Book Review: When police use force: Context, methods, outcomes

• Author: Patricia Dooley
• Date: 01 September 2021
• DOI: 10.1177/0734016818798020
• Published date: 01 September 2021
• Subject Matter: Book Reviews

further research and collaboration is needed with respect to the buy in of local police officials,

uniform training, and developing an instit utionalized systems approach that addr esses criminal

justice system reform issues. In closing, this book challenges our current commitment to curb police

misconduct. It serves as a well-articulated foundation that law enforcement practitioners can build

on irrespective of whether or not they agree with Rushin proposal.

Boylstein, C. (2018).

When police use force: Context, methods, outcomes. Boulder, CO: Lynne Rienner. 169 pp. $69.95, ISBN

9781626376991.

Reviewed by: Patricia Dooley, Georgia State University, Atlanta, GA, USA

DOI: 10.1177/0734016818798020

In a quantitative study of police use-of-force, Boylstein provides both a historical overview of use-

of-force used by the police and a contemporary look at the topic. Beginning with defining the term

“use-of-force,” the author lays the groundwork for the book through recent literature as well as

historical landmark cases. Boylstein’s book works toward a general understanding of the signifi-

cance of this issue while provoking a need for further research. After laying the groundwork, he

outlines and provides his initial results of the quantitative study of police use-of-force. This book is

more than a starting point for future research; it is a contemporary characterization of the current

status of police use-of-force and the protections in place for both the subject and the officers.

What is police use-of-force? This topic is both intricate and yet easy to understand through

Boylstein’s contextual outline of the book. Through his conceptualization of use-of-force, using

both examples and diagrams gives the reader an overview of the use-of-force continuum. While

Boylstein provides traditional use-of-force continuums, he offers up a revised continuum formed

using social science data. Employing research from both the United States and Canada, Boylstein

notes the ever-evolving continuum and a need to explore the formation and its real-time application

further.

To help facilitate the reader’s understanding of how the use-of-force by the police has evolved,

Boylstein reviews the landmark Supreme Court cases. Beginning in the 1980s, the author discusses

cases that altered the actions allowed and the protections for the police when they exercise their right

to use force. The benchmark cases of Tennessee v. Garner and Graham v. Connor established the

requirements for reasonableness in the 1980s. In the 1990s, with ever-increasing tensions, the

Supreme Court approached the issue of differences in the opinion of reasonableness. The author

notes that while what is reasonable will differ on whether the person is a police officer or a subject

the Court will often side with the officer. In the early 2000s, the Supreme Court expanded protec-

tions under qualified immunity until the 2016 limitations where the Supreme Court addresses public

concerns of use-of-force. The beginning of this book addresses the contextual and foundational

aspects of this topic. While the author only attempts to provide the reader with background infor-

mation on the cases, he never misses the chance to discuss that there is always a chance for change.

He encourages further discussion and research into the differences found in both the historical cases

and recent research.

The next section of the book addresses the choices and uses of different secondary data sets for

analysis. The third chapter includes a general outline of the current state of literature and commonly

used databases of use-of-force data. The consensus of his findings is that while police use-of-force is

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