By Delores Jones-Brown, Joshua Ruffin, Kwan-Lamar Blount-Hill, Akiv Dawson and Cicely J. Cottrell

In a five-to-four decision announced in February of 2020, the United States Supreme Court ruled that the parents of an unarmed fifteen-year-old Mexican national killed by a U.S. Border Patrol agent in a cross-border shooting, cannot sue for damages in U.S. civil court. Here, we critique the majority and dissenting opinions and attempt to reconcile the strikingly different approach each used to resolve the case. Using a publicly available data set, we examine the homicide in Hernández v. Mesa, against the circumstances and context in which underage youth were killed by police within the United States over a five year period before, during and after the death of Michael Brown. The circumstances of the 121 cases suggest a greater need for police accountability if the justice system is to remain true to the protective “child saving” ideology that launched the founding of the juvenile court.

Criminal Law Bulletin. 56(5): 833-871, 2020.

By Kenneth J. Weiss

Suicide by cop (SbC) is a variant of victim-precipitated homicide. In SbC, a citizen intent on dying provokes police, often with credible threats of violence. A fatality results in ambiguity about manner of death (homicide versus suicide). Decedents’ families may raise claims of civil-rights violations, asserting insufficient restraint by officers. Police officers, when questioned, may justify their actions as reasonable and necessary force. Defendant officers and municipalities are concerned about police safety and adverse economic and public-perception consequences of litigation. This article explores the history and evolution of the SbC phenomenon, examines related civil case law, and reviews the contours of police-citizen interactions in SbC cases. There is potential liability for officers whose actions must be objectively reasonable to prevail in court. Since SbC can be admitted as evidence, there may be an expanded role for forensic psychiatry in distinguishing manner of death. Expert testimony can also aid fact finders in appreciating the decisions of officers faced with ambiguous and threatening situations. The author recommends collaboration between law enforcement and mental health professionals to improve recognition and handling of difficult situations involving persons with mental illness.

Journal of the American Academy of Psychiatry and the Law Online, Vol. 51, Issue 1 1 Mar 2023 11p.

By Nishant Krishnan, Lisa M. B. Steene, Michael Lewis, David Marshall & Jane L. Ireland

Suicide has long been considered as nearing ‘epidemic levels’ in law enforcement populations. Nevertheless, despite the argued scale of the problem, no review has yet systematically examined the evidence base to elucidate the risk factors or predictors implicated in the suicidal behaviours of police ofcers. The current review aims to do this, by considering a fnal sample of 20 papers that met inclusion criteria. Findings from this qualitative review revealed fve superordinate risk factors (i.e., problematic substance use close to, or at the time of death; presence of depression and previous suicide attempts; differences in trauma response; exposure to excessive and prolonged job-related stress, including dissatisfaction; absence of a stable intimate relationship), which when taken in isolation each incrementally contributed to suicide risk, but when found to be comorbid, appeared to markedly increase the likelihood of completed suicide. Implications for suicide prevention, policy design, and treatment formulation are discussed, along with limitations and directions for future research.

Journal of Police and Criminal Psychology, 37, pages 939–951 (2022)

By Scott A. Harman-Heath

Three times a day in the United States, a police officer kills someone. On any given day, this person might be an active shooter, a hostage-taker, or a bomber. But on that same day police might also kill a motorist reaching for his license (Philando Castile), someone selling loose cigarettes (Eric Garner), someone who used a counterfeit bill at a grocery store (George Floyd), or someone fleeing a traffic ticket for a malfunctioning brake light (Walter Scott). Intuitively, these scenarios present radically different uses of deadly force, but the nomenclature we use for deadly force does not account for this—all police killings are simply “deadly force.” This Article suggests that this is a mistake that stunts both scholarship and discourse. Instead, this Article contends, police killings demand a new taxonomy, one that easily and intuitively distinguishes between different types of deadly force. This Article proposes a framework that distinguishes between police killings we intuitively understand to be problematic and those we are more willing to accept. It does so by proposing that deadly force be divided into three categories—preemptive, anticipatory, and reactive—according to the degree of speculation an officer relies on when they decide to use deadly force. Importantly, because this Article advances a descriptive as opposed to doctrinal theory, its proposal need not be adopted by courts to afford substantial benefits to scholars, officers, or litigants. Rather, this Article aims to aid scholars’, litigants’, and courts’ attempts to classify and explain the differences between police killings. Unlike the catch-all term “deadly force,” this Article’s framework recognizes and accounts for the dissimilarity of many police killings, which have nothing in common besides the end result.

