Ethiological dimension of unlawful use of force in policing

Abstract

Coercion is undoubtedly the most explicit characteristic of police profession, which is often the base for defining its essence. It is, at the same time, the most delicate segment of police acts, having in mind that its use seriously interferes with human rights and freedoms. Therefore, it is not surprising that most researchers, in their quest to understand the work of the police and system of values of its members, are mostly focused on some of the aspects of using coercion. Although this paper is one in the series of such works, it still offers somewhat different approach to the concrete phenomenon in comparison to the one that dominates here, where the focus is mostly on discussing legal aspects and tactical-technical characteristics of police coercion. Due to its complexity and delicate nature, this topic requires a wider scientific approach, such as the one fostered within criminological perspective. If we add the fact that this perspective of police coercion is quite neglected in our literature, the writing of this paper gets its justification. However, its purpose and demanding scope force us to focus only on one criminological aspect of the concrete phenomenon. To that regard, discussion about aetiological dimension of illegal use of coercion measures seemed especially important. Thereby, due to its exceptionally complex causality, it was necessary to use multifactor approach in explaining the how this phenomenon occurs. Having this in mind, the paper points to some of the most important factors of illegal use of force in the acts of the police by looking at their mutual influence and contribution, firstly at general level, and then at the level of individual forms of this phenomenon in police such as brutality, torture and illegal deprivation of life.

Keywords

• police
• coercion measures
• exceeding
• abuse
• factors