Law Enforcement Perpetrated Homicides

Police violence of all types receives much attention from the media, and this is especially true for police homicides that often lead to demonstrations and protests. Police violence is a volatile, recurring social justice issue that often receives media attention, leads to demonstrations or protests and increases the tension between law enforcement agencies and the community they serve. Tom Barker examines police homicide and the different behavior patterns that lead to it, ranging from misadventure to intent. To better understand this complex issue, Barker has created 3 main categories: accidental homicides, justifiable homicides and criminal homicides. Barker includes a variety of cases from accidental deaths involving careless, reckless or negligent law enforcement officers to murders committed by LEOs engaged in organized crime or serial sexual homicides. This book will be of interest to those studying criminology, criminal justice, sociology, political science, etc.

Honor-based violence (HBV) is a crime committed to protect or defend the honor of a family and/or a community. It is usually triggered by the victim’s behavior, which the family and/or community regards as causing offense or dishonor. HBV has existed for thousands of years but has only very recently become a focus of law enforcement, policy makers, and statutory and non-statutory agencies. A volume in the CRC Press Advances in Police Theory and Practice Series, Honor-Based Violence: Policing and Prevention is designed to assist all those who confront these crimes in understanding what HBV is, how it can be recognized, and how we can support the victims, families, and communities that experience it. Topics include: An overview of what is known about the psychological and cultural factors relevant to understanding of HBV Gaps in current knowledge and the strengths and weaknesses of various investigative and management strategies Factors related to risk assessment of HBV Best practices, based on the authors’ experience, for individuals involved in all levels of policing HBV—from first responders to those involved in strategic management How working in partnership with multiple agencies can reduce risk, support investigations, and help protect victims The importance of sensitivity toward differences in race, culture, and religion The research and best practices are drawn largely from the work done by the Violent Crime Directorate of the Metropolitan Police Service (London, UK) managed by authors Gerry Campbell and Glen Lloyd. The accessible style of this text makes it a valuable resource for law enforcement and policing professionals who investigate these crimes and a suitable textbook for policing and criminal justice courses.

Police Related Deaths in the United States examines how police related deaths in the US occur; how investigations are conducted into these deaths; and why such deaths and the investigatory processes into them provoke such concern in the wider American society. The book considers such deaths as being the result of structural and systemic factors in policing, the criminal justice system, and broader socio-political and socio-legal landscapes in the U.S.. It argues that an increasingly aggressive police mindset allied with relatively toothless regulatory frameworks effectively lead to police being enabled by the criminal justice system to use lethal force with relative impunity. The book considers the disproportionate number of deaths in marginalized communities, for example: people of color, people who are mentally unwell, and LGBTQ people. Each chapter in the book begins with a case study of a specific police related death and places issues within that case in the wider context of policing in the US. David Baker argues that the effects of these deaths go beyond merely policing and criminal justice, and corrodes the core fabric of American society.

Global Perspectives in Policing and Law Enforcement provides an exposition of policing and law enforcement practices, challenges, and opportunities in twenty different countries that were carefully selected to represent diverse geographic regions of the world. Each chapter presents policing from a different cultural background with diverse historical law enforcement experiences, varied social and demographic characteristics, and wide-ranging approaches to political leadership. By examining critical data and highlighting cracks within law enforcement across multiple countries, the contributors to this volume have created a framework of policing as it transitions into a modern outfit. Divided into parts, the book focuses on a large sample of countries from Africa, Europe, Asia, and Latin and Central America, North America and the Caribbean, as well as Australia and New Zealand. Such a broad coverage makes this book a critical reference point for those interested in criminal justice, criminology, political science, anthropology, and many others.

This Brief provides an overview and history of the definition of serial homicide, from the perspectives of psychology, medicine, criminology and forensics. It reviews research to provide a standard definition of serial homicide (as opposed to multiple or mass homicide), and provide insights on profiles of victims and offenders for police practitioners. It also includes a discussion of the media approach to covering serial homicide. The Brief is divided into four major sections covering: definitions and overview of serial homicide, profiling perpetrators according to different typologies, profiling victims, applied case studies, and recommendations for investigation and prevention. The author’s approach is aimed primarily at researchers in police studies, but will be of interest to researchers in related fields such as criminal justice, sociology, psychology, and public policy.

Using Philadelphia as a case study, this book analyzes the evolution of predatory policing, attempts to curb aggressive practices, and the resultant chasm between reform efforts and the expansion of police discretion.

In a chilling scene in the film Unforgiven, Clint Eastwood as the gunman stands over a wounded Gene Hackman, the sheriff, aiming a rifle at his head. "I don't deserve this, to die like this," says Hackman. Eastwood replies, "Deserve's got nothing to do with it," cocks his rifle, and fires point blank at his helpless victim. This scenario dramatically brings home to the viewer what historians have long debated and hundreds of other films and books suggest: the turn-of-the-century West was a violent time and place. Ranchers, miners, deputy sheriffs, teenagers and old men, occasionally even housewives and mothers found themselves at the business end of a shotgun or a .38 revolver. Yet, since western historians tend to portray violence as essentially episodic--frontier gunfights, range wars, vigilante movements, and the like--solid data has been hard to come by. As a beginning point for actually measuring lethal violence and assessing the administration of justice, here at last is a detailed and well-documented study of homicide in the American West. Comparing data from representative areas--Douglas County, Nebraska; Las Animas County, Colorado; and Gila County, Arizona--this book reveals a level of violence far greater than many historians have believed, even surpassing eastern cities like New York and Boston. Clashing cultures and transient populations, a boomtown mentality, easy availability of alcohol and firearms: these and many other factors come under scrutiny as catalysts in the violence that permeated the region. By comparing homicide data, including coroner's inquests, indictments, plea bargains, and sentences across both racial and regional lines, the book also offers persuasive evidence that criminal justice systems of the Old West were weighted heavily in favor of defendants who were white and against those who were African American, Native American, or Mexican. Packed with information, this is a book for students and scholars of western history, social history, criminology, and justice studies. Western history buffs will be captivated by colorful anecdotes about the real West, where guns could and did blaze over anything from love trysts to vendettas to too much foam on the beer. From whatever perspective, all readers are sure to find here a well-constructed framework for understanding the West as it was and for interpreting the region as it moves into the future.