Citation

Harmon RA. Northwest Univ. Law Rev. 2008; 102(3): 1119-1187.

Copyright

(Copyright © 2008, Northwestern University School of Law)

DOI

unavailable

PMID

unavailable

Abstract

The article determines situations when police violence in the U.S. is justified. The article also discusses the use of the Justification law, the one which provides a mechanism for balancing individual interests with moral obligations to each other. The author argues that because police officers are empowered and trained by the state, prepared for violence and denied the choice of retreat, their uses of force are unlike self defense, the form of justified individual violence. It also discusses inadequacy and indeterminacy in police use of force law and discusses the Fourth Amendment justifying police use of force.