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Deadly Force Encounters, Second Edition: Cops and Citizens Defending Themselves and Others Paperback – December 26, 2019

4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 194 ratings

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In 1997, renown police psychologist Dr. Alexis Artwohl and police officer Loren W. Christensen (co-author of On Combat) wrote Deadly Force Encounters: What Cops Need to Know to Mentally and Physically Prepare for and Survive a Gunfight. It quickly became an authoritative book for police officers, citizens legally carrying a concealed firearm, and police academies.

The greatly expanded scientific research, stories, and analysis in this second edition,
Deadly Force Encounters: Cops and Citizens Defending Themselves and Others, focus on the most infrequent but most challenging part of the police profession: the use of deadly force. This book is not about specific laws, tactics, or equipment, but how the science of human performance influences the people behind the badge. This knowledge is crucial for physical, legal, and emotional survival.

Citizens, armed or not, will benefit from the information to help them survive violent threats. "When seconds count, the police are only minutes away." If citizens use deadly force to survive, this book will help them prepare for the legal and emotional challenges of the aftermath.

Although the focus is about savings lives when threatened with violence, much of the information is relevant to people facing a wide variety of extreme events and everyday dangers.

All readers who want facts about violent encounters rather than myth and ill-informed hyperbole will find this book a useful reference.

Foreward by Laurence Miller, Ph.D., clinical, forensic, and police psychologist, and author of the upcoming book:
The Psychology of Police Deadly Force Encounters: Science, Practice, and Policy (Charles C. Thomas, 2020): "Already a classic, the second edition of Deadly Force Encounters expands and deepens the empirical, theoretical, and practical knowledge base of police deadly force encounters for the challenges of the 21st century. Written by co-authors who skillfully combine in-depth scholarship with on-the-street experience, this is an authoritative guide that every law enforcement supervisor, policymaker, and rank and file cop should be familiar with and have on hand for day-to-day guidance. You won't just read this book; you'll deploy it as a vital work tool to make you safer, smarter, and more resilient in the complex and sometimes contentious climate of modern policing. In a field often plagued with subjective impressions, anecdotal mythology, and political agendas, this volume stands out as a science-based, practical guide to understanding, preparing for, enduring, and recovering from a law enforcement deadly force encounter with your safety and sanity intact."

Introduction
Chapter 1: Shootout with the Devil
Chapter 2: The Survival Triangle
Chapter 3: Community Policing
Chapter 4: Human Performance Factors
Chapter 5: Mindset
Chapter 6: Fear
Chapter 7: Responses to Handgun Wounds are Unpredictable
Chapter 8: Citizens: Force Multipliers
Chapter 9: Attention, Perception, and Memory
Chapter 10: Decision making
Chapter 11: The Survival Bias in Decision making
Chapter 12: Training
Chapter 13: Legal Survival
Chapter 14: Investigations and the Courtroom
Chapter 15: Short-term Reactions to a Deadly Force Encounter
Chapter 16: Traumatic Stress Reactions
Chapter 17: Police Officer Job Stress
Chapter 18: Organizational Stress
Chapter 19: Resiliency
Chapter 20: Impact on Families
Bibliography
About the Authors
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Product details

  • Publisher ‏ : ‎ Independently published (December 26, 2019)
  • Language ‏ : ‎ English
  • Paperback ‏ : ‎ 546 pages
  • ISBN-10 ‏ : ‎ 1650012195
  • ISBN-13 ‏ : ‎ 978-1650012193
  • Item Weight ‏ : ‎ 1.59 pounds
  • Dimensions ‏ : ‎ 6 x 1.23 x 9 inches
  • Customer Reviews:
    4.6 4.6 out of 5 stars 194 ratings

