In the Line-Of-Duty: the Impacts of Mixed-Martial-Arts Training in Law Enforcement

Brye Lines

Qualitative Research Methods

Professor Duffin

December 12, 2011

Title:

"In the Line-of-Duty: The Impacts of Mixed-Martial-Arts Training in Law Enforcement"

Problem or Objective:

The hypothesis I want to prove is: "If law enforcement officers receive mixed martial arts training, then they will be less likely to be killed in a hand-to-hand combat." The concept hand-to-hand combat can be defined as an engagement between two or more persons in an empty-handed struggle or with hand-held weapons such as knives, sticks, or projectile weapons that cannot be fired (Stewart 79). The concept Mixed martial arts (MMA) can be defined as a full contact combat sport that allows the use of both striking and grappling techniques, both standing and on the ground, including boxing, wrestling, Brazilian jiu-jitsu, muay Thai, kickboxing, karate, judo and other styles (Mixed martial arts, Wikipedia).

My research is both descriptive and explanatory. My descriptive study will count and document my observations. My explanatory study will focus more on developing an initial understanding about a new and unusual problem (Maxfield and Babbie 19). I am going to be researching two police departments. One of which will have no mixed martial arts training and the other of which will be trained in mixed martial arts. The two police departments will be similar in size, gender, ethnicity, age, and demographics as much as possible. Those officers being studied would not know that they were being studied since this may skew the results. Out of the officers, I would compare male to male and female to female, not officer to officer. I would set up a quasi-experimental design since randomization in not possible. I would also use the nonequivalent-group design because the experimental and control groups (comparison group) may not be equivalent (Maxfield and Babbie 125). Let's say this research was over a ten year period, I could also make this a time-series design, returning every few years to observe the results. The results would be taken from police reports and statistics throughout the year.

Research Question:

Above, I previously set forth the question I tend to propose and answer along with its concepts defined. That question again stated is: "If law enforcement officers receive mixed martial arts training, then they will be less likely to be killed in a hand-to-hand combat." My research has never been done as far as my research is concerned. After hours and hours of research I could not find anything that was remotely close to my proposal. This research proposal is very important and extremely legitimate. I truly believe that after my research, I would come to the conclusion that those officers who had mixed martial arts training would have fewer deaths than those officers who did not receive mixed martial arts training.

This proposal would be a great benefit both to society and law enforcement. If our law enforcement officers received better training, mixed martial arts being one of the main mandatory trainings, our law enforcement officers would be trained and ready in hand-to-hand combat if ever put in that situation. Law enforcement officers trained in mixed martial arts would be safer out on the streets and would be able to better serve our communities. We may find out that word gets out to our communities about our law enforcement officers having mixed martial arts training which in turn may deter the public to ever get into physical altercations with them. On the other side, this knowledge may also encourage the public to test their skills on our officers.

Literature Review:

As I did my research, I could not find any studies on my exact topic. This of course was good since we are supposed to propose a topic never been studied before. I tried pulling up study after study, but it seemed like the topics I was searching for were few and far between. I did however find four studies relating to my topic, two dealing with police violence and two dealing more with the psychological side of self-defense training. I wanted all of my findings to be from the United States since my research would be as well, but that was not the case.

The first study examined officer age and employment experience variables in the FBI Law Enforcement Officers Killed and Assaulted summary from 1995 to 1999. Through patterns identified, better training needs were considered for law enforcement over the span of an officer's career. The research concluded that those officers that only had 0-4 years of experience and were of the ages 30-39 were particularly deadly for the years 1995-1999. Also, the highest percentage of officer deaths came when they were in a patrol car alone. The research didn't go into too much depth of the cause of death, but focused mainly on the age and experience of the officers. One of the considerations after the findings was for more attune training (Hill). What I pulled from this study to apply to mine is that it is crucial within the first couple years to get these newer officers the best training possible. I believe mixed martial arts training is a critical part of giving our officers the best opportunity possible to succeed and be safe while doing so.

The second study was called the "Velcro Effect" which was based on a study of officers in one of the 43 police forces in England and Wales. The researchers were trying to see if a more aggressive style of policing was a deterrent of assaults against police. The "Velcro Effect" was the result of word getting out on the street of the effectiveness of pepper spray. The thought then was that those who have had experience with pepper spray would then be less likely to assault an officer. Though pepper spray is a good deterrent, the researchers failed to acknowledge batons and police uniforms as forms of deterrence's as well. This article argued that it is the officer's ability to appear competent and ready to fight that deters would-be assailants. It is also argued that in order to deter would-be assailants, police officers have to adopt an aggressive demeanor that is far removed from that of the traditional image associated with routine policing in England and Wales (Buttle). My proposal of mixed martial arts training for law enforcement is like this one, an aggressive one. Therefore, hoping to minimalize and deter assaults against police.

The third study was of a group of 10 Japanese men, ages 19-21 years old that were chosen at random to be a part of a 40 day ranger training. It is said