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Prior empirical research on the police use of force has conceptualized force in tenrs of simple dichotomnies: lethal force vs. nonlethal force, physical force vs. nonphysical force, and excessive force vs. nonexcessive force. The research has numerous measurement and definition problems and typically has used unsystematic samples. Police professionals employ the concept of a continuum of force; this concept addresses the legal requirements and policy preferences that all use of force by police should be proportionate to the amount of force used against themn. This concept has neither been operationalized as a quantifiable measure nor subjected to empirical research to determine the frequency with which officers encounter specific forms and amounts of resistance. This article reports on a pilot effort to develop explicit measures of the nature and extent of force used by and against police officers. These measures are derived fromn specific behaviors and are formuilated to represent traditional notions of physical force as well as contemporary concepts of the continuum of force. In addition, a prototype mneasure that incorporates some metric qualities is presented. These measures are illustrated with data from 1,585 adult custody arrests in Phoenix, Arizona.

Issues and Findings Discussed in this Brief: An analysis of 4,032 incidents in which males assaulted their female intimate partners, comparing the number of repeat offenses when batterers are and are not arrested.

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Research SummaryDespite frequent calls for national data on police use of force, the literature is dominated by unrepresentative samples from a small number of primarily urban jurisdictions, inconsistent definitions of force, and differing universes for the computation of rates. Among 36 publications that report on the amount of nonlethal force used by the police, rates vary from 0.1% to 31.8%. To improve our ability to estimate the amount of nonlethal force in the United States, we employ data from two sources: the Police-Public Contact Survey (PPCS) and the Survey of Inmates in Local Jails (SILJ). Using comparable measures from these surveys, we estimate that the police use or threaten to use force in 1.7% of all contacts and in 20.0% of all arrests. The PPCS accounts for 87% of the total force incidents derived from both surveys. Males, youths, and racial minorities report greater rates of police use of force, but multivariate models highlight the role of potentially provoking behaviors on the likelihood and severity of force. 563 \\server05\productn\C\CPP\7-4\CPP406.txt unknown Seq: 2 29-DEC-08 10:54 564 HICKMAN ET AL. Policy ImplicationsImproved estimates from the combined PPCS-SILJ samples support the proposition that police use force infrequently and at the lower end of the severity scale. Reported amounts of force vary based on respondent race, sex, and age, but greater variation in police use of force is explained by suspect behavior. The combined PPCS-SILJ sample provides a more representative basis for estimating the rate and correlates of nonlethal force. State and local estimates from less representative samples can be interpreted in light of these findings. National estimates could be improved by devoting sufficient resources to support the collection of agency records of both lethal and nonlethal force.