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

尽管公众对警察非法使用武力的问题进行了大量辩论，但对这一问题的实证研究却很少。特别是在未报告犯罪的黑暗数字和受害情况方面，几乎没有任何调查结果，但对这些冲突局势的相互动态以及警方对这些局势的处理也没有进行充分研究。鉴于上述情况，拟议的研究旨在从受害者的角度，并首次结合警方的程序处理，系统地研究警察非法使用武力的问题。主要重点将是通过对受害者的定量调查和对专家的定性访谈，审查受害过程、举报犯罪行为的意愿、警方的处理方式以及黑暗人物的模式和构成。第一，记录和分析警察违法使用武力的受害经历。这里的关键问题是，哪些人在哪些情况下成为受害者，以及这些序列如何展开。其次，考察了被害人的申诉行为。分析将侧重于提出指控的频率、影响这一决定的考虑因素以及某些受害者群体是否存在特殊性。第三，要深入了解警察非法使用武力的“黑数字”的规模和构成。在这方面，报告的事件与未报告的事件的比率特别令人感兴趣，因为它提供了关于警察非法使用武力的有效程度的信息。这项研究由两个相互依赖的方法组成，为期两年。中心是一个定量的受害者调查，至少有700名参与调查的受害者，他们可以选择通过电话接受询问，也可以选择参加一个关于警察非法使用武力和投诉行为的相同的在线调查。研究报告的第二部分系统地阐述了调查结果，其中包括与警官和教官、受害者支助组织的顾问、记者、法官、检察官和专业律师进行的大约75次专家访谈。这项研究的结果将使人们能够根据经验调查结果对警察使用武力期间的不当行为作出陈述，并将首次提供关于受害风险、警察对此类案件的处理、黑数和对所涉各种罪行提出指控的意愿的细致可靠的数据。鉴于主题的特点，这些调查结果将对黑暗人物领域的任何学术研究具有很高的价值，并愿意提出指控。

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.