How to Read EWRL
A short orientation to the research collection — what each section contains, who it is for, and how the pieces fit together.
On this page
EWRL publishes original research, data, and legal analysis organized into eight collections. Each collection serves a different purpose. This page explains what each one is, who it is designed for, and how they relate to one another.
Field Guide
What it is: Plain-language introductions to the major issues in edged-weapon critical incidents. Each guide covers one topic — its significance, the key research, and the legal and practical stakes — without assuming prior knowledge.
Who it is for: Readers who are new to the subject and want orientation before reading the underlying research. Journalists, community members, policy staff, and anyone approaching EWRL for the first time.
What it is not: A comprehensive review. The Field Guide provides a starting point; the underlying research, legal analysis, and data are in the collections below.
Evidence Base
What it is: Structured reviews of police intervention options — less-lethal tools, lethal force, crisis resources, specialist capabilities, and tactical practices — evaluated against the available research literature.
Who it is for: Researchers, practitioners, and policy staff who want to know what the evidence shows about a specific intervention: what research supports, where findings are mixed, and what remains uncertain.
What it is not: Operational guidance or a recommendation that any tactic be used or avoided. Evidence Base entries evaluate research; they do not direct conduct.
Law & Policy
What it is: Analysis of constitutional standards, case law, statutory frameworks, civil liability rules, and policy issues relevant to edged-weapon critical incidents. Entries are dated and tagged by jurisdiction.
Who it is for: Attorneys, policy analysts, journalists, and researchers who need to understand the legal rules governing force, review, and accountability.
What it is not: Legal advice. Law & Policy entries are analytical backgrounders; they do not constitute legal counsel and should not be relied upon as such.
Bulletins
What it is: Concise synthesis connecting research evidence, law and policy, and operational practice on recurring issues across the incident lifecycle.
Who it is for: Practitioners, supervisors, trainers, and policy staff who need a focused, cross-disciplinary summary of a specific issue — one that draws together the evidence, the legal framework, and the practical stakes in one place.
What it is not: A substitute for reading the underlying Evidence Base entries, Law & Policy backgrounders, or primary sources. Bulletins are oriented summaries.
Reports
What it is: EWRL’s original research — full analyses drawing on incident data, legal authority, and the broader evidence base. Reports address specific research questions, present findings with supporting data, and identify limitations and areas of uncertainty.
Who it is for: Researchers, policy staff, litigators, journalists, and others who need EWRL’s own analysis on a topic, with full sourcing and methodology.
What it is not: Peer-reviewed academic research, though EWRL applies academic standards of evidence and transparency to its work.
Annotated Bibliography
What it is: A curated collection of leading external research on edged-weapon critical incidents, with annotations, keyword tags, DOI links, and evidence-grade assessments.
Who it is for: Researchers and practitioners who want to trace EWRL claims back to the broader empirical literature, or who are looking for primary research on a specific topic.
What it is not: A comprehensive literature review. The Bibliography includes research cited in or relevant to EWRL’s analysis; it is not an exhaustive survey of the field.
Table of Authorities
What it is: An index of cases, statutes, and constitutional provisions cited across EWRL research, organized by court, with holdings and keyword tags. Entries with EWRL case briefs link to them directly.
Who it is for: Attorneys, researchers, and anyone who needs to locate the legal sources underlying EWRL analysis or trace how a case or statute is used across the collection.
What it is not: A comprehensive legal database. The Table of Authorities includes only the authorities cited or analyzed in EWRL materials.
Methods
What it is: Documentation of how EWRL research is produced: data sources, case-inclusion criteria, variable coding, reliability procedures, suppression controls, statistical methods, versioning practices, and known limitations.
Who it is for: Researchers, reviewers, and skeptical readers who want to understand and evaluate the basis for EWRL findings.
What it is not: A substitute for reading the primary research. Methods documentation explains the process; conclusions appear in the Reports and Evidence Base collections.
How the collections fit together
The Field Guide provides the entry point. Reports present EWRL’s original findings. The Evidence Base, Law & Policy, and Bulletins supply the research, legal, and operational context. The Annotated Bibliography and Table of Authorities provide the underlying source material. Methods documents how the evidence is produced.
For most readers, the most useful path is: Field Guide → relevant Evidence Base or Law & Policy entry → Report (if one exists on the topic). The Compendium provides an overview of all eight collections.