Use of Excessive Force and Sexual Misconduct in Law Enforcement

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Recommended: Corruption of public police officers

The Bureau of Justice conducted a police-public contact survey. Eith and Durose (2011) state that 9 out of 10 residents who were sixteen years old or older advise that they believed that the officer’s that they had contact with, acted fairly and did not abuse their authority.
There have been a number of officers who have been accused and convicted of using excessive force. In one case in a maximum security prison in New York there were two correction officers that were caught on video hitting an inmate that was handcuffed behind the back. According to the video it did not appear that the inmate provoked the assault in anyway. Both officers that were involved in the assault were later fired by the prison and they were found guilty of a civil rights violation.
Sexual assault and sexual misconduct are other issues that must be addressed and dealt with in law enforcement. Sexual assault of an inmate by an officer should never happen under any circumstance. However, when it does officers should be dealt with immediately. There is never a situation where sexual contact with an inmate should be allowed or over looked. Sexual contact with an inmate should be grounds for immediate termination, as well as charges filed against the officer. In 2008 a court of appeals in Michigan found in favor of ten female inmates who were sexually abused by guards at Michigan's Scott Correctional Facility (Heenan, 2009). These women were awarded $15.4 million. In another case of sexual harassment and rape in another Michigan prison, eight women were awarded $8.5 million for the abuse they sustained while incarcerated (Heenan, 2009).
In a case in New York City a male police officer told an eighteen year old female that he would do away with h...

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...er, E. (2013). Reforming police use-of-force practices: A case study of the Cincinnati
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Sheng, P. (2011). An "objectively reasonable" criticism of the doctrine of qualified immunity in excessive force cases brought under 42 U.S.C. § 1983. BYU Journal of Public Law, 26(1),
99-110.
Smith, M. R., Petrocelli, M., & Scheer, C. (2007). Excessive force, civil liability, and the taser in the nation's courts. Policing, 30(3), 398-422
Sussman, A. (2012). Shocking the Conscience: What police tasers and weapon technology
Reveal about excessive force law. UCLA Law Review, 59(5), 1342-1415.
Tasers and liability. (2010, Jan 05). New York Times (1923-Current File)
Williams, G. (2002). Force continuums: A liability to law enforcement? FBI Law
Enforcement Bulletin, 71 (6), 14

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