Effect of suspect's gender on police use of physical force

"Police use of force has received much research attention as researchers attempt to explain various predictors of this phenomenon. This topic is of great interest to police practitioners, policy makers, researchers, scholars, and criminal justice students. Several studies have examined various predictors of this behavior, including officer education, race, experience, age, and sex. However, most of these studies focused on either the officers' or suspect's sex, while research on the interplay between suspect's sex and officer sex as a predictor of police use of force is lacking. Drawing on criminal threat theory and research on chivalry, this study will examine how the interplay between officer and suspect sex influences the likelihood and severity of police use of physical force. Further, given the influence of social norms on chivalry, the study will further investigate whether the presence of bystanders moderates the influence of officer and suspect sex on use of physical force. The study is based on data from the 1996-1997 (ICPSR 3172) study titled 'Understanding the use of force by and against the police in six jurisdictions in the United States'."--Page ii.