Author ORCID Identifier
Document Type
Article
Publication Date
9-2023
Publication Title
Criminology
Abstract
The police murder of George Floyd sparked nationwide protests in the summer of 2020 and revived claims that public outcry over such high-profile police killings perpetuated a violent “war on cops.” Using data collected by the Gun Violence Archive (GVA) on firearm assaults of U.S. police officers, we use Bayesian structural time series (BSTS) modeling to empirically assess if and how patterns of firearm assault on police officers in the United States were influenced by the police murder of George Floyd. Our analysis finds that the murder of George Floyd was associated with a 3-week spike in firearm assaults on police, after which the trend in firearms assaults dropped to levels only slightly above that which were predicted by pre-Floyd data. We discuss potential explanations for these findings and consider their relevance to the contemporary discussion of a “war on cops,” violence, and officer safety. *
Recommended Citation
Sierra-Arevalo, M., Nix, J., & Mourtgos, S.M. (2023). The "war on cops," retaliatory violence, and the murder of George Floyd. Criminology. https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/17459125
Comments
This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: The "war on cops," retaliatory violence, and the murder of George Floyd in Criminology August 2023, which has been published in final form at [Link to final article using the DOI]. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions.
DOI https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9125.12334
Access Wiley's Criminology at https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/journal/17459125
This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Sierra-Arévalo, Michael, Nix, Justin, and Mourtgos, Scott M. (2023), The “War on Cops,” retaliatory violence, and the murder of George Floyd, which is scheduled to appear in the August 2023 issue of Criminology. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited.