Police Brutality Research Paper

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Over the past decade, police have acted out in ways that have made people wonder if our officers of the law really doing their job. Unjustified shootings, severe beatings, fatal chokings, and rough treatment all contribute to the ever-present problem of police abuse in America. Police officers may sometimes be put in a position where excessive force is needed. Nevertheless, because some officers tend to use extreme measures in some situations where they are not necessary, police brutality is a problem and should be addressed. Skolnick questions if the police are just an institution falling under the leadership of the legal system. The article “Justice Without Trial” explains how the police are one of the most important agents of law’s violence.…show more content…
This association however is not only a consequence of the amount of street or car stops they experience or of the degree of police intrusion that occurs during those stops. Rather, the estimated impact of involuntary contact with the police is mediated by evaluations of the fairness of police actions and judgments about whether the police are acting lawfully. Whether the police are viewed as exercising their authority fairly and lawfully directly shapes respondent’s decision acceptance and the impact of stops on respondent’s general judgments about police legitimacy. The number of stops or the degree of police intrusion, in turn, influences fairness and lawfulness, during those stops. Similarly, judgments of justice and lawfulness mediate the estimated influence of judgments of the general character of police behavior in the community on general perceptions of police legitimacy. These results suggest that the widespread use of street stops undermines legitimacy. Lowered legitimacy has an influence on both law abidingness and the willingness to cooperate with legal authorities. However, the findings also show that it is not only police streets or police conduct during such stops that matters per se, but more importantly public perceptions of police injustice during those stops. The results suggest that police legitimacy is shaped by how fairly the police are viewed as exercising their

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