No / Many current threats to security arising from terrorism, 'rogue' states and civil wars are highly complex and often transnational in nature and effect. Such threats can no longer be meaningfully addressed at the national level alone but require an international response. Since the end of the Cold War, the use of force under international auspices (UN, NATO, EU) has increased substantially. However, such actions have not necessarily been accompanied by improvements in their democratic accountability. Pre-existing problems and inadequacies of parliamentary oversight of armed forces and use of force at the national level of many democratic states are mirrored, and even magnified, at the international level. The effect of imperfect democratic controls at the national level and the challenges to provide transparent and accountable multilateral responses results in the so-called `double democratic deficit¿ of the international use of force. Each chapter in this innovative work analyses the challenges of parliamentary and democratic supervision of international security structures and puts forward proposals on how to improve democratic accountability of multinational responses to complex security challenges.

Individuals observe their surroundings and naturally judge others by what they observe or hear. In recent media portrayals, law enforcement officers were scrutinized for use of force and individuals were quick to verbalize their interpretation of events. Bandura's social learning theory served as a focal lens to guide the study. This qualitative phenomenological study examined lived experiences and what factors influence public perception of law enforcement use of force. Interviews were conducted with 10 participants who have encountered or witnessed law enforcement officers utilize use of force during a citizen encounter. NVivo software was used to code and analyze themes from interviews. The findings indicated lived experiences and emotions were high and did influence perception of use of force. Participants explained a variety of emotions when discussing their lived experiences. In addition, social media and mainstream news media played an important role in shaping perception of police officer use of force. This study promotes social change by presenting law enforcement agencies and society insight on how to improve on public perception and understanding of use of force so community relationships with law enforcement can flourish.

The amount of force used by law enforcement officers has become a highly-charged topic, especially among racial minority citizens and the law enforcement community. While the use of force by police officers is permitted by law enforcement agencies and expected by citizens, the amount and type of force used can trigger or cause problems, such as distrust or loss of confidence for the police agency, if the public perceives the force to be unjustified. The purpose of this phenomenological study was to explore the use of force by police officers and how to improve the relationship between racial minority citizens and law enforcement. Using Rawls' social justice theory as the foundation, the purpose of this qualitative study was to examine how the perceptions of the police use of force differ among racial minority citizens and police officers in a southern state. Data were collected from 20 racial minority citizens over the age of 18 from two southern cities who agreed to participate in my study. Additionally, 21 completed surveys were collected from current or retired law enforcement officers. Interview and survey data were inductively coded and subjected to a thematic analysis procedure. Survey data were analyzed using descriptive statistics. Findings indicate there needs to be more accountability on the use of force by the police, with many citizens feeling the police cannot be trusted. Both groups suggested perceptions are often influenced by the media, which may provide incorrect information. Results of this study may lead to positive social change with racial minority citizens and the law enforcement community by refining police policies and enhancing police training programs on the use of force. If changes are made, the relationship between the law enforcement community and racial minority citizens could ultimately improve perceptions on the use of force.

The premise of this dissertation is straight-forward – the U.S., as hegemon, acts unilaterally given the power disparity between it and the rest of the world. In solving the puzzle of why presidents make the “wrong” decision to act alone, I organize international conflict literature along traditional lines – international and domestic explanations – and use Gilpin’s (1981) hegemonic stability theory to test a theory of unilateral use of force decision making. In order to overcome a lack of scientific study on unilateralism, I devise a definition and coding rules for unilateral use of force, develop a sequential model of presidential use of force decision making, and construct a new, alternative measure of military power, a Composite Indicator of Military Revolutions (CIMR). I then use three methods – a statistical test with a heckman probit model, an experiment, and case studies – to test U.S. crisis behavior since 1937. I find that presidents are realists and make an expected utility calculation to act unilaterally or multilaterally after their decision to use force. The unilateral decision, in particular, positively correlates with a wide military gap vis-à-vis an opponent, an opponent located in the Western hemisphere, and a national security threat.

This thesis constitutes one of the first attempts to investigate police use of the electric-shock weapon the Taser in England and Wales, between 2004 – 2014. The research combines an inter-disciplinary approach—drawing on the criminology and policing literature, as well as on Science and Technology Studies (STS), Actor Network Theory (ANT) and Social Psychology—with mixed methods and novel data sources. It benefits from virtually unprecedented access to sources including internal police datasets, the College of Policing’s Lead Instructor Taser Training, Taser training in two forces, interviews with police officers and individuals subject to Taser. The thesis first explores how, and in what circumstances, Taser is used in selected forces in England and Wales, before looking at consequences of use for officers and subjects. It then discusses the broader legal, policy, training and accountability framework around the weapon, via an examination of three inter-related and widespread stories told about the weapon and its regulation: that Taser is a neutral tool, that appropriate use is a responsibility for, and at the discretion of, individual officers, and that it is subject to robust accountability mechanisms. It is argued that these stories, whilst not incorrect, are incomplete. Descriptions of the weapon as a neutral tool are understandable but not always convincing, decisions on its use are not just the preserve of individual officers, and accountability mechanisms are not always as robust as is claimed. The conclusions have implications for practitioners and for the literature on Taser. They also contribute to wider criminology debates around use of force, discretion and accountability, and to sociological debates about the relevance of STS and ANT approaches. Finally, the thesis not only highlights areas for future research, but also highlights some tentative recommendations for policy and practice.

