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Perspectives on Police and Violence

NCJ Number
75305
Journal
Annals of the American Academy of Political and Social Science Volume: 452 Dated: (November 1980) Pages: 1-12
Author(s)
L W Sherman
Date Published
1980
Length
12 pages
Annotation
This article reviews efforts to reduce violence by and against the police and points to the scarcity of research in this area.
Abstract
Police methods against violence have been based more on commonsense assumptions than scientific experiments. The few experiments that have been conducted focused on what had not worked. For example, according to a Police Foundation study preventive patrol in automobiles makes little difference in the frequency of violence in residential areas. The most encouraging finding about police methods against violence is that police can implement and cooperate with a legislative crackdown on the illegal carrying of guns as shown, for example, in a Massachusetts study of 1979. The police have also improved their methods in dealing with such violent incidents as rape or hostage crises. However, the capacity of police to find alternatives to police violence and ways to reduce violence against officers is limited by their reluctance to experiment in order to avoid criticism. The most important problem in finding solutions to violence against police is the absence of data on how police act during incidents producing police deaths or injuries and how they act in incidents which do not produce violence against officers. The findings regarding violence perpetrated by the police show that a more restrictive administrative posture and policy on the use of deadly force can reduce the number of citizens shot and killed by police without any attendant increase in crime or injury to officers or a decline in police arrest activity. However, more research is needed to provide solutions to the paradox of the police using violence to stop violence in society. Footnotes are included.