{"title":"Challenging the Ordinality of Police Use-of-Force Policy","authors":"Scott M. Mourtgos, Ian T. Adams, Samuel R. Baty","doi":"10.1177/08874034211038346","DOIUrl":null,"url":null,"abstract":"Most use-of-force policies utilized by U.S. police agencies make fundamental ordinal assumptions about officers’ force responses to subject resistance. These policies consist of varying levels of force and resistance along an ordinally ranked continuum of severity. We empirically tested the ordinal assumptions that are ubiquitous to police use-of-force continua within the United States using 1 year’s use-of-force data from a municipal police department. Applying a quantitative technique known as categorical regression with optimal scaling, we found the assumptions of ordinality within the studied department’s use-of-force continuum (which is similar to many police use-of-force continua within the United States) are not met. Specifying physical force as a “lower” force option than less-lethal tools is associated with increased officer injury and decreased subject injury. Our findings call into question use-of-force continua featuring ordinal rankings for varying categories of less-lethal force.","PeriodicalId":10757,"journal":{"name":"Criminal Justice Policy Review","volume":"33 1","pages":"119 - 147"},"PeriodicalIF":0.0000,"publicationDate":"2021-08-13","publicationTypes":"Journal Article","fieldsOfStudy":null,"isOpenAccess":false,"openAccessPdf":"","citationCount":"2","resultStr":null,"platform":"Semanticscholar","paperid":null,"PeriodicalName":"Criminal Justice Policy Review","FirstCategoryId":"1085","ListUrlMain":"https://doi.org/10.1177/08874034211038346","RegionNum":0,"RegionCategory":null,"ArticlePicture":[],"TitleCN":null,"AbstractTextCN":null,"PMCID":null,"EPubDate":"","PubModel":"","JCR":"Q1","JCRName":"Social Sciences","Score":null,"Total":0}
引用次数: 2
Abstract
Most use-of-force policies utilized by U.S. police agencies make fundamental ordinal assumptions about officers’ force responses to subject resistance. These policies consist of varying levels of force and resistance along an ordinally ranked continuum of severity. We empirically tested the ordinal assumptions that are ubiquitous to police use-of-force continua within the United States using 1 year’s use-of-force data from a municipal police department. Applying a quantitative technique known as categorical regression with optimal scaling, we found the assumptions of ordinality within the studied department’s use-of-force continuum (which is similar to many police use-of-force continua within the United States) are not met. Specifying physical force as a “lower” force option than less-lethal tools is associated with increased officer injury and decreased subject injury. Our findings call into question use-of-force continua featuring ordinal rankings for varying categories of less-lethal force.
期刊介绍:
Criminal Justice Policy Review (CJPR) is a multidisciplinary journal publishing articles written by scholars and professionals committed to the study of criminal justice policy through experimental and nonexperimental approaches. CJPR is published quarterly and accepts appropriate articles, essays, research notes, interviews, and book reviews. It also provides a forum for special features, which may include invited commentaries, transcripts of significant panels or meetings, position papers, and legislation. To maintain a leadership role in criminal justice policy literature, CJPR will publish articles employing diverse methodologies.