abstract: Since the 1990s, stop and frisk activities have been a cornerstone of the New York Police Department (NYPD). The manner in which the NYPD has carried out stop, question, and frisks (SQFs), however, has been a focal point of discussion, resulting in public outrage and two major lawsuits. Recently, the Federal District Court Judge ruled that the NYPD was engaging in unconstitutional stop-and-frisk practices that targeted predominately Black and Latino New Yorkers. Questions surrounding the NYPD’s SQF practices have almost exclusively focused on racial and ethnic disproportionality in the rate of stops without necessarily considering what transpired during the stop. This study will fill that void by examining the prevalence and nature of use of force during those stops, along with testing the minority threat hypothesis. By combining micro-level measures from the NYPD’s 2012 “Stop, Question, and Frisk” database with macro-level variables collected from the United States Census Bureau, the current study examines police use of force in the context of SQF activities. The results should help judges, policy makers, police officers, and scholars understand the nature of police use of force in the context of SQFs. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Criminology and Criminal Justice 2015

abstract: There is demand for police reform in the United States to reduce use of force and bias, and to improve police-citizen relationships. Many believe de-escalation should be a more central feature of police training and practice. It is suggested that improving officers’ communication and conflict resolution skills will temper police-citizen interactions and reduce police use of force, and that such a change will improve citizen trust in the police. To date, however, de-escalation training has not spread widely across agencies, and de-escalation as a strategy has not been studied. Without an evidence-based understanding of these concepts, de-escalation training will proceed blindly, if at all. Accordingly, this dissertation represents one of the first empirical studies of de-escalation in police work. The author completed this study as an embedded researcher in the Spokane (WA) Police Department, and it proceeds in two parts. Part 1 was exploratory and qualitative, consisting of in-depth interviews (N=8) and a focus group (N=1) with eight highly skilled police de-escalators. These officers were nominated by peers as the best among them at de-escalating difficult encounters with citizens. The results in Part 1 explore officers’ perceptions of de-escalation and offer a definition of de-escalation as well as a description of de-escalation tactics. In Part 2, the author systematically observed the concepts developed in part 1 during 35 ride-alongs with 29 police officers, including the peer nominated officers (N=131 police-citizen encounters). This phase of the research investigated whether characteristics of officers, citizens, and situations are associated with de-escalation use, and de-escalation effectiveness. Implications from these findings are drawn for police practice, theory, and research methods. This dissertation is a launching point for empirical research on de-escalation in police work. / Dissertation/Thesis / Doctoral Dissertation Criminology and Criminal Justice 2017

No description available.

The United Nations, states and regional organisations have spent invaluable time and resources to maintain international peace and security in a largely anarchical international system, owing to armed conflicts between states and non-state actors (NSAs). This state of affairs is exacerbated by the proliferation of weapons of mass destruction, transnational terrorist networks, failed states and a disregard for international norms by powerful states. This is in spite of the normative and policy frameworks that have been established to constrain the use of force by states in the territories of one another. Article 2(4) of the United Nations Charter prohibits the use of force by states in their relations, unless they rely on the exceptions in articles 51 and 42 and the customary law doctrine of ?consent?. In addition, it was the requirement of international law that a state may use force against NSAs, only if it attributes the conduct of the NSAs to a state. This thesis examines the extraterritorial use of force by states against terrorist non-state actors, and the focus is to answer the question ?whether the law of self-defence has been transformed?. The investigation has been conducted with particular attention to whether the post 9/11 practice of states, the Security Council resolutions 1368 and 1373, the use of pre-emptive self-defence by the United States, Israel and a few other states, the disregard for attribution of the conduct of NSAs to states and the overwhelming international support for contemporary incidents of the use of force by states against NSAs, such as Al Qaeda, the Taliban, Al-Shaabab, the Khorasan Group and the Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant, have caused a change in the law of self-defence. Firstly, the study finds that pre-emptive self-defence which does not require imminence has not been accepted as part of international law and it argues that its unlawful use could not cause a change in the law. Secondly, as far as the use of self-defence against non-state actors is concerned, it finds that the actions of the United States against Al Qaeda following resolutions 1368 and 1373 of the Security Council, the lowering of the attribution standard and the toleration by the international community of the use of force against terrorists in Afghanistan, Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Yemen, Pakistan, Ecuador, Somalia and Mali without attributing their conduct to states, could be interpreted as amounting to a transformation of the law of self-defence. Accordingly, this study recommends the acceptance of the lowered threshold in the attribution requirement, but it also recommends a corresponding disregard of ?pre-emptive self-defence? as not forming part of the corpus of international law. It is also recommended that the jurisdiction of the International Criminal Court be enlarged to try transnational terrorism as one of the egregious crimes against mankind. / Thesis (LLD)--University of Pretoria, 2016. / Centre for Human Rights / LLD / Unrestricted

No description available.