Towards a psychological understanding of police officer use of force decision-making
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Date
2025-01
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University of New Brunswick
Abstract
One of the most controversial aspects of policing is an officer’s legal authority to use coercion and physical force to overcome resistance and gain compliance from citizens. Research examining predictors of use of force have identified several police-citizen encounter characteristics, and suspect sociodemographics and behaviours, that are associated with use of force. Less empirical attention, however, has been given to the role of psychological factors in use of force decision-making. The current dissertation examined the relationship between two psychological constructs, decision-making styles and executive functioning, with police officer actions in a use of force simulation. Sworn police officers (N = 101) completed measures of decision-making styles (i.e., rational, intuitive, dependent, spontaneous, and avoidant) and executive functions (i.e., behavioural regulation, emotional regulation, and metacognition). Afterwards, officers participated in a use of force simulation requiring them to resolve a scenario with a passively resistant and noncompliant mock suspect. Primary outcome measures were officers’ performance quality and appropriateness of force used in the simulation, rated by expert use of force trainers from video recordings of the simulation. Participants predominantly endorsed rational and intuitive decision-making styles and had normative executive function abilities. Correlational analyses revealed that rational decision-making was associated with greater executive function capabilities, whereas avoidant decision-making was most strongly associated with poorer executive functions. Latent profile analysis identified three profiles of officers, labelled rational/high self-regulation, decisional-balance/moderate self-regulation, and decisional-avoidance/low self-regulation. Relative to the rational/high self-regulation profile, the latter profiles endorsed greater use of dependent, spontaneous, and avoidant decision-making styles, and had more problems with executive functions. No between-profile differences emerged with respect to performance quality and appropriateness of force in the simulation. Decision-making styles and executive function did not predict performance quality or inappropriate use of force; however, avoidant decision-making was significantly correlated with inappropriate force. Overall, the current findings can be used to inform the development of explanatory models of use of force decision-making rooted in psychological theory. Furthermore, the broad pattern of results can be used to inform training to minimize officer use of force, particularly inappropriate force, and enhance safety to officers and citizens alike.