18/06/2021
How does police brutality violate human rights
In some parts of the world, police forces are known for the brutality with which they operate. In Kosovo, for instance, the Serbian police functioned as a kind of paramilitary organization, responsible for numerous atrocities. In countries such as Brazil and Mexico, the police are known for all kinds of gross human rights violations: endemic brutality, torture, extrajudicial killings, and "disappearances. "1 The Palestinian police who have taken over from Israelis in the formerly occupied territories have a well-known reputation, especially where the torture of (political) suspects is concerned. This, however, elicits much less concern and derision from the Palestinian population than similar actions on the part of the Israeli police. 2 In this article we shall be concerned with the question of police human rights violations as part of normal or routine policing, rather than in the context of violent internal political conflicts or civil war. Repression and gross violations of human rights in the latter situations are normally perpetrated by the military rather than the police. The police tend to play no role in the political domain or are subordinated to the military. 3 The question we shall address here is why police forces are involved in certain excesses as part of routine policing in some countries and not, or to a far smaller extent, in others. Are there generally applicable processes or causes which can explain certain excesses? Which violations are characteristic for different types of societies? These questions will be addressed here in the first instance by looking at the relevant research literature concerning the causes of police violations of human rights. This will be followed by a discussion of variations in"context'and"complexity"of gross violations of human rights in different situations. Subsequently, we outline the specific characteristics of developing and more developed western societies that influence the nature and degree of police brutality. In this context, policing in "divided societies"will be discussed in the light of the democratization processes of a number of such traditionally divided societies in recent years. 1. Existing Knowledge about the Causes of Police Violations of Human Rights An inventory of relevant studies indicates the scarcity of empirical research available and the paucity of theory formulated specifically on the causes of