Michigan State University Libraries - Criminal Justice Resources

Criminal Justice Resources :
Police Use of Force

Citizen Complaints About Police Use of Force
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/ccpuf.htm
Presents data about citizen complaints about police use of force and the number of sustained complaints as a measure of police use of excessive force. From the Bureau of Justice Statistics.
(Last checked 02/27/07)

Contacts between Police and the Public: Findings from the 1999 National Survey
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/cpp99.htm
Presents data on the nature and characteristics of citizen contacts with the police over a 12-month period. Findings are provided from a nationally representative survey of nearly 90,000 residents age 16 or older. Detailed information is presented on face-to-face contacts with the police including traffic stops, arrests, handcuffing and incidents of police use-of-force. Discusses relevance of the findings to the issue of racial profiling. The report provides demographic characteristics of citizens and police officers involved in traffic stops and use of force encounters. February 2001. NCJ 184957.
(Last checked 02/27/07)

Controlling Police Use of Excessive Force: The Role of the Police Psychologist
http://www.ncjrs.gov/txtfiles/ppsyc.txt
The role of police psychologists in identifying officers at risk for excessive force and in preventing its use; the factors that contribute to use of excessive force by the police. Ellen M. Scrivner, NIJ Research in Brief, NCJ 150063, October 1994, 14pp.
(Last checked 02/27/07)

DeadlyForce.com
http://www.deadlyforce.com/Publications.html
Web page by Dr. Geoffrey P. Alpert, Professor in the Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice at the University of South Carolina and expert on deadly force and other related topics.
(Last checked 02/27/07)

Deadly Force : What We Know (Book).
A Practitioner's Desk Reference on Police-Involved Shootings
William A. Geller and Michael S. Scott, Police Executive Research Forum, 1992. Available in the MSU Main Library stacks.

Early Warning Systems: Responding to the Problem Police Officer
http://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/188565.pdf
Published by the National Institute of Justice, July 2001.
(Last checked 02/27/07)

Men, Women, and the Police Use of Excessive Force: A Tale of Two Genders
http://www.womenandpolicing.org/PDF/2002_Excessive_Force.pdf
This study documents huge gender differences in police brutality and misconduct, whether measured by citizen complaints, sustained allegations, or civil liability payouts. The data is clear: women officers cost their communities less in human and financial terms, and police departments can't afford to ignore this data any longer. National Center for Women and Policing, April 2002.
(Last checked 02/27/07)

National Data Collection on Police Use of Force
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/ndcopouf.htm
This discussion paper, published jointly with the National Institute of Justice, summarizes prior research on police use of force and lists the difficulties inherent in collecting use-of-force data, including definitional problems, reluctance of police agencies to provide reliable data, concerns about the misapplication of reported data, and the degree of detail needed on individual incidents. It also discusses alternative approaches to data collection and sources of data, including official records, surveys of police, and surveys of citizens. The paper concludes that it will be some time before a national reporting program is implemented. In the meantime two pilot programs are collecting data on use of force: an expansion of the BJS National Crime Victimization Survey to include questions about use of force and a grant to the International Association of Chiefs of Police for the first phase of a four-phase program to establish a national database to collect incident reports on use of force from police departments. This report was prepared by Tom McEwen of the Institute for Law and Justice. 5/96 NCJ 160113.
(Last checked 02/27/07)

New Untouchables: How America Sanctions Police Violence
John Desantis. Noble Press, September 1994. Available in the MSU Library stacks.
The New Untouchables thoughtfully reviews traditional police roles and police culture, the difficult but necessary task of defining excessive use of force, and the role of cultural stereotypes, media exigencies, and the war on drugs in justifying police overreaction.

NYPD Brutality Trial
http://web.lexis-nexis.com/universe
The spectacle of five officers testifying forcefully against fellow cops has been the latest dramatic twist in a trial that is riveting the city with ugly allegations of police brutality. Their testimony in recent days -- much of it dominating the local news -- has kindled an intense discussion of police whistle-blowing and efforts to reform the NYPD. Indeed, the disturbing details have focused renewed attention on the so-called blue wall of silence, spotlighting slow but steady changes in the highly protective world of police culture, according to a spectrum of authorities. Articles can be found by doing a general search via Academic Universe (MSU faculty and students only). Time period : May 1999.
(Last checked 02/27/07)

Police Brutality and Excessive Force in the New York City Police Department
http://web.amnesty.org/library/Index/engAMR510361996
Amnesty International, June 1996.
(Last checked 02/27/07)

