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Crime Law Soc Change (2009) 52:181206
DOI 10.1007/s10611-008-9178-5
Astrid Klukkert & Thomas Ohlemacher &
Thomas Feltes
Published online: 13 December 2008# Springer Science + Business Media B.V. 2008
Abstract Considering earlier research into police use of force as well as the judicial and practical frame of police work in Germany, the article presents the results of an empirical study on the individual and collective legitimization of the use of force by German police officers. There are numerous justifications for the use of force expressed by focus group participants in eight German Federal States who were responding to a hypothesized scenario. In the discussions observed within the groups, reference is first made to the states duty to prosecute alleged offences and the measures or formal actions to do thishence, the legal authority to use force. In the course of the discussions, however, it became obvious that illegal violence may occur, although it was not perceived as such by the officers. Overall, and after an intensive analysis of the focus group discussions, it can be stated that use of force (whether legal or not) depends on the police officers perception of the resistance of the person being engaged with. In this regard, different socialcultural or physical material factors can be identified. They have different influences on the individual legitimization of police actions, intertwined with the perception of the situation as constructed by the officer. Three ways of perceiving the situation can be deduced, resulting in different patterns of justification for the use of force.
A. Klukkert (*)
Ruhr-University Bochum, Master of Criminology and Police ScienceRuhr-Universitt Bochum, Universittsstrae 150, GC 5, 44801 Bochum, Germanye-mail: [email protected]
T. Ohlemacher
Lower Saxony Police Academy and University of HildesheimPolizeiakademie Niedersachsen, Gimter Str. 10, 34346 Hannoversch Mnden, Germanye-mail: [email protected]
T. Feltes
Ruhr-Universitt Bochum, Criminal Justice Policy and Police ScienceRuhr-University Bochum, Universittsstrae 150, GC 5, 44801 Bochum, Germanye-mail: [email protected]
Torn between two targets: German police officers talk about the use of force
182 A. Klukkert et al.
Introduction
Reducing violence, whether it is the use of force by police officers or the violent behaviour of citizens, is one of the central aims of modern democratic societies. Therefore, examining the justifications of actual or presumed legal use of force by police officers is important so...