Police use of force: a transactional approach

Drawing on Tedeschi and Felson’s () theory of coercive actions for conceptual guidance as well as principles underlying the notion of a force continuum structure (i.e., proportionality and incrementalism), this research examines 3,544 police–suspect encounters from an observational study of the police in an attempt to better understand the transactional process of the police–suspect encounter. Results indicate, within the context of a force continuum structure, that officers escalated the level of force in about one of five encounters involving nonresistant suspects, and de‐escalated the level of force in three of four encounters involving resistant suspects. A series of logistic and multinomial regression models show that a number of factors differentially affect the manner in which officers apply force. The results suggest that before one can begin to judge the appropriateness of police force, one should measure and consider the extent to which force is applied proportionately and incrementally.     

Striking Out: Race and Support for Police Use of Force

This research examines whites’ and blacks’ support for police use of force using a survey‐based experiment that varies the race of the offender across four different scenarios. Bivariate results show that the race of the offender influences blacks’ approval for the use of force by police, but does not affect whites’ approval. Multivariate analyses examine whether the factors influencing support for police use of force vary depending on the race of the offender. Results indicate that the predictors for approval of police use of force differ by the race of respondent, the race of offender, and the appropriateness of the use of force. The implications of the results for police–community relations are discussed.     

Police use of excessive force: Does the race of the suspect influence citizens' perceptions?

Instances of excessive force by police officers, most notably the Rodney King incident in Los Angeles and the Malice Green fatality in Detroit, suggest that the race of the suspect may influence the decision to use excessive force. If police practices are simply a reflection of the expectations of larger society, then it follows that citizens' evaluations of police brutality toward minorities might reflect this sentiment. As part of a larger study focusing on the exploration of police misconduct, a telephone survey containing 16 vignettes was developed, each vignette described a separate type of misconduct in which a hypothetical officer was involved. Of these 16 vignettes, 3 described the misconduct of excessive force and are analyzed for the present study. A random sample of 992 Ohio citizens were surveyed. The hypothesis that citizens in general assign significantly lower seriousness scores to excessive force on African Americans and Hispanics than on whites was tested. Our hypothesis was not supported. Instead, we found evidence to suggest that the behavior of the suspect during the arrest and the behavior of the police officer are much more significant correlates of citizens' perceptions of police use of excessive force than is the race of the suspect.     

The effects of supervisor education and training on police use of force

Police supervisors play a critical role in preventing unreasonable use of force. Despite their importance, only a few studies have examined the influences of supervisors on their subordinates’ daily practices, especially on their uses of police force. To bridge this gap, the current study explored the relationship between supervisors’ education level and use of force training and subordinate officers’ use of force practices. Using police use of force reports from 2004 to 2007 in a single urban police department, the current study examined how supervisor education and training impact on police use-of-force and found both highly educated and trained supervisors moderate their subordinate officers’ uses of higher levels of force.     

Advancing police use of force research and practice: urgent issues and prospects

Leading police scholars and practitioners were asked to reflect on the most urgent issues that need to be addressed on the topic of use of force. Four themes emerged from their contributions: use of force and de-escalation training needs to improve and be evaluated; new ways of conceptualizing use of force encounters and better use of force response models need to be developed; the inequitable application of force, and how to remediate biases, needs to be more fully understood; and misconceptions about police use of force need to be identified and corrected. The highlighted topics serve as an agenda for future research. Such research should provide greater insight into when, where, and why force is used by police officers, and how it can be applied appropriately. If implemented, the practical recommendations included in the contributions should have a positive impact on police performance, public trust and confidence in the police, and citizen and officer safety.     

