameras (BWCs). Although a growing body of research has examined the impact of BWCs on outcomes such as use of force, complaints, and perceptions of police, few have considered how and why some agencies adopted BWCs, while others have not. With guidance from the diffusion of innovations paradigm, this study explores variation in BWC adoption by police agencies. Drawing on a survey administered to a national probability sample of 665 municipal police executives in the spring of 2018, we found agency size, region, and the demographic composition of municipalities were associated with BWC usage. We then examined executives’ support for (or opposition to) legislation that would require BWC footage to be released publicly. Results suggest (a) a variety of environmental factors were associated with support and (b) the correlates of support varied across agencies of different sizes.

Gradual escalation of use-of-force reduces police officer injury

2017 ◽  
Vol 24 (1) ◽  
pp. 35-40 ◽  
Author(s):  
Katelyn K Jetelina ◽  
Jennifer M Reingle Gonzalez ◽  
Stephen A Bishopp
Keyword(s):  
Police Officer ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
Reliability And Validity ◽  
Police Department ◽  
Strong Relationship ◽  
Situational Factors ◽  
Future Research ◽  
P Value ◽  
Cross Sectional ◽  
Logistic Regression Models

ObjectiveTo examine how escalation through the force continuum predicts officer injury in the presence of citizen aggression, while controlling for extraneous factors, like citizen and officer characteristics.MethodsCross-sectional data were extracted from 2244 use-of-force reports from the Dallas Police Department in 2015. Multilevel, mixed logistic regression models were used to evaluate the relationship between use of force and officer injury. Multilevel path analysis tested indirect and direct relationships between citizen aggression and officer injury.ResultsResults suggest that gradual escalation through the force continuum significantly decreases officer injury when a citizen is actively aggressive (β=−1.06, p value <0.001). Further, non-Hispanic black officers (β=−0.22, p value <0.001) and Hispanic officers (β=−0.08, p value <0.05) are less likely to gradually escalate through the force continuum, due to lower odds of verbal commands (black: OR=0.51, 95% CI 0.39 to 0.68; Hispanic: OR=0.77, 95% CI 0.60 to 0.99) and hard-empty hand control (black: OR=0.58, 95% CI 0.43 to 0.77) compared with white officers. Finally, officers with higher tenure (β=−0.01, p value <0.001) are less likely to gradually escalate through the force continuum.ConclusionsEscalation through the force continuum significantly reduces police officer injury. Future research should assess whether further environmental or situational factors contribute to the strong relationship between use of force and officer injury. Also, reliability and validity testing of use-of-force reports is an imperative direction for future research.

Korean Police Officer Attitudes Toward the Use of Force

2015 ◽  
Vol 10 (1) ◽  
pp. 7-22 ◽  
Author(s):  
John D. McCluskey ◽  
Byongook Moon ◽  
Sangwon Lee
Keyword(s):  
Police Officer ◽  
Use Of Force ◽  
Officer Attitudes
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