Running head: POLICE BRUTALITY
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Police Brutality Research Proposal
Rodrick Idrogo
POL480: Methodology in Political Science (POB840DS)
Robben Mellen
11/5/18
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Police Brutality Research Proposal
Human rights, as well as the rights of suspected criminals, must be respected for the
people to feel that they have a fair government system in place. Police brutality has been one of
the ways that the public feels law enforcement agencies do not respect their rights. Cases of
police brutality are often seen as cases where the police abuse their power and position to
wrongfully use excessive force when dealing with suspected criminals. In the recent years, there
has been increased awareness regarding police brutality especially due to cases caught on camera
and apparent increased reporting. With increasing focus on the issue, there is an urgent to
understand whether this focus is rightfully based on an increase in police brutality. Since the
police should be custodians of law and order, it is worrying that there is a possibility of increased
cases of police brutality. The purpose of this research is to explore whether or not there have
been a change in police brutality and excessive use of force and the nature of these changes.
Through a mixed methods research into how police brutality has changed over the years, it will
be possible to understand the next steps in reducing the injustice.
Background and Significance of the Research
Police brutality is the use of extreme force by police forces on various groups of people
regardless of the actions they have committed. A person in the hands of police brutality can be
innocent, criminal or be a suspect but still exerting extra force on such a person is against the
laws that govern the police. According to Worden (2015), police behavior can be explained by
some theory of police behavior and the most prominent is the sociological theory that holds that
the interactions between the police and suspects may affect how the two categories of people
behave. Therefore, research into police brutality has mainly been focusing not only on the nature
of cruelty or the frequency of existence but also explanations why some patterns may be realized.
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A common explanation has been that the police interaction with some suspects presents trauma
on the officers leading them to be hyper-alert in incidences when they encounter suspects.
However, this is just one of the explanations leading further into understanding what consists of
police brutality.
There have been several forms of police brutality reported over the years. The most
common has been the use of excessive force during arrest. This includes using violence against
the suspect. Secondly, an increasingly observed trend is the wrongful shooting of suspects,
criminals, or even innocent people. According to Josh Hafner (2018), the death of Trayvon
Martin, Tamir Rice, Michael Brown, Eric Garner, among others has highlighted police shootings
as one of the most prominent forms of police brutality. It is mainly so because it is often fatal.
Another type of police brutality that has been experienced is during interrogation while the
suspect is in holding. The police may use torture methods to attempt and convict suspects of
wrongdoing. Whatever the form of police brutality, it has always been seen as unjustified and
going against the human rights of suspects of crime.
To curb the use of excessive force by the police while keeping law and order the police
force have taken through various reforms. The various changes and improvements in the police
force might have achieved one thing or the other, but the unfortunate thing is that when reforms
made within the police force, brutality and assault takes another form, which might be worse. To
come up with the changes that police force brutality has gone through, I will synthesis prior
political science research studies conducted on the topic of police brutality. I will seek to
understand and explain how the research study is original and accurate. I will also discuss
various research methods to come up with an explanation of how my research methods are
appropriate to my topic.
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The prior political science research study that I will synthesize in this paper in relation to
the topic of police brutality is “Federal Investigations of Police Misconduct: A Multi-City
Comparison by Weitzer." Over the last few decades, there has been a high profile federal
investigation on the various policies and practices adopted by the American police departments.
Cases of police misconduct have been taken seriously by civil rights violations investigators, and
for this reason, the political research study I have selected is appropriate to the study.
Federal Investigations of Police Misconduct is related to the topic of study in the fact that
it was written after an examination of four investigations in the United States. The four
investigations are Baltimore, Chicago, Ferguson and in the New Orleans. Based on the findings
of the four cases, some similarities can be seen across them. The research paper was possible
because the 1994 Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act required that the Department
of Justice be empowered to investigate and seek prosecution of police officers who are brutal.
The Crime control act states that brutality is when a police department or a staff therein have
policies and practice violate federal laws or deprives people of their constitutional
rights(Weitzer, n.d.).
