Police Use of Force: Individuals, Situations, and Organizations

Abstract

Police use of force is theoretically important because it involves the execution of perhaps the essential func tion of the state and is practically important because it af fects the public's attitudes and behaviors toward the police and government more generally. Because of its importance, much attention has been devoted to understanding how and why it varies. Three different types of explanation have been advanced: those explaining the use of force in terms of individual characteristics of policemen; those explaining it in terms of the characteristics of the situation in which police meet citizens; and those explaining it in terms of the organiza tion in which police work. But studies up to now have not determined which factors have a genuine influence and how important the various factors are. An analysis of Albert J. Reiss's 1966 observational data, using crosstabulations and multiple regression analysis, finds individual and aggregate relationships so weak that theoretical and methodological re- formulations seem imperative. But the results suggest that many factors commonly thought to affect the use of force have little effect. Only the behavior of the offender and the visibility of the encounter to peers and public emerge as significant influences on police use of force.

Race, Class or Neighborhood Context: Which Matters More in Measuring Satisfaction with Police?

“…As with race, both the sense-of-injustice and the group-position perspectives are appropriate for the explanation of class differences in attitudes toward police. The sense-of-injustice model suggests that working-class people will hold less favorable attitudes toward police than wealthy people because they are more likely to be the subjects of police control actions (Black, 1971;Black & Reiss, 1970;Friedrich, 1980;Reiss, 1971). Black (1976) specifically proposes that police responses to incidents vary, depending upon the location of the citizens in social space as measured by the race, sex, age, and social class of the parties.…”

Police Use Of Excessive Force: A Case Study Of Lethal (Deadly) Force

“…Therefore, officers working in violent areas tend to use force more than necessary. Being in a community where the murder rate is high also affects officers' attitudes toward use of deadly force (Friedrich, 1980;Lester, 1996). The feeling of "expecting the unexpected" creates stress on police officers.…”

“…The feeling of "expecting the unexpected" creates stress on police officers. That is, police officers are more likely use force when the suspect is antagonistic, agitated, or intoxicated; when the offense is a felony, or other citizens are present at the scene (Friedrich, 1980).…”

Police use of force: individualistic, situational, and organizational approach<p>Polisin zor kullanmasi: bireysel, durumsal ve organizasyonel yaklaşım

“…Modern devlet ve güç konularında araştırmalar yapan Albert Reiss'e göre modern toplumların kanunlarında polis sivillere karşı fiziki kuvvet kullanma yetkisine sahip tek güçtür (Monopoly). Teorik açıdan polisin kuvvet kullanma gücünü tam olarak anlayabilmek için onun toplumsal ve politik işlevini anlamak gerekir (Friedrich, 1980 Özgentürk, İ. (2015).…”

“…James Wilson polislerin kişisel karakteristiklerini yaş, cinsiyet ve ırk gibi biyolojik özellikleriyle, iyi adam, kötü adam gibi değerlendirilebilen özellikleriyle, şüpheci, önyargılı ve ayırımcı gibi vatandaşa karşı davranış özellikleriyle, ahlaklı, disiplinli gibi mesleki etik özellikleriyle açıklamaya çalışmıştır. Friedrich (1980) polis memurlarının kendi karakteristik özellikleri dışında polis memurlarının eğitim seviyesi ve mesleki tecrübesi gibi farklılıkların da polisin güç kullanma seviyesine etki edebileceği düşünmektedir.…”