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相当多的辩论，但很少对其进行实证研究。特别是关于未报告的犯罪和受害方面的黑暗面，几乎没有任何发现，但是这些冲突情况的相互动态和警察的处理也没有得到充分的研究。有鉴于此，本研究旨在首次从受害者的角度，在警察程序性处理的背景下，系统地研究警察非法使用武力。主要的重点将是审查受害的过程、将犯罪行为作为犯罪报告的意愿、警察的处理以及通过对受害者进行定量调查和对专家进行定性访谈来审查黑暗面的模式和构成。该研究项目有三个中心目标。首先，记录和分析警察非法使用武力的受害经验。这里的关键问题是，哪些人在哪些情况下成为受害者，以及这些事件如何展开。其次，对受害人的申诉行为进行考察。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人数和构成。在这里，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资料。这项研究包括两个方法学组成部分，这两个方法学组成部分相互建立，并将持续两年。核心是一项定量的受害者调查，至少有700名受害者参与其中，他们可以选择通过电话或进行相同的在线调查，内容涉及警察非法使用武力和投诉行为的经历。研究报告的第二部分系统地扩大了调查结果，其中包括与警官和教官、受害者支助组织的顾问、记者、法官、检察官和专门律师进行的大约75次专家访谈。这项研究的结果将允许基于经验调查结果对警察使用武力期间的不当行为进行陈述，并将首次提供有关受害风险、警察处理此类案件、黑影和对所涉一系列罪行提出指控的意愿的细微和可靠数据。鉴于该题材的特点，这些发现将对任何在黑暗人物领域的学术研究和一般的起诉意愿具有很高的价值。

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.