Literature Review
As this paper is not the first to review the issue of police brutality, there is the need to
understand the findings of other key researchers and the themes they have unearthed regarding
the issue of police brutality. The first key resource is a peer-reviewed journal authored by Alpert
& Smith (1999). In this journal, the authors explore the history of police brutality, changes that
had occurred by the end of the 20th century, and the progress that the police force ought to have
achieved by the end of the century. Despite being published close to two decades ago, this article
provides rich historical information about the topic and could thus serve as a foundation for the
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research and provide data to compare with the current state of events. The authors conclude that
since people involved in police brutality may collect data which is only relevant to their interests,
it is crucial to form expert panels to investigate the conduct of police officers in allegations of
police misconduct (Alpert & Smith, 1999). These conclusions have been put in place later on in
panels investigating the conduct of different officers who have been accused of using excessive
force in certain shootings or exchanges with suspects of crime.
A more recent article is one by Hardy (2015) published on the Washington State
University website. In this article, the author explores the police brutality of the police force in
the post-slavery era and the perceptions of the public. The author uses quantitative approaches to
understand the level of police brutality and trends in the same as of 2015. Hardy (2015)
concludes that police brutality is still on the rise despite measures to harness this social injustice.
As a means of explaining this increase, the author turns to several theories of criminal justice and
emphasizes the aforementioned sociological approach to the issue. He explains that social factors
mediating the experience between police officers and suspects of crime have continued to affect
the apparent increase in cases of police brutality in the country. This article could serve as an
important source of data about the history of police brutality and the way that this affects the
community, especially in the 2010s decade.
Moreover, while still reviewing some of the critical sources that will guide the direction
of this research, the third resource is a peer-reviewed journal by Smith and Holmes (2014). In
this journal, the authors explore the use of excessive force by the police against minorities in the
US especially African Americans and other marginalized communities. By testing some
hypotheses that they formulate for their study, the authors identify that cases of police brutality
are more common among the minorities in the US as compared to other communities and have
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been on the rise in the recent past. Primarily, the hypothesis that leads to this conclusion is the
minority threat hypothesis. According to Smith & Holmes (2014), the higher the proportion of
minority communities in a locality, the more the police are likely to use coercive force in law
enforcement. Primarily, this finding shows that the police are threatened by huge numbers of
community minorities, and hence they may have the pressure to use coercive force when dealing
with members of these communities. This research paper will provide data about cases and the
prevalence of police brutality in modern times and how these injustices vary from one
community to another.
Apart from the overview of some of the main resources that support this research and
how they have conducted the same, there is also the need to look at the ways in which
researchers have analyzed police brutality to inform this research. According to Office of Justice
Programs Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS, 2012), approximately 1.4% of people who
encountered the police in 2008 were subjected to police brutality. This prevalence has been
portrayed as increasing over time. Studying the prevalence of police brutality in the past is
crucial because it outlines the ways that the trend has been experienced in the past. Out of these
people, 74% claimed that there was use of excessive force while 19% claimed that they were
injured during the incident. Interestingly, only 12% of the respondents accepted that they were
disobedient or interfered with law enforcement during the process (BJS, 2012).
Despite this level of prevalence of police brutality, it has been seen that many police
posts and centers have made a deliberate effort to investigate or prevent the use of force again.
According to Terrill & Paoline (2012), 80% of police agencies across the nation had developed
guidelines to determine whether excessive force was used or not. The placement of deliberate
efforts to determine whether excessive force was used or not is one sign to show that there has
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been rising awareness regarding the existence of police brutality and the dedication of the
government to tackle the same. Similarly, it has been seen that approximately 95% of claims of
police brutality were dealt with by the agencies where the accused officers belonged (Terrill &
Paoline, 2012). These statistics show that as of 2012, there was a positive trend by police
agencies to deal with allegations of police brutality.
