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The Fist Of Justice: Why Force Is Used

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The Fist of Justice: Why Force is Used
The question of why police may or may not use force in a particular encounter is difficult to answer. A number of scholars have attempted to answer this question explicitly and have theorized a number of different explanations to answer this question. The question of why police decide to use force, may be harder to answer than originally anticipated because of the gap that exists between theoretical versus practical police work, coupled with the vast differences in environmental factors. Currently, the answers remain convoluted at best. The purpose of this document is to shed light on research that has been previously completed in regards to trying to better answer the question of why law enforcement …show more content…
According to Kevin Elliott and Joycelyn Pollock (2013), “Where officers work in communities with higher rates of violence, they tend to use more force in response to conflict” (Fitch, pp. 238-239, 2013). Not surprisingly, many current police agencies also list the type of crime responded to, as a relevant factor in determining use of force options. According to Friedrich’s (1980) research, the application of force nearly doubled from responses to misdemeanor crimes to those involving responses for felony crime, calls for service (p. 88). In keeping with the idea of felonious behavior, and as cited in Shjarback (2016), he explains that of those suspects utilizing firearms, the likelihood of deadly force by police maybe short of imminent, but is drastically …show more content…
It is also worth pointing out that while (Friedrich, 1980) found that white cops were more likely than black officers to use excessive force, his conclusion may over simplify an inaccurately articulate an important implication. Especially when the law enforcement culture has always been predominately white. According to the Data USA website, white police officers currently account for over 78 percent of rank and file nationally (Census Bureau, 2017). Additionally, although significant research has been directed toward the individual influences of use of force, (Shjarback, 2016) makes an important claim that research is lacking collective studies off all influences together regarding use of force. Finally, according to (Shjarback, 2016), “Research is largely devoid of adequate theory to explain police behavior and use of force more specifically” (Terrill,

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