TY - JOUR
T1 - Conducted Energy Devices (CEDs) and Citizen Injuries
T2 - The Shocking Empirical Reality
AU - Terrill, William
AU - Paoline, Eugene A.
N1 - Funding Information:
William Terrill is an associate professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University. His research centers on police behavior, with an emphasis on police use of force policies and practices. He has published numerous scholarly articles, chapters, and reports as well as a book entitled Police Coercion: Application of the Force Continuum (2001, LFB Scholarly Publishing). He earned his Ph.D. in 2000 from the School of Criminal Justice at Rutgers University, Newark. Eugene A. Paoline III is an associate professor in the Department of Criminal Justice at the University of Central Florida. He holds a Ph.D. in criminal justice from the University at Albany, State University of New York. His research interests include police culture, police use of force, and occupational attitudes of criminal justice practitioners. He is the author of Rethinking Police Culture (2001, LFB Scholarly Publishing) and has produced more than two dozen research articles that have appeared in a variety of peer-reviewed journals. Correspondence to: William Terrill, School of Criminal Justice, Michigan State University, 532 Baker Hall, East Lansing, MI 48824-1118, USA. E-mail: terrillw@msu.edu 1. This article is based on data from the Assessing Police Use of Force Policies and Outcomes project, supported by Grant No. 2005-IJ-CX-0055 by the NIJ, Office of Justice Programs, and US Department of Justice. Points of view are those of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the US Department of Justice. An earlier version of this manuscript was presented at the NIJ Conference in Washington, DC, in June 2010.
PY - 2012/4
Y1 - 2012/4
N2 - As one of the contemporary additions to the use of force spectrum, conducted energy devices (CEDs) have been surrounded by controversy. Such concerns have fueled a number of studies, many of which have attempted to examine the relationship between CEDs and citizen injuries. This limited body of research, however, has produced inconsistent results and suffers from a number of documented drawbacks. Drawing on data collected as part of a national multi-agency use of force project, the current study analyzes nearly 14,000 use-of-force incidents across seven agencies, over 2,600 of which involve a CED, to assess the potential impact of CEDs on citizen injuries. In doing so, a series of multivariate statistical models are employed that isolate CED cases and compare them to a number of both hands-on and weapon-based tactics. Unlike previous research, which often highlights the beneficial aspects of CEDs in relation to injuries, our findings generally show an increased risk between the use of CEDs and citizen injuries. As such, more research is needed before deriving any conclusions as to the "safeness" of CEDs, especially in relation to the choice between using a CED or an alternative means of dispute resolution (either hands-on physical force or another weapon).
AB - As one of the contemporary additions to the use of force spectrum, conducted energy devices (CEDs) have been surrounded by controversy. Such concerns have fueled a number of studies, many of which have attempted to examine the relationship between CEDs and citizen injuries. This limited body of research, however, has produced inconsistent results and suffers from a number of documented drawbacks. Drawing on data collected as part of a national multi-agency use of force project, the current study analyzes nearly 14,000 use-of-force incidents across seven agencies, over 2,600 of which involve a CED, to assess the potential impact of CEDs on citizen injuries. In doing so, a series of multivariate statistical models are employed that isolate CED cases and compare them to a number of both hands-on and weapon-based tactics. Unlike previous research, which often highlights the beneficial aspects of CEDs in relation to injuries, our findings generally show an increased risk between the use of CEDs and citizen injuries. As such, more research is needed before deriving any conclusions as to the "safeness" of CEDs, especially in relation to the choice between using a CED or an alternative means of dispute resolution (either hands-on physical force or another weapon).
KW - TASER
KW - citizen injuries
KW - conducted energy devices
KW - police
KW - use of force
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U2 - 10.1080/07418825.2010.549834
DO - 10.1080/07418825.2010.549834
M3 - Article
AN - SCOPUS:84858220156
SN - 0741-8825
VL - 29
SP - 153
EP - 182
JO - Justice Quarterly
JF - Justice Quarterly
IS - 2
ER -