The Killing of Police Officers: Why the Police Should Fear Stand-Your-Ground Laws

• In Event: Criminal Justice Policies, Laws, and Ideology

Abstract

This article examines community level influencers for the killing of police officers (police homicides) in 90 large U.S. cities from 1980 to 2010. Police homicides are measured with data obtained from the National Law Enforcement Officers Memorial Fund, which identifies almost 40% more cases compared to the data source used in all prior research on police homicides. The panel research design of this study allows for the first fixed-effects city level analysis of this homicide outcome. This study also proposes new theoretical relationships with the examination of the influence of self-help laws on police homicides. I argue that the passage of Stand-Your-Ground laws may encourage vigilantism and citizen disobedience of police authority, ultimately leading to additional killings of police officers. There has been growing concern among police officers and policymakers in the wake of Ferguson and other high profile media cases on the police use of deadly force that the police have become targets for retaliation. Police and citizens have also become more divided post-Ferguson. The findings of this study may be useful for preventing future police officer killings and repairing police-citizen relations.

Author

• Jonathan Dirlam, Pennsylvania State University