Fitton, Oliver and Butler, Jeremy (2025) ‘Good’ vs. ‘Bad’ use of force : Establishing a research agenda to inform martial arts training for police officers. In: Martial Arts Studies Conference 2025, 2025-06-10 - 2025-06-12, Cardiff University. (In Press)
Full text not available from this repository.Abstract
Police officers must often use physical force in the course of their duties. This ranges from the application of basic martial arts techniques, through specialised restraint and control, to the application of lethal force. In societies where policing is by consent, the misuse of force by police officers can lead to the erosion of police legitimacy and in extremis public unrest. Police defensive tactics training must strike a balance between producing effective martial arts skills that will help keep officers and the public safe, and limiting an officer’s potential to misuse force. This training has historically been supplied by local martial artists or commercially available training programs. Recent moves to professionalise and standardise this training has identified a lack of academic literature to support this transition. Our current research seeks to critically engage with notions of “good” and “bad” use of force by police officers to inform future defensive tactics training design and delivery. In this presentation, we will describe an ongoing research project in partnership with a Northern English police force which focuses on the application of Bandura’s (1997) Social Cognitive Theory (SCT) to defensive tactics training. The self-efficacy construct within SCT may be used to identify and support officers who are either ineffective in their use of force or prone to misuse it. This 5-year study will assess the self-efficacy of new officers in relation to specific competencies associated with the use of force. These data will be compared to performance related data (use of force forms, complaints, injury reports, commendations etc.) generated by officers to determine if self-efficacy ratings correlate to performance. This study provides the opportunity to ignite a wider research agenda (in partnership with practitioners) in pursuit of a critical academic literature that addresses police use of force.