NCJ Number
237176
Date Published
November 2011
Length
16 pages
Annotation
This study examined police decisionmaking in the use of force.
Abstract
Over the past 50 years the study of officer use of force has moved from qualitative assessments of officer behaviors to complex quantitative studies using advanced statistical techniques to parcel out the influence of a host of explanatory variables. Further, these studies have moved beyond examining simple force dichotomies (i.e., such as force, no force) to assessments of officer decisions to use both physical and non-physical forms of force and coercion. Most recent studies use data collected as part of the Project on Policing Neighborhoods (POPN). We report findings using observational data collected as part of the Cincinnati Observation Study. This study makes two important contributions to the literature. First, whether certain variables were significant depends partially on the statistical technique used to estimate models. Second, a substantial number of explanatory variables were significant irrespective of the technique used and were consistent with the findings from POPN studies on the use of force. Confidence in the importance of these variables for explaining police use of force is discussed. (Published Abstract)
Date Published: November 1, 2011
Downloads
Similar Publications
- Effects of Correctional Body-Worn Cameras on Responses to Resistance: A Randomized Controlled Trial in a Jail Setting
- Some Characteristics of Larceny by Coercion in the Republic of Croatia and Police Routine
- Sharing the Views: Line Officers and Supervisor Evaluation of Police Corruption Seriousness in Bosnia and Herzegovina (From Policing in Central and Eastern Europe: Dilemmas of Contemporary Criminal Justice, P 312-322, 2004, Gorazd Mesko, et al., eds. -- S