Overall, the reviewed articles support the need to further look into the trends of police
brutality in the United States. The last reviewed article by Terrill & Paoline (2012) presents the
state of affairs around six years to a decade ago. Although there have been other studies into
police brutality especially with the increased cases of police shooting young Black males, there
is a need to compare statistical findings with the experiences of the public. In the next section of
this proposal, an overview of how the research into police brutality will be performed is
presented, and it outlines the research design as well as the methods to be used in determining
whether there is an increase or a decrease in the cases of police brutality.
Research Design and Methods
The topic of police brutality and how it has changed over the years is a social science,
which provides the opportunity to use either quantitative or qualitative methods. The research
will use qualitative research method because my research paper concerns itself with human
behavior which is the method used in such cases (Cresswell, 2014). The research method I have
chosen to use is appropriate in approaching the research topic on the changes that have witnessed
in policy brutality over the years. The method is appropriate because the information collected is
human behavior, which can only be done through observations, interviews and the use of
questionnaires.
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The qualitative research approach that that will be used in this research will be based on
phenomenology. According to Cresswell (2014), phenomenology is an approach to research that
seeks to find the subjective experiences of the respondents and how they interacted with a certain
phenomenon. This approach fits the research because the main aim will be to understand how the
respondents have experienced police brutality in their localities. Therefore, the qualitative
approach to research will mainly focus on understanding the phenomenon and how it has been
experienced by the sample of the respondents.
To effectively put the research design to use, questionnaires will be used as the main
method of data collection. According to Christensen et al., (2011), a questionnaire is a structured
form in which the participants are supposed to fill. The questionnaires that will be used in the
research will brief and the questions straightforward. They will not emphasize more of the “text”
data, and therefore they will focus more on the likert-type scale of ranking such as a scale of 1-5
with 1 being the least and 5 being the strongest. The questions formulated in the questionnaires
should be very brief and straightforward. The questionnaires will target to cover 40 participants.
Only 20 questionnaires will be hand delivered, and the rest will be sent to participants through
emails. The online questionnaires will cover various states in the US. The participants will be
chosen randomly from volunteers online and on site, and the research will include participants
from all genders, cultures, and ethnicities. The filled questionnaires will be sent through pager
and the information obtained will be treated with a high level of confidentiality.
However, the qualitative approach to research is not enough to understand how police
brutality has changed over the years. Therefore, an additional research design will be used to
supplement the research approach. A systematic review of literature both qualitative and
quantitative will also be performed. Various secondary sources will be used in this research. The
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secondary sources selected should be reliable. A researcher can access police department archive
to investigate cases reported concerning police brutality. It is important to access secondary
resources, which are written by credible and professional authors. Use of such credible sources
will enhance the reliability and validity of data. Lastly, a researcher will access local libraries to
research on books, journals or other articles, which conducted similar research regarding police
brutality.
Overall, the research design to be used in this research will be a combination of both
qualitative and quantitative methods. Qualitative design will focus on phenomenology, which
entails the raw experiences of the people who engage with police and how they think police
brutality has been changing over the years. The mixed methods approach includes a systematic
review of literature both qualitative and quantitative to check how police brutality has been
reported over time and discover the notable changes. The use of a mixed methods approach in
this research will ensure that the topic of police brutality is covered widely to a credible
conclusion.
Preliminary Suppositions and Implications
The increased attention in the media regarding police brutality leads one to believe that
there has been an increase of the injustice. If that is not the case, the reported cases of brutality
have increased or the media has increased the coverage of the same. Since none of the latter is a
focus of this research, it is crucial to focus on the supposition that police brutality might have
increased from the period starting in 2010 onwards. The hypothesis of this research is that in the
years since 2010, there has been an increase in the reported cases of police brutality. This
increase can be broken down into two components. The first one is the apparent increase in the
actual cases of police brutality, especially the use of excessive force when making arrests and the
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wrongful shooting of suspects. The second component of this hypothesis is that there has been an
increase in the tendency to report cases of brutality and abuse. It is expected that with
movements such as Black Lives Matter, the reporting tendency of the public regarding police
brutality has increased.