中国警察使用武器的法定要件及规则

中国警察武力法规定了警察使用武器的主体要件、客体要件、主观要件和客观要件,且每一要件均包涵一些特定规则。人民警察只有全面、准确、深刻地理解这些要件和规则,才能把握使用武器的特定内涵,才能严格做到依法使用武器。     

Women Police Officers and the Use of Coercion

Abstract

Despite numerous advances in the last thirty years, women police officers continue to face acceptance issues in a male-dominated occupation. Qualitative accounts of policewomen have noted that many of the integration barriers stem from traditional assumptions about police work, much of which revolves around the cultural mandate to display one's coercive authority over citizens. Female officers are often perceived as unwilling (or lacking in ability) to use coercion when encountering citizens. Unfortunately, little empirical evidence is available to support this claim, as gender studies that specifically examine the use of coercion have tended to focus on excessive force. Using data collected as part of a systematic social observation study in Indianapolis, Indiana, and St. Petersburg, Florida, this research examines both verbal and physical coercion that policewomen use in day-to-day encounters with citizens. The results of this study challenge one of the most fundamental stereotypes levied against women police officers. Contrary to traditional assumptions, female police officers (compared to their male counterparts) are not reluctant to use coercive force, and examinations of both verbal and physical force reveal few differences in not only the prevalence of each behavior, but also in the commonly associated explanatory factors. The article concludes with the implications of these     

影响警察武力使用的若干因素

警察武力使用是警察进行自我防护与打击制服罪犯或犯罪嫌疑人的重要手段。法律、技战术、心理以及装备等因素都对警察武力使用有影响,应提高警察武力使用的水平,增强警察武力使用的效果,使警察在执法实践中能依法、及时、有效地使用武力,确保自身安全,顺利完成职责任务。     

Justifying violence: legitimacy,ideology and public support for police use of force

Under what conditions do people support police use of force? In this paper we assess some of the empirical links between police legitimacy, political ideology (right-wing authoritarianism and social dominance orientation), and support for ‘reasonable’ use of force (e.g. an officer striking a citizen in self-defence) and ‘excessive’ use of force (e.g. an officer using violence to arrest an unarmed person who is not offering violent resistance). Analysing data from an online survey with US participants (n?=?186) we find that legitimacy is a positive predictor of reasonable but not excessive police use of force, and that political ideology predicts support for excessive but not reasonable use of force. We conclude with the idea that legitimacy places normative constraints around police power. On the one hand, legitimacy is associated with increased support for the use of force, but only when violence is bounded within certain acceptable limits. On the other hand, excessive use of force seems to require an extra-legal justification that is – at least in our analysis – partly ideological. Our findings open up a new direction of research in what is currently a rather sparse psychological literature on the ability of legitimacy to ‘tame’ coercive power.     

香港警队枪械训练对内地警察武器使用训练的启示

依法使用武器是法律赋予警察的权力，是维护社会治安、惩治违法犯罪、保护人民群众和警察生命安全的有力武器。而警察武器使用的训练是一个技能与法律法规密切结合的实战训练，也是一个不断发现问题和解决问题，熟能生巧的、有制度的、严格规范的、长期的、永恒的训练过程。香港警队的警务实战训练代表了世界最先进、最科学、最实用的训练水平，他们的枪械训练为内地警察武器使用的训练提供了很好的训练思路和训练方向。在目前形势下，我们应借鉴香港警队先进的训练理念和训练模式，开拓我们的思路，促使我们的警察武器使用训练发生质的变化，走上一个崭新的台阶，使训练与实际执法真正的结合起来。     

The malleability of attitudes toward the police: immediate effects of the viewing of police use of force videos

Purpose: To examine whether videos of controversial police interventions shape individual opinion and, consequently, if attitudes towards use of force are malleable in the short-term. Methodology: A self-administered survey was conducted among 248 undergraduate students as part of a larger project on attitudes towards police use of force. Two groups of respondents were asked general questions about the police: one group was shown fictional videos of controversial police interventions just prior to completing the questionnaire; the other was not. Findings: Results strongly suggest that videos of police interventions have significant effects on reported opinions about use of force: the group that watched the videos was more likely to report that the police frequently use force. Implications: The wide distribution of images by police organizations might have unexpected adverse effects on public attitudes.     

Correctional officers and the use of force as an organizational behavior

During the past 30 years, bureaucratic managerialism has reshaped how prison staff maintain order. Policies and graduated disciplinary models have replaced coercive methods, reducing disciplinary use of force by prison staff against incarcerated people. Managerialism, however, disguises deep problems in the interpretation and enforcement of use-of-force policies. Drawing on 131 semistructured interviews with Canadian correctional officers (COs), I show how managers and prison staff interpret and negotiate policies to justify using force to maintain order. Although COs frame policies and management supervision as significant checks on their actions, they also suggest that inconsistencies in policy interpretation and implementation facilitate certain kinds of use-of-force decisions, which I define as “construction” and “outsourcing.” I conclude by discussing the broader organizational implications of these findings.     

