On the Uncanny Similarities Between Police Brutality and Client Mistreatment
The same four policy flaws that drive police brutality—bias, warrior mindset, secrecy, and weak fixes—can quietly shape ABA mistreatment unless we choose transparency and compassion.
01Research in Context
What this study did
Morris et al. (2022) wrote a think-piece. They asked: what makes police hurt people?
They listed four big drivers: racial bias, warrior mindset, hidden records, and weak fixes.
Then they said ABA clinics can copy the same four flaws and hurt clients the same way.
What they found
The paper finds no new numbers. It maps cop-risk factors onto our field.
If we hide data, talk like fighters, and skip proven plans, we can bruise clients without laying a hand on them.
How this fits with other research
Pavlacic et al. (2022) and Leland et al. (2022) extend the idea. They plug restorative justice into the same cop-to-clinic bridge. Where Morris warns, they offer a fix: repair harm with circle talks and consent loops.
Kelly et al. (2025) echo the warning. Morris says ineffective treatment is a risk factor; Kelly replies with the 1988 client-rights list that calls the same thing unethical.
Lerman (2023) shows the worst case. Morris fears we might act like brutal cops; Lerman shows we already did by using electric skin shock. The papers agree: drop punitive tools and build humane ones.
Why it matters
Use the four-risk mirror today. Check your file: do graphs hide bad days? Does your language sound like "us versus them"? Swap warrior talk for partnership, share data with families, and pick only evidence-based plans. One small move: open each session by showing yesterday’s graph to the client and asking, "What do you see?" Transparency breaks the cycle before it starts.
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02At a glance
03Original abstract
Direct-care staff are responsible for carrying out behavior-analytic services in a culture that perpetuates systemic racism and other problematic systems that can lead to the mistreatment of clients. Limited data exist on factors that influence the mistreatment of clients, so behavior analysts must look to better studied comparison contexts as a way to identify risk factors. Police brutality is one context where problematic systems are apparent. Therefore, examining variables known to affect police brutality offers one way to identify aspects of direct-care staff’s implementation of behavior-analytic treatment that may harbor similar systems. The purpose of this article is to examine variables associated with police brutality as risk factors for the mistreatment of clients in direct-care settings. The primary risk factors discussed include racial bias, the warrior mentality, a lack of transparency and accountability, and ineffective intervention. This article concludes that the field of behavior analysis needs sensitive data collection methods and systematic evaluation of risk factors to better protect clients from mistreatment.
Behavior Analysis in Practice, 2022 · doi:10.1007/s40617-021-00576-6