Understanding and Preventing Police Use of Excessive Force
Total Page:16
File Type:pdf, Size:1020Kb
UNDERSTANDING AND PREVENTING POLICE USE OF EXCESSIVE FORCE: AN ANALYSIS OF ATTITUDES TOWARD POLICE JOB SATISFACTION AND HUMAN RIGHTS LAWS Huseyin Akdogan, B.A., M.S. Dissertation Prepared for the Degree of DOCTOR OF PHILOSOPHY UNIVERSITY OF NORTH TEXAS December 2009 APPROVED: Lisa Dicke, Committee Chair David McEntire, Committee Member Kevin Yoder, Committee Member Robert Bland, Committee Member and Chair of the Department of Public Administration Thomas Evenson, Dean of College of Public Affairs and Community Service Michael Monticino, Dean of the Robert B. Toulouse School of Graduate Studies Akdogan, Huseyin. Understanding and preventing police use of excessive force: An analysis of attitudes toward police job satisfaction and human rights laws. Doctor of Philosophy (Public Administration and Management), December 2009, 178 pages, 22 tables, 7 figures, references, 82 titles. Although governments try to create strict policies and regulations to prevent abuses, use of excessive force is still a problem for almost every country including Turkey. This study is intended to help Turkish National Police administrators to understand and prevent police use of excessive force. Studies on police brutality categorize three factors that explain why police officers use excessive force; these are individual, situational and organizational. In addition to brutality theories, job satisfaction literature is examined in this study to understand the use of excessive force. Job satisfaction is found to be related with burnout, turnover, stress, commitment, and performance. The impact of officers’ attitude toward the criminal justice system and/or laws has not been tested widely. Police officers attitudes toward human rights laws are examined in this study to measure its impact on attitude toward use of excessive force. A secondary data collected in Turkey are analyzed by structural equation modeling which provides confirmatory factor analysis, path analysis, and causal relationships between variables. It is found that police officers’ attitude toward human rights laws is a significant predictor of their attitudes toward use of excessive force. Job satisfaction and education level are the other significant variables affecting attitude toward use of excessive force. Based on the analyses of findings, educational and policy implications are posed for Turkish police administrators to better understand and prevent police use of excessive force. Copyright 2009 by Huseyin Akdogan ii ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS The completion of my doctoral education could not have been possible without the sponsorship of the Turkish National Police as well as the contributions of some distinguished people. First, I would like to thank my Organization, Turkish National Police for providing me this opportunity. I would like to express my deepest gratitude to my chair, Dr. Lisa Dicke. I am grateful to Dr. Dicke for her excellent expertise, wisdom and leadership. She always expected my best, and kept me on track. My gratitude is also extended to Dr. Kevin Yoder. His knowledge and help in statistics was my guiding force. I would also like to sincerely thank to my other committee members, Dr. David McEntire, and Dr. Robert Bland for their commitment in working with me on this project and for their valuable contributions to this dissertation. Finally, I would like to express my gratitude with my love to my wife Dilek, my daughter Damla, and my son Hasan Mert. Their encouragement, understanding, and sacrifices provided me the necessary energy to pursue my doctoral education. iii TABLE OF CONTENTS ACKNOWLEDGEMENTS ..............................................................................................iii LIST OF TABLES..........................................................................................................viii LIST OF FIGURES..........................................................................................................x Chapters 1. INTRODUCTION....................................................................................................... 1 Statement of the Problem .......................................................................... 1 Research Questions .................................................................................. 2 History of Use of Excessive Force and Human Right Violations in Turkey........................................................................................................ 3 Attitudes and Behaviors............................................................................. 7 Terrorism and Human Rights in Turkey ..................................................... 9 Significance of the Study ......................................................................... 10 Current Theories on Police Brutality ........................................................ 10 Conclusion of the Chapter ....................................................................... 11 2. REVIEW OF THE LITERATURE.............................................................................. 13 Police Brutality and Excessive Use of Force: Legalities........................... 13 Theories of Police Brutality ...................................................................... 16 Individual Factors: Characteristics of Police Officers .................... 16 Situational Factors: Characteristics of Suspect and the Environment.................................................................................. 19 Organizational Factors: Characteristics of the Police Organization....................................................................... 23 Police Brutality Theories and Turkey ....................................................... 29 Police Job Satisfaction............................................................................. 30 Individual Factors Associated with Job Satisfaction...................... 30 Job Satisfaction Related to Stress, Burnout, Commitment and Police Use of Force....................................................................... 34 iv Organizational Factors Associated with Job Satisfaction .............. 35 Police and Human Rights Laws ............................................................... 38 Conclusion of the Chapter ....................................................................... 40 3. DATA AND METHODOLOGY.................................................................................. 42 Research Background ............................................................................. 42 Structure of the Turkish National Police (TNP) ........................................ 43 Proposed Model....................................................................................... 44 Hypotheses.............................................................................................. 45 Characteristics and Data.......................................................................... 46 Definitions and Terms.............................................................................. 51 Measurement of the Concepts................................................................. 52 Endogenous (Dependent) Variable: Police Officers’ Attitudes toward Halting the Use of Excessive Force ......................................................... 53 Exogenous (Independent and Control) Variables .................................... 53 Demographic Variables................................................................. 53 General and Job Satisfaction Questions ....................................... 55 Structural Equation Modeling (SEM)........................................................ 56 Analytic Strategy...................................................................................... 59 Conclusion of the Chapter ....................................................................... 59 4. FINDINGS ................................................................................................................ 67 Threshold Values for Statistical Analysis ................................................. 67 Descriptive Analysis................................................................................. 68 Descriptive Statistics for Control Variables ................................... 69 Descriptive Statistics for Exogenous Variables ............................. 72 Descriptive Statistics for the Endogenous Variable....................... 74 Bivariate Correlations............................................................................... 76 Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) ........................................................ 79 CFA for Attitude toward Halting the Use of Excessive Force ........ 79 v CFA for Job Satisfaction ............................................................... 84 CFA for Attitude toward HR Laws ................................................. 87 CFA for All Latent Variables.......................................................... 91 Structural Equation Model........................................................................ 95 Conclusion of the Chapter ..................................................................... 101 5. ANALYSIS OF FINDINGS...................................................................................... 102 Confirmatory Factor Analysis (CFA) ...................................................... 102 The Analysis of CFA for Attitude toward Halting the Use of Excessive Force.......................................................................... 103 The Analysis of CFA for Job Satisfaction