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.