Excessive force in law enforcement and civilian interactions

¶ … Excessive Force

Since September of 2011, "federal prosecutors are targeting a rising number of law enforcement officers for alleged brutality" (Johnson, 2007). Statistics report that there have been increases in "cases in which police, prison guards and other law enforcement authorities have used excessive force or other tactics to violate victim's civil rights," estimates put it at approximately 25% (Johnson, 2007). Given the increase in excessive force by police, it inevitably leads to the question: why is this happening?

Excessive force is a concept that does not have a concrete definition; but there are some levels of force by cops that are thought to be excessive based on the circumstances that they are confronted with. "Excessive force," according to ABC news, is a "slippery metaphor" and "experts say it's any force beyond what's necessary to arrest a suspect and keep police and bystanders safe" (Segan, 2011). From 1994 to 1998, there have been 147,362 incidence of police related force according to a project manager for the National Police Use of Force Database Project (Segan, 2011). Though, the Human Right Watch group reports that there have been approximately 12,000 complaints a year of law enforcement abuse (Segan, 2011). As attention is being drawn to the excessive force incidents, society is being increasingly alarmed at the violations it poses to their civil rights.

Statement of problem

The issue that needs to be researched are the factors that are involved with the increased police brutality in recent years.

Significance

Law enforcement is responsible for exactly that, to enforce the law; but, they are also to be used to protect citizens and still maintain their human rights. With the increase in excessive force by police, it is important to explore the factors that surround why there has been an increase in police brutality and to potentially gain insight into what can be done to combat it and keep the excessive force incidents at bay. Excessive force in modern day society is not acceptable by law or by the basic human rights that our society has progressed too.

Limitations

In attempting to find out what factors and variables are contributing to the increase in excessive force, the desire to know everything about each encounter and the police officers and victims involved is seemingly impossible. There are great limitations when it comes to drawing out individual details of how and why a certain situation escalated to the level in which it did. There are a myriad of different factors that are in play at any given time, and to find out which each one is and the level of influence that they had over a given situation will be seemingly impossible. Furthermore, in evaluating past excessive force situations, there will be great limitations on what was recorded about personal situations of the victims and the law enforcement individuals that were involved in each incident.

Review of Literature

(Provide Literature), review that supports ideals

There are a myriad of different accounts from newspapers and magazine that will help illuminate individual variables and factors, which will help contribute to the existing patterns of thought and frameworks that have been already developed by scholars that have delved in the issue of excessive force. For instance, there was a study examining the role of police psychologists in the effort to control police use of excessive force. The study identified "functions of psychologists that had relevance to officers' mental health, specifically their use of excessive force, and presented their recommendations on how best to predict, remedy and prevent excessive force" (Scrivner, 1994). It is with pieces of research and past studies that conclusions will be able to be drawn and further contribute to putting together all the pieces and variables that come to answering the question of why there have been more incidence of excessive force.

Restate purpose of review

The purpose of reviewing already present material including various studies and research is to attempt to fill in the gaps in the conclusions that have already been drawn. Being able to gain more insight into this topic.

Methods, Describe design, Data collected