Suspect Mental Disorder and Police Use of Force

Citation

Donner, C.M. (2012), "Suspect Mental Disorder and Police Use of Force", Policing: An International Journal, Vol. 35 No. 2. https://doi.org/10.1108/pijpsm.2012.18135baa.005

Suspect Mental Disorder and Police Use of Force

Suspect Mental Disorder and Police Use of Force

Article Type: Perspectives on policing From: Policing: An International Journal of Police Strategies & Management, Volume 35, Issue 2

Richard Johnson,Criminal Justice and Behavior,Vol. 38, Issue 2,2011,pp. 127-145

This study focused on the criminalization hypothesis, which suggests that mental illness is a quasi-criminal factor, and as a result, agents of the criminal justice system may differentially apply coercive tactics to this population. The author notes that mentally disordered persons make up less than 5 percent of the US population, but that approximately 16 percent of those in jail and prison are mentally disordered. This overrepresentation of incarcerated mentally disordered persons suggests that the police may routinely use the coercive action of arrest to deal with the unusual behaviors of mentally disordered persons. Some recent research has tested, and rejected, this perspective regarding arrest decisions, but the present study investigated the most coercive form of police authority, the use of force. The study investigated whether mentally disordered suspects were more likely than non-disordered suspects to receive physical force from the police.

The author uses officer self-report data from two municipal law enforcement agencies. The data were collected from the police departments in Eugene and Springfield, Oregon, and center on police officer interactions with 619 criminal suspects during April 1995. The dependent variable, use of force, used in this study was a two-fold measure of use of force: a measure of any force and a measure of only serious force. The measure of any force included any physical touching with the exception of searches or handcuffing. The serious-force measure included any officer physical action involving a strike (e.g. kick or punch) or a weapon (e.g. baton, pepper spray, Taser, flashlight, firearm). The primary independent variable of interest was whether the reporting officer perceived that the suspect suffered from a mental disorder by indicating whether or not he/she perceived the suspect’s mental state was “mentally unstable.” Although this measure relied on the officers’ perceptions, the study was trying to determine whether officers behaved differently when they perceived the suspect to be mentally disordered.

This study yielded interesting results. Regarding any use of force, the author found that mentally unstable suspects were significantly less likely than mentally stable suspects to receive force. The findings for serious uses of force, however, were reversed. Mentally unstable suspects were significantly more likely to have received serious than mentally stable suspects. However, after controlling for common individual and situational level correlates of use of force suspect mental instability was no longer significantly correlated with any of the forms of force evaluated here. Finally, all suspects (mentally unstable or not) who physically resisted officers, possessed a weapon, and displayed a hostile demeanor were significantly more likely to receive force compared to suspects who did not have these characteristics.

The results underscore the importance of the availability of community mental health resources to assist law enforcement officers in the field. The author suggests that municipalities should increase police training to deal with mentally disordered individuals, develop specialized units or teams of officers intended to deal with mentally disordered people in crisis, and improve access to community mental health resources.

Christopher M. DonnerUniversity of South Florida, Tampa, FL, USA