Homicides of american law enforcement officers, 1978–1980

This article examines FBI reports of all felonious line-of-duty deaths of law enforcement officers in the United States from 1978 through 1980. Three hypotheses are generated and tested. These concern: the manner in which officers became involved in the incidents that led to their deaths, the race and duty status of officers killed, and the types of incidents precipitating killings.

These tests indicate, first, that the majority of incidents are initiated by officers themselves, rather than by citizens. Second, it is probable that black officers are victimized at a higher rate than white officers, especially while off-duty and by black assailants. Third, the modal type of precipitating incident is “attempting other arrests (general)”, and not, as commonly thought, domestic disputes. Implications of these findings are then discussed.     

Covering Victims in the News: What Makes Minority Homicides Newsworthy?

The current study builds on the homicide and media criminological literature by examining the newsworthiness of 866 homicide incidents that occurred in Newark, NJ between 1997 and 2007. Recognizing that indicators of newsworthiness may vary by homicide victim gender and race/ethnicity, this study comparatively assesses the effects of suspect, victim, and incident variables on homicides against female, black, and Hispanic victims. A news media distortion analysis is employed which matches specific homicides to their respective local print news coverage. Overall, offense seriousness and victim vulnerability increase the odds of homicides receiving news media attention and being displayed prominently. We also find that different homicide characteristics serve as indicators of newsworthiness depending on victim gender and race/ethnicity. We discuss how cultural stereotypes may shape evaluations of newsworthiness and conclude with implications for theory and future research directions.     

Assessing Data Completeness,Quality, and Representativeness of Justifiable Homicides in the FBI’s Supplementary Homicide Reports: A Research Note

Journal of Quantitative Criminology - The most widely used data set for studying police homicides—the Supplementary Homicide Reports (SHR) kept by the Federal Bureau of Investigation—is...