Introduction to the CJCCJ Special Issue on Police Use of Force

Abstract

*Please direct correspondence to Rémi Boivin, School of Criminology, Université de Montréal, Pavillon LionelGroulx, 3150, rue Jean-Brillant, Montréal, QC, H3T 1N8; remi.boivin@umontreal.ca Recent fatal encounters between citizens and trained and better armed police offi cers raise questions about the use of force and, more generally, the role of the police in our societies. Th e deaths of George Floyd (Minneapolis, Minnesota), Michael Brown (Ferguson, Missouri), Sammy Yatim (Toronto, Ontario), and Alain Magloire (Montreal, Quebec) sparked social unrest and fuelled political movements such as Black Lives Matter throughout the world. While important observations, discussions, commentaries, and questions followed these events, one common characteristic, in both traditional and social media, is the tendency to oversimplify situations without relying on contextual and empirical evidence. Coverage of events now also crosses borders easily to become international news while legal situations – and thus, the supporting frame for analysis – remain national. Floyd’s and Brown’s deaths resonated outside the United States and aff ected our understanding of police interventions, but ultimately they happened in a specifi c country with specifi c issues. We might live in a globalizing world, but the police remain a state or national entity, not a global one. Still, a wide range of scientifi c studies supported by empirical evidence can provide helpful knowledge to the debates, regardless of their geographic focus.