Research Notecounting Violence Committed by the Police: Raw Facts and Narratives

In this article, the author describes the effort made by the European Committee for the Prevention of Torture and Inhuman or Degrading Punishment or Treatment (CPT) to measure acts that are usually either presented as isolated occurrences (“case X or Y”) or as undifferentiated denunciations (“Police everywhere, justice nowhere”) – that is to say, unlawful violence by the police.