Additionally, there has been constant laxity in the investigation and bringing to letter the
police officers that have been accused of brutality. According to Carter (2016), most of the
police officers who are accused of police violence, especially those accused of the worst crime of
killing innocent citizens are forced to resign from their positions. In even more pathetic cases,
some of them may be suspended and reinstated only to be transferred and resume their duty as if
they did nothing wrong. This trend is worrying because it points towards a reinforcing behavior
allowing police officers to think that they can get away with violence. Due to this observation, it
is expected that the situation of police brutality has not improved. This observation reinforces the
hypothesis that police brutality has been increasing. If that may not be the case, then there is no
significant reduction of such cases. However, without preempting or dwelling too much on
speculation, it is crucial that this research is completed so that the truth is known for additional
action to be taken.
By learning about police brutality, it will be very beneficial not only to an individual but
also countrywide. It helps in formulating policies, which can be used to minimize the extent of
force applied by the police officers towards other people of the society. Secondly, it helps in
tracking the changes that the police departments have undergone since the inception of the police
force. The police department has formulated various internal and external forces, which helps in
controlling the use of excessive power by the police officers. It also helps in eradicating racism
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within the police department. It has been reported that the police department becomes harsher
when handling the African American people.
Findings from this research will serve as a bouncing off point to enact better policies or
reinforce existing ones targeting police brutality. Specifically, if the findings are that police
brutality has been on the increase, there will be the need to carry out additional studies into the
causes of that increase and how to deal with them. If a positive result is realized from the
research process, then an analysis of the methods that have been used to initiate that reduction
will be conducted. Reinforcement of such approaches will then be required to improve the
relations between the public and law enforcement. Either way, the results of this research are
critical because they affect the future of law enforcement and the experiences of the public when
interacting with law enforcement officers.
Conclusion
This research proposal aims to find how police brutality has advanced or changed over
the years. Particularly, it will focus on the years starting from 2010 up to 2018. Police brutality
has been painted as a great determinant of how people interact in the society and whether or not
human rights are respected by government agencies. The research will involve a mixed method
approach where qualitative phenomenology approach will be used as well as a mixed method
systematic review of literature. Through the research approaches, the experiences of the public
regarding police brutality as well as the findings of researchers will be emphasized. The
importance of this research is that it affects the people’s attitudes towards law enforcement and
thus also the trends of crime in the society. This research will assist in outlining the
improvements required in police conduct and will set the pace towards better law enforcement.
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References
Alpert, G. P., & Smith, M. R. (January 01, 1999). Police Use-Of-Force Data: Where We Are
And Where We Should Be Going. Police Quarterly, 2(1), 57-78.
Carter, C. A. (2016). Police Brutality, the Law & Today's Social Justice Movement: How the
Lack of Police Accountability has Fueled# Hashtag Activism. CUNY L. Rev., 20, 521.
Christensen, L. B., Johnson, B., Turner, L. A., & Christensen, L. B. (2011). Research methods,
design, and analysis.
Cresswell, J. (2014). Research design. Sage Publications.
Hafner, J. (2018, Mar. 29). Police killings of Black men in the U.S and what happened to the
officers. U.S.A Today. Retrieved from https://www.usatoday.com/story/news/nationnow/2018/03/29/police-killings-black-men-us-and-what-happened-officers/469467002/
Hardy, C. (2015). Public Perceptions of Police Brutality in Post-Slavery America. Washington
State University. Available from https://hub.wsu.edu/law-justicerealtime/2015/12/16/public-perceptions-of-police-brutality-in-post-slavery-america/
Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Statistics (2012). Use of force. Retrieved from
http://www.bjs.gov/index.cfm?ty=tp&tid=703#pubs.
Smith, B. & Holmes, M. (February 01, 2014). Police Use of Excessive Force in Minority
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Weitzer, R. (n.d.). Federal Investigations of Police Misconduct: A Multi-City Comparison.
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http://www.academia.edu/37650432/Federal_Investigations_of_Police_Misconduct_A_
Multi-City_Comparison
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force. Criminal justice theory: Explaining the nature and behavior of criminal justice,
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