Assessing dangerousness in policing: an analysis of officer deaths in the United States, 1970–2016

A robust body of research findings has established that policing is a dangerous profession. Few scholars, however, have investigated the full picture of the hazards in policing, which includes deaths occurring in both felonious and nonfelonious circumstances. In this study, we examine nearly 50 year...

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Bibliographic Details
Authors: White, Michael D. 1951- (Author) ; Dario, Lisa M. (Author) ; Shjarback, John A. (Author)
Format: Electronic Article
Language:English
Published: 2019
In: Criminology & public policy
Year: 2019, Volume: 18, Issue: 1, Pages: 11-35
Online Access: Volltext (Verlag)
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Keywords:
Line of duty death
Police officer deaths
Violence against police
Gewalt gegen Polizeibeamte
Description
Summary:A robust body of research findings has established that policing is a dangerous profession. Few scholars, however, have investigated the full picture of the hazards in policing, which includes deaths occurring in both felonious and nonfelonious circumstances. In this study, we examine nearly 50 years of all police officer line‐of‐duty deaths (1970–2016) using data from the Officer Down Memorial Page. We focus on long‐term trends in felonious and nonfelonious deaths annually, as well as on trends in incident‐level characteristics. We also employ interrupted time‐series analysis (ARIMA) to test the “war on cops” thesis post–Ferguson.
ISSN:1745-9133
DOI:10.1111/1745-9133.12408