Police Brutality Entry from Wikipedia
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Police_brutality
(Last checked 02/27/07)

Police Practices and Civil Rights in New York City
http://www.ci.nyc.ny.us/html/nypd/pdf/dclm/execsumm.pdf
New York Police Department Response to the Draft Report of the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights.
(Last checked 02/27/07)

Police Use of Excessive Force : A Conciliation Handbook for the Police and the Community
http://www.usdoj.gov/crs/pubs/pdexcess.htm
Community disturbances resulting from the police use of excessive or deadly force continue to plague many American communities. Law enforcement is an important societal function and its effectiveness is hampered when tensions exist between the police department and the public it serves. This guidebook was developed to give the police and community groups options for addressing any controversy surrounding the police use of excessive or deadly force. Even after pursuing formal avenues like criminal prosecutions and civil litigation, we are still left with the need to address the underlying, unresolved concerns. U.S. Department of Justice, Community Relations Service, June 1999; updated June 2002.
(Last checked 02/27/07)

Police Use of Excessive Force against Black Males: Aberrations or Everyday Occurrences
http://mundanebehavior.org/issues/v3n3/jeffries.htm
This essay discusses the issue of police use of excessive force against black males while focusing on the recent cases of Abner Louima, Amadou Diallo, Demetrius DuBose and Timothy Thomas. This essay argues that contrary to popular belief that what happened to these men and others like them are not isolated incidents but rather examples of a long line of black males who face the prospect of police brutality on an everyday basis. Judson L. Jeffries, Political Science, Purdue University, and Journal of Mundane Behavior, 2002.
(Last checked 02/27/07)

Police Use of Force : A Bibliography
http://www.jibc.bc.ca/library/Bibliographies/Police_Use_of_Force_-_JIBC_Library.pdf
Compiled by the Justice Institute of British Colombia.
Also listed under Criminal Justice Resources : Bibliographies.
(Last checked 02/27/07)

Police Use of Force:
Addressing Community Racial Tensions
http://www.usdoj.gov/crs/pubs/pubbullpoliceuseofforcedraftrevision72002.htm
This Bulletin offers some practical recommendations to city officials, police executives, and community leaders on steps they can take to prevent community racial conflict associated with police use of force incidents and improve police policies and practices. Examples of CRS assistance to local communities are also included. U.S. Department of Justice, Community Relations Service. Revised August 2002.
(Last checked 02/27/07)

Police Use of Force In America, 2001
http://www.theiacp.org/documents/pdfs/Publications/2001useofforce.pdf
The Final Report of the National Police Use of Force Database Project, International Association of Chiefs of Police.
(Last checked 02/27/07)

Police Use of Force: National Survey Results
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/puof.htm
According to a pilot test of the Police-Public Contact Survey (administered as a supplement to the BJS National Crime Victimization Survey), 21% of residents age 12 or older (about 44.6 million) had at least one face-to-face encounter with a police officer in 1996. Of these, an estimated half million were threatened with use of force or had force used against them by police.
(Last checked 02/27/07)

Police Use of Force: Official Reports, Citizen Complaints, and Legal Consequences (Book).
Antony M. Pate, Lorie A. Fridell and Edwin E. Hamilton. Police Foundation, November 1993. Available in the MSU Main Library stacks.

Police Use of Nondeadly Force To Arrest
http://www.fbi.gov/publications/leb/1997/oct975.htm
Article by John C. Hall, FBI. Law Enforcement Bulletin, October 1975.
(Last checked 02/27/07)

Police vehicles and firearms : instruments of deadly force (Book)
Geoffrey P. Alpert, Lorie A. Fridell. Prospect Heights, IL : Waveland Press, c1992.
(Last checked 02/27/07)

Portland Police Bureau: Officer-Involved Shootings and In-Custody Deaths
http://web.archive.org/web/20050816101708/www.parc.info/pubs/pdf/ppbreport.pdf
The Independent Police Review Division of the City Auditor's office retained PARC to conduct a review of the 32 officer-involved shootings and two in-custody deaths that occurred in the City of Portland between January 1, 1997 and June 30, 2000. The comprehensive report features detailed findings, and 89 recommendations, regarding that police department's training, tactics, policies, investigations, and review of these types of cases. Police Assessment Resource Center. August 2003.
(Last checked 02/27/07)

Reluctance to Use Deadly Force: Causes, Consequences, and Cures
http://www.fbi.gov/publications/leb/1999/oct99leb.pdf
Law enforcement agencies need to understand their officers' reluctance to use deadly force in order to overcome it and deal with the consequences. Article by George T. Williams appearing in the October 1999 issue of Law Enforcment Bulletin.
(Last checked 02/27/07)

Review of Deadly Force Training and Policies of the Dallas Police Department
http://web.archive.org/web/*/http://www.deadlyforce.com/dallasreport.zip
The results of a study completed by Dr. Alpert for the City of Dallas, Texas. To download a zipped version of the WordPerfect document click here, Zipped Dallas Report.
(Last checked 02/27/07)

Shielded from Justice
Police Brutality and Accountability in the United States
http://www.hrw.org/hrw/reports98/police/index.htm
http://www.hrw.org/reports98/police/
Police abuse remains one of the most serious and divisive human rights violations in the United States. The excessive use of force by police officers, including unjustified shootings, severe beatings, fatal chokings, and rough treatment, persists because overwhelming barriers to accountability make it possible for officers who commit human rights violations to escape due punishment and often to repeat their offenses. Police or public officials greet each new report of brutality with denials or explain that the act was an aberration, while the administrative and criminal systems that should deter these abuses by holding officers accountable instead virtually guarantee them impunity.
This Human Rights Watch report examines common obstacles to accountability for police abuse in fourteen large cities representing most regions of the nation. The cities examined are: Atlanta, Boston, Chicago, Detroit, Indianapolis, Los Angeles, Minneapolis, New Orleans, New York, Philadelphia, Portland, Providence, San Francisco, and Washington, D.C. Research for this report was conducted over two and a half years, from late 1995 through early 1998.
(Last checked 02/27/07)

Understanding police use of force : officers, suspects, and reciprocity (Book)
Geoffrey P. Alpert, Roger G. Dunham. Cambridge, UK ; New York : Cambridge University Press, 2004.
Understanding Police use of Force focuses on the extraordinary and rare event that develops when physical force is used by the police. Whenever police officers come into contact with citizens, there is always a chance that the encounter will digress to one in which force is used on a suspect. Fortunately, most police activities do not result in the use of force, but those that do take on an interesting pattern of interaction between the officer and the citizen. This volume presents a brief survey of prior research on police use of force as well as original data reported for the first time. The original data on police use of force include the Force Factor, or the relative use of force compared to the level of suspect resistance. The data also includes the sequential order of the event and a view from the suspect’s perspective. The book also proposes a new conceptual framework for examining and assessing police use of force: the Authority Maintenance Theory.
(Last checked 02/27/07)

Understanding the Use of Force By and Against the Police
http://www.ncjrs.org/txtfiles/forcerib.txt
A NIJ Research in Brief, November 1996.
(Last checked 02/27/07)

United States of America: Race, Rights, and Police Brutality
http://www.amnestyusa.org/countries/usa/document.do?
id=133746465C2D34CA8025690000692D98
“The issue is national in scope and reaches people all across this country. For too many people, especially in minority communities, the trust that is so essential to effective policing does not exist because residents believe that police have used excessive force, that law enforcement is too aggressive, that law enforcement is biased, disrespectful, and unfair.” Janet Reno, Attorney General of the United States, speaking on police brutality at a National Press Club luncheon, Washington, DC, 15 April 1999. Report by Amnesty International.
(Last checked 02/27/07)

Use of Force by the Police
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/ufbponld.htm
Released this week by the National Institute of Justice (NIJ) and Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS), this report is the product of several national and local-level surveys on the use of force by police officers. Offered in six independent but interrelated chapters, the report explores what is and what is not known about the extent and nature of police use of force, the circumstances under which force is applied, and the difficulties in measuring the use of force, and suggests future paths for research in this area. Dated November 1999. Source: Scout Report, December 3, 1999.
(Last checked 02/27/07)

Use of Force by the Police
http://www.ncjrs.org/txtfiles1/nij/176330.txt
Chapters 1-3
http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles1/nij/176330-1.pdf
Chapters 4-6
http://www.ncjrs.org/pdffiles1/nij/176330-2.pdf
Law enforcement officers are authorized to use force in specified circumstances, are trained in the use of force, and typically face numerous circumstances during their careers when use of force is appropriate--for example, in making some arrests, restraining unruly combatants, or controlling a disruptive demonstration. When the level of force exceeds the level considered justifiable under the circumstances, however, the activities of the police come under public scrutiny. Overview of National and Local Data Series: Research Report. October 1999.
(Last checked 02/27/07)

For additional books on police brutality, search MAGIC. Try typing in the following subject headings under LC Subject.

Police Brutality

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