Suchergebnisse

For many years both police violence and the complaints procedures have been important topics for debate in Britain and elsewhere. This book aims to provide a contribution to this debate by analysing the way in which police violence at present is and should be policed. On the basis of a case study in Glasgow the authors examine the phenomenon of police violence and the occupational reality in which it can be most adequately controlled. The present type of British complaints system was found to have little to offer to the victims of such incidents, and to be even counterproductive as a mechanism of control of police behaviour. This book discusses the main structural amendments which would enable the complaints procedure to provide a more adequate response. It is contended that the police themselves can and should play a major role in the control of police violence, and that they should have both the responsibility and opportunity for rectifying what went amiss. The implications of his study extend beyond the immediate Glaswegian, Scottish and even British context and are of wider interest to all those who are concerned with the issues and problems of police violence, policing police misconduct and police accountability in general

Frontmatter -- CONTENTS -- ACKNOWLEDGMENTS -- Introduction: Police Violence -- 1. Understanding Police Violence -- 2. Deterrence, Rational Choice, Victimization, and Lifestyle Theories -- 3. Individual-Level Theories -- 4. Social Structure Theories -- 5. Social Process Theories -- 6. Societal Conflict and Legitimacy Theories -- 7. Integrationist Perspectives -- Notes -- Bibliography -- Index

Are police agencies less likely to use torture in democracies than in non-democracies? Much empirical research has shown that democracies are less likely to engage in torture in general, but most of this research does not distinguish among victim types or state agencies. Using the Ill-Treatment and Torture (ITT) Data, we focus on police agencies and evaluate whether they are less likely to use torture against (separately) political dissidents, criminals, and marginalized communities. Using logistic regressions with random effects, we find that the well-established and relatively high level of democracies' respect for the rights of dissidents extends to police agencies as well. However, we find weaker statistical evidence that police agencies in democracies are less likely to use torture against criminals, and no evidence that they are less likely to torture marginalized communities. Our results suggest that one of the most robust empirical facts in the literature must be qualified. The protection from violence offered by democratic institutions does not seem to generalize beyond violence directly related to political competition and dissent.

AbstractThis paper argues that patterns of pervasive police violence can and should be treated as organizational crime in Canada. It uses the documented events of police violence in Val d'Or, Quebec, that emerged in 2015 to show how a similar fact pattern might fit all of the elements of organizational crime as defined in the Criminal Code. The article also suggests that this is an example where legal imagination is important, in order to shift our collective understanding of what organizational crime is and where it occurs.

Roughly a thousand people are killed by American law enforcement officers each year, accounting for more than 5% of all homicides. We estimate the causal impact of these events on civic engagement. Exploiting hyperlocal variation in how close residents live to a killing, we find that exposure to police violence leads to significant increases in registrations and votes. These effects are driven entirely by Black and Hispanic citizens and are largest for killings of unarmed individuals. We find corresponding increases in support for criminal justice reforms, suggesting that police violence may cause voters to politically mobilize against perceived injustice.