Examining the Impact of Police Use of Force: Relationships, Crime, and Community Dynamics

Abstract

Institutional Affiliation Professor’s Name Date Table of Contents INTRODUCTION TO PROBLEM2 RESEARCH QUESTIONS2 INDEPENDENT AND DEPENDENT VARIABLES3 RESEARCH METHOD AND DESIGN4 Sampling4 Literature5 Conclusion6 References7 INTRODUCTION TO PROBLEM Police use of force is a controversial issue that stirs hot debates globally. Police use of force is the effort required by individual police to compel compliance from an unwilling subject (Miethe et al., 2019a). One may wish to understand whether police use of force is permitted by law and, if so, to what extent. According to Serchen et al. (2020), the use of force by law enforcement officers remains permitted to use force. It becomes necessary under specific circumstances, like in defence of another individual or group and in self-defence. However, police use of force becomes a problem when some officers violate or ignore the grounds that subject them to use force. On the contrary, such ignorance leads some police officers to employ force and some extent, excessive force in unnecessary circumstances, inflicting fear and causing loose relationships with the community they should serve. However, Serchen et al. (2020) associate exposure to deadly weapons and tools, corruption, stress, police discretion, professionalism, response to terror incidences and unionization to significant triggers of excessive use of force by law enforcers leads to more evil than good. RESEARCH QUESTIONS In order to have a clear picture of the problem of study, it is imperative to ask and answer some questions to have a clear picture of what police use of force implies. What is the correlation between police use of force and psychological distress among law enforcers? What are the significant effects of police use of force on the victims and police as civil servants? Which population is most vulnerable to such forces Does the use of force improve the relationship between police and the community? Does using force enhance or reduce crime rates among the target audiences? Hypothesis: Since the use of force defines the dictatorial character of police, this research hypothesizes that police use hampers their relationship with the community, enhancing crime rates as the community never coordinates in the fight against crime but always holds grudges against the harsh officers. INDEPENDENT AND DEPENDENT VARIABLES An independent variable serves as the cause of an effect which in the current research can remain defined by demographic, among other characteristics of the law enforcer and the target suspect that defines situational threat to either party. For example Independent Variables Time Space Situational threats to the officers (suspect characteristics) Weapon (threat/display) A dependent variable is a measurable effect or outcome realized after manipulating the independent variable. In this case, an independent variable is any effect of the police use of force regardless of the situation like: Dependent Variables Psychological impacts (on either party) Situational factors (that define the threat to the officer) RESEARCH METHOD AND DESIGN Effective research methods and design enhance logical results on questions of the study. Based on the nature of the study, it is open that quality responses will outweigh quantity responses regarding police use of force. However, combining the two responses will offer detailed insight into the issue under consideration. For this reason, this research aims at employing qualitative and quantitative techniques to analyze police use of force within America. Combining qualitative and quantitative data collection approaches from a randomly sampled cluster will enable the research to dig deeper into understanding what revolves around police use of force. These methods will enable respondents to air their views through open-ended and closed-ended questions. The responses will remain governed through interviews and questionnaires to accommodate both the direct and indirect questions to use on the target sample. Sampling Selecting the proper sample to use in any research is the key to acquiring the right and logical responses on the issue under consideration. Since the...