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Customer reviews

4.6 out of 5 stars
4.6 out of 5
194 global ratings

Top reviews from the United States

Reviewed in the United States on June 26, 2020
This book should be in every Law Enforcement Officer's collection. It contains advice and lessons-learned that are not usually talked about. I kept a copy of it when deployed to Afghanistan and drew upon its contents to help a colleague deal with PTSD from a near miss with an incoming 105 mm rocket. The authors do an excellent job in discussing the aftermath of violence and as such, the book contains excellent lessons-learned and advice for any citizen who may find themselves in a deadly force encounter. The book is especially relevant with today's civil unrest and in a perfect world, would be read by every politician rushing to bring drastic changes to law enforcement operating procedures. This book cuts to the chase in an intelligent and responsible manner.
4 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on April 16, 2020
The authors do not give sufficient credit to the gold mine research findings of the longitudinal Harvard Grant Study. Reducing the study's findings of its primary psychiatrist George Vaillant, M.D. to several lines gleaned by the authors from a magazine article or two, then dismissing the findings of this unique, life–long study of men's emotional and physical health is unforgiveable sloppiness. Shame, Shame!
Second failing is the authors not even mentioning the landmark research on explanatory self–atribution style by Martin Seligman, Ph.D. is another glaring omission in the chapter on resilience. Shame, Shame!
But overall, 97% of the book's content is gold; and at most, 3% is dross.
Well worth a careful read.
5 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on January 7, 2020
I have purchased previous books by this author, and co-authors, regarding military, law enforcement, and martial arts subjects. I was particularly interested in not only the physical result of encounters, but the psychological. This book enables readers to relate better to the law, its enforcement, and the price we all pay. Today's dangerous social environment requires that we educate ourselves about basic security to some degree, and law enforcement, so that we can express informed opinions on these subjects. I recommend this book to those interested in these subjects, and other recommend other books by Loren C.
2 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on November 18, 2020
Great book for any LEO to read and understand how the human body works in high stress situations!
2 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on February 1, 2020
This book was very well researched and written. This is a must read, especially for law enforcement trainers, administrators, district attorneys, and anyone that has influence on police officers before and after a shooting.

The best part of the book is that it is heavily supported by academic research, but written and organized considerably better when compared to trying to find the proverbial "needle in a haystack" when searching dry and poorly written academic journals.

Chuck J. Rylant
Author of "Shots Fired: The Psychology Behind Officer Involved Shootings."
7 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on January 20, 2020
This is a super book in very good at going over the limitations of the minds in the high stress highly focused life-threatening situation with regards to inability of any human being to consciously process all the visual and auditory and other information imploding on your brain this is an excellent book and I highly recommend it for anyone who might be involved sometime in their life in the active shooting scenario for instance will be very good for your self-defense in a legal setting
3 people found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on April 29, 2021
A great read for any law enforcement or armed security types to read and understand and should be mandatory reading policy writers who supervise them!!
One person found this helpful
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Reviewed in the United States on March 29, 2020
From the perspective of a forensic psychologist (and therefore a quasi-academic) I think the authors do a serviceable job of providing an introductory intersection of research on the relevent cognitive issues and real-life anecdotes.

One sucessful and likely intended effect is that it paints a very sympathetic picture of what happens in stressful situations and how there are many common sense assumptions and myths that are in error, the reality of what some of the officers go through as the result, and even an acknowledgement that PTSD is an actual thing that actually effects people, including police. I liked particularly how the point is driven home that post-shooting investigations can involved misguided second-guessing that often does not take certain realities into account.

However, one problematic effect I can only conclude is also intended is that the book has a decidely socio-political bent, which culminates ridiculously when the discussion reaches the work of E.O. Wilson. At this point, the authors' own bias against what is essentially a characture of the "liberal/Marxist/academic/ingrate civilian" who is beneath contempt rears it's ugly head. It's quite hard to imagine an editor didn't say, "Really, are you sure you want these paragraphs to read like this?" Resoundingly, the answer was, "Yes". I'll confine myself to two remarks about the disappointment here:

1. The authors seem capable putting science to work in order to susped judgement and bias to argue for considering complexity in analysis of such difficult situations, which is better for everyone.
2. The authors undermine their own credibility by letting their true colors bleed through the sensible narrative, with their own biases, which is bad for criminals, liberals and academics and good for cops. So much for reducing stereotypes, this book only enforces them.
10 people found this helpful
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