The Daily Bulletin Archive

Professor Scott W. Phillips and associate professor Dae-Young Kim in the Criminal Justice Department published their research examining police officer's use of deadly force. Their article, "Exploring Officer-Involved Shootings with Interaction Effects," was published in the journal Criminal Justice and Behavior. The research analyzed use-of-force data from Dallas, Texas. The results show that when police officers make decisions to shoot at citizens, situational factors (e.g., citizen gun possession, officer injury) are more important than demographic and neighborhood factors. The race or ethnicity of the police officer and citizen showed almost no influence on the decision to shoot at a citizen.