Unlawful use of force by police: processes of victimization, willingness to report, and composition of the dark figure

• Applicant: Professor Dr. Tobias Singelnstein
• Subject Area: Criminology
• Term: from 2017 to 2024
• Project identifier: Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG) - Project number 361231439

Illegal use of force by police officers has been scarcely studied empirically, even though there has been considerable public debate concerning this subject. Especially pertaining to the dark figure of unreported crime and aspects of victimization, virtually no findings are available, but the mutual dynamics of these conflictual situations and their processing by police have been insufficiently studied as well. In view of the above, the proposed study is intended to research illegal police use of force systematically from the victims perspective and in context of its procedural treatment by police for the first time. The main focus will be on examining the process of victimization, the willingness to report criminal behavior as an offence, handling by police and patterns and composition of the dark figure through a quantitative victim survey and qualitative interviews with experts.The research project has three central objectives. First, to record and analyze experiences of victimization by illegal police use of force. The key questions here are which persons become victims in which situations and how these sequences unfold. Secondly, the complaint behavior of those victims is examined. The analysis will focus on how often charges are brought, the considerations that influence this decision, and whether particularities exist for certain groups of victims. Thirdly, insights are to be gained on size and composition of the dark figure for illegal use of force by police officers. Here, the ratio of reported incidents to those that were not reported is of particular interest, since it provides information about the effective extent of illegal police use of force. The study consists of two methodological components which build upon one another and is set to run for two years. Centerpiece is a quantitative victim survey with at least 700 participating victims who can chose to be questioned by phone or take an identical online survey concerning experiences with illegal police use of force and complaint behavior. The findings are then systematically enlarged upon in the second part of the study comprising approximately 75 expert interviews with police officers and instructors, counsellors from victim support organizations, journalists, judges, prosecutors and specialized lawyers. The results of this study will allow for statements about misconduct during police use of force based on empirical findings and will for the first time supply nuanced and reliable data on victimization risks, police handling of such cases, the dark figure and the willingness to bring charges for the range of offenses in question. In view of the subject matters characteristic features, these findings will be of high value to any academic research in the field of dark figures and the willingness to bring charges in general.

• DFG Programme: Research Grants