Lay evaluations of police and civilian use of force: Action severity scales.

Celestin, Bradley D.; Kruschke, John K.

doi:10.1037/lhb0000333

Cited by 18 publications

(23 citation statements)

References 44 publications

(62 reference statements)

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“…This gap is somewhat surprising as proposed methods of evaluating the reasonableness of a given use-of-force incident are based mainly on the ordinal assumptions within use-of-force continua (Alpert & Dunham, 1999, 2004; Alpert & Smith, 1994; Bazley et al, 2007; Garner et al, 1995; Hickman et al, 2015; Hine et al, 2018). Our analysis suggests that these ordinal assumptions are not met and that “in actuality [force continua] are ordered categories that do not contain information about the distance between levels of force nor about differences within categories” (Celestin & Kruschke, 2019, p. 291). If the conceptualized “rankings” of force within these continua are having adverse effects, essential policy questions arise.…”

Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

“…While utilization of the force factor has shown promise and proven beneficial to police agencies and researchers alike (Hickman et al, 2015), its measure is derived by explicitly arranging types of force and levels of resistance along an ordinal scale (Bazley et al, 2007). That is, much like use-of-force continua, the method assumes “a clear and uncontested assignment of actions” to ordinal severity levels (Celestin & Kruschke, 2019, p. 291). We submit this assumption to empirical testing and investigate the ordinal ranking of less-lethal force categories.…”

Section: Use-of-force Continuamentioning

confidence: 99%

See 1 more Smart Citation

Challenging the Ordinality of Police Use-of-Force Policy

Mourtgos

Adams

Baty

2021

Criminal Justice Policy Review

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Most use-of-force policies utilized by U.S. police agencies make fundamental ordinal assumptions about officers’ force responses to subject resistance. These policies consist of varying levels of force and resistance along an ordinally ranked continuum of severity. We empirically tested the ordinal assumptions that are ubiquitous to police use-of-force continua within the United States using 1 year’s use-of-force data from a municipal police department. Applying a quantitative technique known as categorical regression with optimal scaling, we found the assumptions of ordinality within the studied department’s use-of-force continuum (which is similar to many police use-of-force continua within the United States) are not met. Specifying physical force as a “lower” force option than less-lethal tools is associated with increased officer injury and decreased subject injury. Our findings call into question use-of-force continua featuring ordinal rankings for varying categories of less-lethal force.

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Section: Discussionmentioning

confidence: 95%

Section: Use-of-force Continuamentioning

confidence: 99%

Challenging the Ordinality of Police Use-of-Force Policy

Mourtgos

Adams

Baty

2021

Criminal Justice Policy Review

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“…To test our hypotheses, we embedded an experiment in an online survey that was administered to a nationwide sample of adult U.S. citizens ( N = 1068) between April 15, 2020 and April 19, 2020. Researchers now use online samples regularly to examine public attitudes toward the police (Celestin & Kruschke, 2019; Hamm, Trinkner, & Carr, 2017; Mummolo, 2018; Pickett, Nix, & Roche, 2018), toward procedural justice (Pedersen, Stritch, & Taggart, 2017; Tyler, Mentovich, & Satyavada, 2014), and toward criminal justice policies (Gerber & Jackson, 2013; Gottlieb, 2017; Silver, 2017; Vaughan, Holleran, & Silver, 2019). Many online samples come from Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) (e.g., Gottlieb, 2017; Hamm et al., 2017; Mummolo, 2018; Silver, 2017), and for good reason.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

What does the public want police to do during pandemics? A national experiment

Nix

Ivanov

Pickett

2021

Criminology & Public Policy

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Research Summary We administered a survey experiment to a national sample of 1068 U.S. adults in April 2020 to determine the factors that shape support for various policing tactics in the midst of the COVID‐19 pandemic. Respondents were sharply divided in their views about pandemic policing tactics and were least supportive of policies that might limit public access to officers or reduce crime deterrence. Information about the health risks to officers, but not to inmates, significantly increased support for “precautionary” policing, but not for “social distance” policing. The information effect was modest, but may be larger if the information came from official sources and/or was communicated on multiple occasions. Other factors that are associated with attitudes toward pandemic policing include perceptions of procedural justice, altruistic fear, racial resentment, and authoritarianism. Policy Implications When considered together with other evidence, one clear takeaway from our study is that the public values police patrols and wants officers on call, even during pandemics. Another is that people who believe the police are procedurally just are more willing to trust officers in times of crisis and to empower them to enforce new laws, such as social distancing ordinances. Our results thus support continued procedural justice training for officers. A third takeaway is that agencies must proactively communicate with the public about the risks their officers face when responding to public health crises or natural disasters, in addition to how they propose to mitigate those risks. They must also be amenable to adjusting in response to community feedback.

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“…To test our hypotheses, we embedded an experiment in an online survey that was administered to a nationwide sample of adult U.S. citizens (N = 1,068) between April 15, 2020 and April 19, 2020. Researchers now use online samples regularly to examine public attitudes toward the police (Celestin & Kruschke, 2019;Hamm et al, 2017;Mummolo, 2018;Pickett et al, 2018), toward procedural justice (Pedersen et al, 2017;, and toward criminal justice policies (Gerber & Jackson, 2013;Gottlieb, 2017;Silver, 2017;Vaughan et al, 2019). Many online samples come from Amazon's Mechanical Turk (MTurk) (e.g., Gottlieb, 2017;Hamm et al, 2017;Mummolo, 2018;Silver, 2017), and for good reason.…”

Section: Methodsmentioning

confidence: 99%

What Does the Public Want Police to Do During Pandemics? A National Experiment

2021

View full text Add to dashboard Cite

We administered a survey experiment to a national sample of 1,068 US adults in April 2020 to determine the factors that shape support for various policing tactics in the midst of the COVID-19 pandemic. Respondents were sharply divided in their views about pandemic policing tactics, and were least supportive of policies that might limit public access to officers or reduce crime deterrence. Information about the health risks to officers, but not to inmates, significantly increased support for "precautionary" policing, but not for "social distance" policing. The information effect was modest, but may be larger if the information came from official sources and/or was communicated on multiple occasions. Other factors that are associated with attitudes toward pandemic policing include perceptions of procedural justice, altruistic fear, racial resentment, and authoritarianism. Policy Implications: When considered together with other evidence, one clear takeaway from our study is that the public values police patrols and wants officers on call, even during pandemics. Another is that people who believe the police are procedurally just are more willing to trust officers in times of crisis and to empower them to enforce new laws, such as social distancing ordinances. Our results thus support continued procedural justice training for officers. A third takeaway is that agencies must proactively communicate with the public about the risks their officers face when responding to public health crises or natural disasters, in addition to how they propose to mitigate those risks. They must also be amenable to adjusting in response to community feedback.

show abstract

Lay evaluations of police and civilian use of force: Action severity scales.

Cited by 18 publications

References 44 publications

Challenging the Ordinality of Police Use-of-Force Policy

Challenging the Ordinality of Police Use-of-Force Policy

What does the public want police to do during pandemics? A national experiment

What Does the Public Want Police to Do During Pandemics? A National Experiment

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