Police Officers Killed on Duty: A Different View

Abstract

The policing profession is fraught with countless hazards, not the least of which is being killed in the line of duty. Although yearly data are collected by the United States Department of Justice (DOJ) pertaining to police officers killed and/or injured in the line of duty, the department has limited itself primarily to age, race/ethnicity, gender, length of service, modality of injury/death and location. In addition to these variables, the authors collected data that included whether the slain officers were married and had children. Analysis of the data suggested that officers with greater social investments (wife and children) were less likely to be killed, and that younger officers had a lower probability of being killed in the line of duty than did officers with more experience.