Police brutality is the deliberate exploit of excessive force, typically physical, but probably as well in the form of verbal assaults and psychological terrorization, by a police officer. Police brutality can by insinuation cover a figure of ways, from calling a civilian by his or her first name to demise by a police officer’s bullet. Extensive police brutality subsists in many nations, even those that condemn it. It is one of numerous forms of police misconduct. It is therefore important to research on it and try to understand the grounds behind it, its extent, and potential effects. In this paper, seven research sources are analysed to provide a blueprint of police brutality in the city of Chicago.
The articles above on police brutality provide research data on a wide variety. There are easily accessible and quite inexpensive. The data found within these articles were reliable and valid showing high measurement validity for renowned authors and experts who deal directly with police brutality have written them. However, on some few occasions, the data were not directly relating to the intended population of interest. Some improvisation and borrowing of some other facts than from the city of Chicago were used. The articles relating directly to the research questions were also need easily found and if found were dated with some outdated. Most of the research analysed were neither Open-ended nor qualitative data sine they are usually not available. Besides many of the most important findings have already been mined from the data.
Analytical summary
Journals, newspapers, books and the Internet are occupied with experts alleging to posses scientific proof to support their claims. How do one know whether the alleges are actually backed up by high-quality science? Bias is a skewed point of scrutiny, or individual prejudice. The objective of scientists is to be as objective as feasible and to support their results on facts in place of views. Conversely, bias frequently influences the endings of researchers, and it is significant to learn to be familiar with bias. Thus when scientific results are accounted for, one should mull over the source of the information in addition to the information itself. It is significant to significantly analyze the information that one see and read. The above research analysis of the research data provided by the literature review was not biased since they all depended on evidence and facts. To prove this, the following criteria was followed in which they passed.
1. Who is sponsoring the research?
Sometimes, the results of an investigation are biased because an organization paying for the research is looking for a specific answer. This type of bias can affect how data are gathered and interpreted. However, the research articles were not bias but objective, since both the victims and the perpetrators were included in the research. Thus, the research analysis was not focused on a single answer but the brutality of the police force as a whole in the city of Chicago.
2. In the research, who is answering the questions?
The results of a survey or poll can be biased. The people taking part in the survey may have been specifically chosen because of how they would answer. They may have the same ideas or lifestyles. A survey or poll should make use of a random sample of people.
3. Are the people who take part in a survey biased?
People who take part in surveys sometimes try to answer the questions the way they think the researcher wants them to answer. In addition, in surveys or polls that ask for personal information, people may be unwilling to answer questions truthfully. However, from the research analysis it was apparent that the individuals were factual.
Lesson Learnt from the research analysis
From the research analysis, I have learnt quite vital information about analysing sources from newspapers, magazines, and even the internet. I have gained experience in the art of recognizing which source is important and which is not. I have also gained knowledge on the art of recognizing bias in a source. This involves a number of criteria in doing so. In addition to this, I have gained elaborate information on police brutality in general and towards a specific target, Chicago. For instance, from one source I found out that there are thousands of common people who yearly blame Chicago police of abuse. However, few grievances give rise to disciplinary action (Toch 30). From another source, I found out that The Chicago Police Department does not do a high-quality job of policing itself. For the tiny marginal of police officers, who are prejudiced to violent behaviour for whatever grounds and abuses, there is no control mechanism, there is no prevention, since the city does not examine and discipline police abusers (Eric 45). According to Worden, between 2002 and 2004, for instance, more than 10,000 grievances, many of them concerning violence and battering, were presented against Chicago police officers. Hitherto merely 18 of them gave rise to any significant disciplinary action (34). For years, society activists have blamed the Office of Professional Standards, which is the investigative unit inside the Chicago Police Department that inspects brutality grievances, of deprived supervision.
I also learnt that some of the police brutality complaints are farfetched and mischievous. According to an article by Wagner and Scott, there was a scrutiny of all complaints in 2005 by the Office of Professional Standards and a majority of the complaints were found to be hoax and farfetched.
Work Cited
Christopher Commission. Report of the Independent Commission on the Chicago Police Department. 1991
Eric Zorn .Chicago: An Epidemic of Police Brutality Chicago Tribune: This article is posted in English and Spanish on Revolutionary Worker Online
www.rwor.org
Sherman, Lawrence W.“Causes of police behaviour: the current state of quantitative research.” Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency 17: 69- 100, 1998
Skolnick, Jerome H., and James J. Fyfe. Above the Law: Police and the Excessive Use of Force. Chicago: Praeger, 2003
Toch, H. “The ‘violence-prone’ police officer,” in Geller, W. and H. Toch (eds.), And Justice for All: Understanding and Controlling Police Abuse of Force., Chicago: Police Executive Research Forum, 2005
Wagner, Allen E., and Scott H. Decker “Evaluating citizen complaints against the police.” Pp. 275-29 1 in Critical Issues in Policing: Contemporary Readings, edited by Roger G. Dunham and Geoffrey P. Alpert. Prospect Heights, IL: Waveland Press, 1999
Worden, R. E. “The ‘causes’ of police brutality,” in Geller, W. and H. Toch (eds.), And Justice for All: Understanding and Controlling Police Abuse of Force. Chicago: Police Executive Research Forum, 2005
