Police Shootings and Citizen Behavior (Criminal Justice: Recent Scholarship)

McElvain explores police shootings from a fresh perspective. Combining the theories of routine activities and social disinhibition, McElvain uses citizen behaviors (i.e., alcohol and/or drug intoxication, and prior arrests for violent criminal conduct) as contributory factors to officer-involved shootings. Prior research generally focused on officer characteristics to explain police use of deadly force. McElvain also considers the role of the citizen. When citizen intoxication and prior violent criminal activity are considered along with officer characteristics--gender, race, and age--the officer characteristics are washed out. In other words, citizen behaviors appear to be stronger predictors of police shootings than are the officers demographics.