
To appreciate the complexity of situations where police or military forces charged with peacekeeping duties utilize force, one must conceptualize force not as a static concept but rather as a continuum of responses, ranging from verbal commands, as a minor exertion of force, to deadly force, the maximum amount of force possible to apply. A use-of-force continuum relies on the concept of multiple categories of increasing officer perceptions of suspect resistance linked to similar groupings of the officer’s response to those perceptions….