Document Type
Article
Publication Date
2025
Abstract
In Excessive Force in Prison, Professor Sharon Dolovich tackles the shortcomings of the Eighth Amendment’s cruel and unusual punishment doctrine to govern uses of official violence against prisoners. She argues that law enforcement officers owe a duty of care and protection to incarcerated people, but that duty of care and protection is undermined by the dehumanization and demonization of prisoners. Professor Dolovich thus advocates for shifting the doctrinal standard for excessive force under the Eighth Amendment to one based on objective reasonableness, paired with jury instructions explicitly reminding jurors of incarcerated victims’ humanity. To counteract the vagaries of such an objective reasonableness standard, she also advocates for importing necessity and self-defense concepts into the Eighth Amendment’s excessive force doctrine.
In this response to Professor Dolovich’s groundbreaking article, I explicate and expand upon the importance of her analysis and suggested interventions in several ways: the importance of her observations and suggested interventions to all acts of official violence by law enforcement (whether governed by the Eighth Amendment, Fourteenth Amendment, Fourth Amendment, or more vague concepts of Due Process); the special intersectional danger faced by people of color and people with disabilities when it comes to official violence; and a call to policymakers to adopt her suggested interventions without waiting for courts to decide that they are constitutionally mandated.
Recommended Citation
Kincaid, Rachel, "For Official Violence, The Devil's in the Dehumanizing Details" (2025). JCLC Online. 35.
https://scholarlycommons.law.northwestern.edu/jclc_online/35
