Seminar inCriminology Discussion 4 - Essay Example

Law Discussion 4: Criminology Question When the police go beyond the required use of reasonable force and use excessive force they usually receive a lot of attention from the public, media, criminal courts and politicians. In most cases it always results to loss of the public’s trust in the police. In the event of making an arrest, dealing with rows and dispersing uncontrollable crowds, there are laws that each state locates to avoid citizens from becoming victims of the police. In 1970s, the rate of use of extreme police force was known to be unbearably high.

However, in the mid-1970s, the U.S police departments in most states started coming up with policies that were restrictive when it came to issues related to use of extreme force. After this period, the use of force reduced when the police were dispersing crowds during riots or human rights groups and activists on strike.Question 2From the study that I selected on police use of force, there are several findings that Langston and Durose established in year 2011 regarding the use of police brutality and their behavior on streets and highways.

On page 21, the study shows that the percentage of persons stopped in table 12 and 13 increased when the persons were stopped for no reason. However, despite being stopped for no reason, table 12 shows that 9.0% of the police behave appropriately. According to Langston and Durose (2013), persons who were stopped from any other reason, only 3.9% of the police behave appropriately. In table 13, the rate of people who reported that they thought excessive force was used and rated at 3.5% (Langston & Durose, 2013).

The findings in the study show that there was a drop in instances when the police used force in 2011. This is a drop compared to the 1970s, when there were more instances recorded where the police used a lot of force.ReferenceLangton, L., & Durose, M. (2013). Police behavior during traffic and street stops, 2011. NCJRS. Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2-21. Retrieved from http://www.bjs.gov/content/pub/pdf/pbtss11.pdf