Police Killings and Capital Punishment: The Post‐furman Period

Abstract

In view of (1) escalating national attention and political and judicial activity centering on capital punishment during recent years and (2) concomitant changes in police killing rates, this paper investigates the impact of the death penalty on rates of lethal assaults against the police for the post‐Furman period, 1973–1984. In keeping with recent investigations of deterrence and general homicides, multiple regression is used as a means of controlling for the influence of possible confounding variables in examining the capital punishment/police killings relationship. Consistent with previous investigations, the present analysis provides no indication that our national return to capital punishment since Furman has had a systematic impact on police homicides. Law enforcement officers are not afforded an added measure of protection in death penalty compared to abolitionist states, nor is there anything but a chance association between the rate of police killings and the level of use of the death sentence for convicted murderers.

Conflict theory and police killings∗

“…Although there has been considerable interest in the homicide of law enforcement officers (Lester, 1982;Bailey and Peterson, 1987), there has been little systematic analysis of the effects of structural variables on police killings across macro social units. Recently, Peterson and Bailey (1988) have examined the macro social determinants of police killings within a theoretical context and concluded that social conditions which bring civilians and law enforcement officers into conflict are central to an understanding of police killings.…”

“…First, as Lester (1978a) claims, and my own investigations confirm (FBI, 1981;1982;1983;1984;1985;1986), data on police killings for smaller aggregations than states tend to be incomplete. Second, the use of states facilitates comparisons to the extant multivariate research (Bailey and Peterson, 1987;Peterson and Bailey, 1988).…”

“…Lester (1978aLester ( , 1978bLester ( , 1982 employs six year averages rates. Bailey and Peterson (1987) examine variations in annual rates for the years 1974-1984, while Peterson and Bailey (1988) examine both annual rates and four year average rates. Given the likelihood of finding sizable years fluctuations in the occurance of rare events, such as police killings, these analyses focus an average rate of police killing rates.…”

“…To date, I have been able to locate two multivariate analyses of police killings. Bailey and Peterson (1987), using states as the unit of analysis, examine the deterrent effect of capital punishment on police killings during the post-Furman period. A number of structural variables are included as statistical controls.…”

“…Much of the initial literature concerning the relationship between the structural characteristics of macro social units and the killing of law enforcement officers (hereafter referred to as police killings) tends to be exploratory (Cardarelli, 1968;Lester, 1980), and atheoretical (Lester, 1978a(Lester, , 1978b(Lester, , 1982Bailey and Peterson, 1987). Recently, Peterson and Bailey (1988) have examined the macro social determinants of police killings within a theoretical context and concluded that social conditions which bring civilians and law enforcement officers into conflict are central to an understanding of police killings.…”