RT Article
T1 Officer Networks and Firearm Behaviors: Assessing the Social Transmission of Weapon-Use
JF Journal of quantitative criminology
VO 39
IS 3
SP 679
OP 703
A1 Ouellet, Marie
A2 Hashimi, Sadaf
A2 Vega Yon, George G.
LA English
YR 2023
UL https://krimdok.uni-tuebingen.de/Record/188454861X
AB Objectives We reconstruct the networks of officers co-involved in force incidents to test whether interactions with weapon-prone peers impact firearm use. Methods We draw from a statewide dataset of force incidents across law enforcement agencies in New Jersey, and employ conditional likelihood models to estimate whether exposure to peers with histories of firearm use is associated with an officer’s own likelihood of firearm use net of other contextual confounders. Results We find preliminary evidence that officer firearm behaviors, including drawing, pointing, and discharging a firearm, is influenced by an officer’s peers. Greater exposure to colleagues with histories of firearm use is associated with a lower risk of using a firearm. We also find that officer features, including experience and race/ethnicity, are associated with the risk of firearm use. Conclusions Our study suggests officers’ peers structure the risk of firearm use. Our data allow us to look at time order and rule out situational confounders pertaining to firearm use; however, do not allow us to infer causality. We discuss the study’s implications for understanding firearm behaviors and the role of network science in moving policing research forward.
K1 Permutation tests
K1 Conditional likelihood
K1 Social Network Analysis
K1 Firearm use
K1 Policing
DO 10.1007/s10940-022-09546-9