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1 – 10 of over 22000Ronald J. Burke and Aslaug Mikkelsen
Although many studies have considered burnout in the human services, little research on burnout has focused on police officers. This study aims to examine the relationship between…
Abstract
Purpose
Although many studies have considered burnout in the human services, little research on burnout has focused on police officers. This study aims to examine the relationship between burnout and police officers' attitudes towards the use of force and attitudes towards the use of social skills to solve problems.
Design/methodology/approach
Data were collected from 766 police officers in Norway using anonymously completed questionnaires.
Findings
Police officers reporting higher levels of cynicism also held more favorable attitudes towards the use of force; police officers reporting higher levels of professional efficacy also held more favorable attitudes towards the use of social skills to solve problems.
Research limitations/implications
Future research needs to examine these findings in other countries and using longitudinal research designs.
Practical implications
Organizations are advised to monitor burnout levels of front‐line service workers and introduce structures and processes to reduce burnout levels.
Originality/value
This study has value for senior police management and employment counselors.
In this study we set out to explain police support for the use of force, police response to a vignette about force, and police self-reported use of force.
Abstract
Purpose
In this study we set out to explain police support for the use of force, police response to a vignette about force, and police self-reported use of force.
Methodology/approach
The computer-assisted survey was conducted among 419 officers of the Metropolitana police department in Buenos Aires, Argentina.
Findings
The regression analyses show that a substantial part of how officers view force, and the reported frequency of their own use of force, can be explained through demographic characteristics, organizational features, attitudes toward citizens, and personal experience.
Originality/value
This study was conducted in a region where excessive police use of force is unfortunately a continuing concern. Based on the results we advise police organizations to tackle this issue by investing in improving police attitudes toward both internal and external relations. We also recommend prohibiting officers to carry the regulatory gun while off duty, in order to reduce deaths of both civilians and officers.
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Dae-Young Kim and Scott W. Phillips
The present study examines the risk of citizens encountering police use of intermediate and deadly force, as opposed to using physical force, given a set of individual…
Abstract
Purpose
The present study examines the risk of citizens encountering police use of intermediate and deadly force, as opposed to using physical force, given a set of individual, situational and neighborhood variables.
Design/methodology/approach
The study uses data from 2003 to 2016 in the Dallas Open Data Portal. Two-level multinomial logistic regression is used to analyze the data.
Findings
The effects of citizen race differ across the types of police force. Overall, citizen race plays no significant role in the officer's decision to shoot firearms at citizens. However, there is evidence of intra-racial disparity in officer-involved shootings (OISs) between Hispanic citizens and officers. African American citizens are disproportionately exposed to display-but-don't shoot incidents, while Hispanic citizens have a lower risk of encountering police use of intermediate weapons.
Originality/value
The study helps to understand how citizen and officer race influence and interact across various types of police force. Implications of the results are offered in relation to relevant literature.
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John C. Navarro and Michael A. Hansen
The purpose of this study is to explore the ideological gaps on police use of force.
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this study is to explore the ideological gaps on police use of force.
Design/methodology/approach
In a national-level survey distributed via Mechanical Turk (MTurk) (n = 979), the authors explore the role that respondents' political ideology plays in the approval of police use of force across a range of scenarios.
Findings
Across all scenarios, self-identified conservative respondents maintain strong approval of police use of force. In comparison, liberal respondents provide more variance in their views on approval of police use of force based on the scenario. The scenarios where there are small gaps in approval between the two ideologies are when reasonable force is used toward a violent threat.
Social implications
There are specific circumstances where the messaging surrounding use of force can create agreement (reasonable) or disagreement (excessive) among conservatives and liberals.
Originality/value
Conservatives and liberals demonstrate gaps across an even larger set of use of force scenarios.
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William Terrill, Fredrik H. Leinfelt and Dae‐Hoon Kwak
This research seeks to examine police use of force from a smaller police agency perspective in comparison with what is known from previous research using data from larger‐scale…
Abstract
Purpose
This research seeks to examine police use of force from a smaller police agency perspective in comparison with what is known from previous research using data from larger‐scale agencies.
Design/methodology/approach
Using police use of force reports involving arrests (n=3,264) over a three‐year period (2002‐2004) from a small police agency located in the upper‐Midwest, this study utilizes descriptive and multivariate analyses to examine how and why officers use force.
Findings
While officers resorted to physical force (beyond handcuffing) in 18 percent of the arrest encounters, the majority of force is located at the lower end of the force continuum (e.g. soft hand control). However, unlike officer behavior, much of the resistant behavior displayed by suspects is toward the upper end of the spectrum (e.g. defensive/active). The results also indicate that the most powerful predictor of force is the presence and level of suspect resistance presented to officers. These findings are placed within the context of prior work.