Police shooting and criminal homicide: The temporal relationship

This study examines the temporal relationship between the incidence of police shooting and the incidence of criminal homicide for New York City between 1971 and 1975. The research finds that there is no temporal relation between the incidence of police shooting and the incidence of criminal homicide and concludes that the very strong and widely supported cross-sectional correlation between police shooting and criminal homicide is spurious, not causal.     

Women Police

Abstract

This study investigated the use of force by and against women police officers using survey data from a large sample of female and male officers in six departments. Results suggested that female officers and same-gender female-female officer pairs used less force, and were less likely to use physical force, in police-citizen encounters when compared to their male counterparts. There was no evidence supporting the proposition that citizens used less force against female officers compared with male officers. In fact, the findings indicated that citizens used significantly more force against female officers relative to male officers in domestic calls. Although female officers were more likely to engage in underpredicted policing; that is, use less force than the situation would normally dictate, underpredicted policing was not related to an increase in the likelihood of officer injury. Implications for women officers, police use of force, and the institution of policing are discussed.     

警察武力之善法良治——论警察武力法的正义价值标准

警察武力法的正义价值标准由标示正义价值方向的基本理念和标示正义价值尺度的基本原则两项基本要件分级承担并贯彻。中国警察武力法有:社会正义与法律正义有机统一、保权与控权有机统一和价值、规范、事实有机统一三个居位"法上之法"的基本理念和危害行为与武力行为法定、危害行为与武力行为相当、武力行为克减和多样化和正当程序四个居位"法上之法"的基本原则。上述基本理念和基本原则,对系统理解、把握中国警察使用武力的基本原则和构成要件、各种规范的内在关连性,以及构思未来的、"应然"的中国警察武力立法具有不可或缺的重要意义。     

Perceptions About Changing the MirandaWarnings Among Police Chiefs

Abstract

A number of studies have considered whether the race of a police officer influences police decision-making processes. The current study assesses whether a police chief's race influences perceptions about the Mirandawarnings. Police chiefs from the Commonwealth of Virginia completed questionnaires assessing various aspects about the Mirandawarnings when the fate of the warnings was to be determined by the Supreme Court. Results suggest that race only moderately influenced chiefs' perceptions. Implications are provided.     

Situational factors and police use of force across micro-time intervals: A video systematic social observation and panel regression analysis

The current study analyzes police use of force as a series of time-bound transactions between officers, civilians, and bystanders. The research begins with a systematic social observation of use-of-force events recorded on police body-worn cameras in Newark, New Jersey. Researchers measure the occurrence and time stamps for numerous participant physical and verbal behaviors. Data are converted into a longitudinal panel format measuring all observed behaviors in 5-second intervals. Panel logistic regression models estimate the effect of each behavior on use of force in immediate and subsequent temporal periods. Findings indicate certain variables influence use of force at a distinct point in time, whereas others exert influence on use of force across multiple time periods. The most influential variables relate to authority maintenance theoretical constructs. This finding supports prior perspectives arguing that police use of force largely results from officer attempts to maintain constant authority over civilians during face-to-face encounters. Nonetheless, a range of additional variables reflecting procedural justice, civilian resistance, and bystander presence significantly affect when police use force during civilian encounters. Results provide nuance to theoretical frameworks considering use of force as resulting from the interplay between officer and civilian actions and reactions.     

Ensuring the validity of police use of force training

This research examined the skills and abilities required of officers to effectively manage situations where the use of force may be required. The research also considered the nature of training required to facilitate the development of these skills/abilities. Seventy Western Australia Police officers participated in focus groups. Identified skills/abilities fell into seven categories: Aware, Assess, Approach, Act, Automatic, Appraise and Adapt. With regard to developing proficiency in these skills, officers emphasised the importance of relevant, applied and dynamic training, debriefing and the use of scenarios/role plays. The research highlights the need to change the scope of annual refresher training from the appropriate and effective application of force to the effective management of situations in which the use of force may be required, in their entirety. Findings also highlight the need to change the focus of training from performance and assessment to continued skill development (i.e. practice and learning).