Police violence as punishment: Does excessive use of force serve to punish those who threaten status and power hierarchies in society?

Objectives

Why do some people view excessive police violence as acceptable? We reason that excessive police violence not only seeks to control crime, but also to punish criminal offenders. We propose the concept of police violence for punishment and explore its associations with different forms of punishment and punishment motivations. We reason that some people support excessive police violence to reinforce status and power hierarchies with minority groups.

Method

We draw on data from a representative sample of adults living in Chile conducted in 2015 (n=1,302). We use structural equation models to predict support for police violence for punishment, legal and extra-legal violence.

Results

Police violence for punishment was strongly related to support for extra-legal punishment. Punitive police violence and extra-legal punishment were both predicted by the motivation to restore status and power relationships, followed by deterrence. In contrast, norm restoration was the main predictor of legal punishment. Police violence for punishment was significantly less supported by ethnic minority members.

Conclusions

We conclude that police excessive use of force can usefully be understood as police violence as punishment. We discuss the extent to which police repression is perceived to restore status and power hierarchies threatened by crime. We conclude that reducing police violence requires a political and cultural process well beyond reforming police protocols and procedures. Working towards more horizontal relations between police officers, citizens and minority groups should reduce perceived needs to restore power and status relationships, hereby reducing support for police violence as punishment.