Research limitations/implications
Since the current study relies on official data from a single police agency, the findings come with caution in terms of generalizability.
Originality/value
This study contributes to the literature on police use of force by examining everyday force usage in a small police department.
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Alexis Rain Rockwell, Stephen A. Bishopp and Erin A. Orrick
The current study examines the effect of changing a specific use-of-force policy coupled with de-escalation training implementation on patterns of police use of force.
Abstract
Purpose
The current study examines the effect of changing a specific use-of-force policy coupled with de-escalation training implementation on patterns of police use of force.
Design/methodology/approach
An interrupted time-series analysis was used to examine changes in police use-of-force incident records gathered from a large, southwestern US metropolitan police department from 2013 to 2017 based on a TASER policy change and de-escalation training implementation mid-2015.
Findings
Results demonstrate that changes to use-of-force policy regarding one type of force (i.e. use of TASERs) coinciding with de-escalation training influence the prevalence of use-of-force incidents by increasing the reported police use-of-force incidents after the changes were implemented. This finding is somewhat consistent with prior literature but not always in the desired direction.
Practical implications
When police departments make adjustments to use-of-force policies and/or trainings, unintended consequences may occur. Police administrators should measure policy and training outcomes under an evidence-based policing paradigm prior to making those adjustments.
Originality/value
This study is the first to measure the effects of changing use-of-force policy and implementing de-escalation techniques in training on patterns of police use of force and shows that these changes can have a ripple effect across types of force used by police officers.
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Dae-Young Kim, Scott W. Phillips and Stephen A. Bishopp
The present study examines a range of police force on the continuum (firearms, TASER/chemical spray and physical force) to see whether they are associated with individual (subject…
Abstract
Purpose
The present study examines a range of police force on the continuum (firearms, TASER/chemical spray and physical force) to see whether they are associated with individual (subject and officer), situational and/or neighborhood factors.
Design/methodology/approach
A partial proportional odds model is used to analyze police use of force data from 2003 to 2016 in Dallas. Independent variables are allowed for varying effects across the different cumulative dichotomizations of the dependent variable (firearms vs TASER/chemical spray and physical force and firearms and TASER/chemical spray vs physical force).
Findings
Most officer demographic and situational factors are consistently significant across the cumulative dichotomizations of police force. In addition, suspect race/ethnicity (Hispanic) and violent crime rates play significant roles when officers make decisions to use firearms, as opposed to TASER/chemical spray and physical force. Overall, situational variables (subject gun possession and contact types) play greater roles than other variables in affecting police use of force.
Originality/value
Despite the large body of police use of force research, little to no research has used the partial proportional odds model to examine the ordinal nature of police force from physical to intermediate to deadly force. The current findings can provide important implications for policy and research.
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Hoon Lee, Hyunseok Jang, Ilhong Yun, Hyeyoung Lim and David W. Tushaus
The purpose of this paper is to examine police use of force using individual, contextual, and police training factors, expanding prior research by including multiple police…
Abstract
Purpose
The purpose of this paper is to examine police use of force using individual, contextual, and police training factors, expanding prior research by including multiple police agencies in the sample, thus producing research findings that can be more easily generalized.
Design/methodology/approach
The data for the current study were derived from several primary sources: the Interuniversity Consortium for Political and Social Research (ICPSR). Census, Uniform Crime Reports (UCR), Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS), and 1997 Law Enforcement Management and Administrative Statistics (LEMAS).
Findings
Among individual level variables, age and arrestee's resistance were significant explanatory factors. Violent crime rate and unemployment rate were significant factors as the neighborhood contextual variables. Finally, in‐service training was a significant organizational‐level explanatory factor for levels of police use of force.
Originality/value
The paper bridges the gap in research between contextual factors and police use of force. It also deepens our understandings of the association between organizational factors and use of force by incorporating police training into the analytical model.
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This article explores the nature and extent of police power to use deadly force within the context of the meaning of the rule of law in a liberal democracy. It is argued that the…
Abstract
This article explores the nature and extent of police power to use deadly force within the context of the meaning of the rule of law in a liberal democracy. It is argued that the rule of law requires the protection of the most fundamental of all human rights ‐ the right to life ‐ and that when the coercive powers of government are exercised arbitrarily and excessively then not only is there a violation of existing legal rules, but the rule of law itself is in jeopardy. The laws governing the use of deadly force by the Guyana Police Force are discussed and incidences of the use of fatal force are evaluated to determine whether Guyana’s Police Force is acting within the meaning of the rule of law. It is concluded that the evidence suggests the continuing failure to comply with the requirements of legality and public accountability under the rule of law.