Cornell Law Review Vol.106:1689

By John M. Violanti and Andrea Steege

Purpose –—The purpose of this paper is to update the assessment of national data on law enforcement worker suicide based on the National Occupational Mortality Surveillance database (NOMS, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention). Design/methodology/approach –—Death certificate data for 4,441,814 decedents, age 18–90 who died in one of the 26 reporting states were the source of NOMS data. Utilizing proportionate mortality ratios (PMRs), the ratio of suicides in law enforcement occupations in those who are 18– 90 years old with a designated usual occupation was calculated. Findings –—Findings indicate a significantly higher proportion of deaths from suicide for law enforcement officers (PMR = 154, 95% CI = 147–162), compared to all the US decedents in the study population who were employed during their lifetime. Law enforcement personnel are 54% more likely to die of suicide than all decedents with a usual occupation. PMRs were highest for African-Americans, Hispanic males and for females. PMRs were similar for detectives, corrections officers and all law enforcement jobs, when not stratified by race, ethnicity and sex. Research limitations/implications –—Bias may arise because a PMR can be affected by disproportionate increased or decreased mortality from causes of death other than suicide. Practical implications –—A better understanding of the scope of law enforcement suicide can inform policy focused on the planning and initiation of prevention programs. Originality/value –—The use of a national database to study law enforcement worker suicide adds to other information available on law enforcement worker suicide in specific geographic areas. The discussion on prevention in this paper presents ideas for policy

Policing. 2021 ; 44(1): 18–31. doi:10.1108/PIJPSM-09-2019-0157. 16p.

By Frank Edwards, Hedwig Lee, and Michael Esposito

This article from the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America estimates the variation in the risk of being killed by police use of force in the U.S. across racial groups. The authors found that risk of being killed by police peaks between the ages of 20 and 35 for men and women of all racial groups. Black men and women, as well as American Indian/Alaska Native men and women, and Latino men have a much higher lifetime risk of being killed by police than their white counterparts. The highest risk, however, was among Black men who face a one in 1000 chance of being killed by police over their lifetime. Presently, police violence is the leading cause of death for young Black men in the United States.

Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States of America 2019; 116(34): 16793-16798.

By Aaron Chalfin and Maxim N. Massenkoff

In 2015, for the first time in nearly forty years, the rate of motor vehicle fatalities for Black Americans exceeded that of white Americans. By 2020, the gap in death rates stood at 34%, accounting for approximately 4,000 excess deaths between 2014 and 2020. This disproportionate increase occurred in nearly all states, in rural as well as urban areas, and was shared by drivers of all ages and genders. We consider a variety of potential explanations for the emerging race gap including race-specific changes in time spent driving, the circumstances of driving, the quality of medical care for crash victims, decreases in other types of mortality, changes in policing, and risky driving behaviors such as speeding, driving without a seat belt and driving while intoxicated. We can rule out many of these factors as important contributors to the race gap, but find evidence for two of them. The first is opportunity: Relative to white Americans, Black Americans are spending more time in vehicles than they have in the past. Changes in time spent driving, while modest, likely explain an important share of the emergent race gap. The second is a relative increase in drug use, manifested by a quadrupling of the rate of overdose deaths among Black Americans after 2014. Increased drug use appears to have resulted in a concomitant increase in fatal crashes involving drivers under the influence of drugs. Finally, we consider whether the emerging race gap is explained by the so-called "Ferguson effect," the idea that police officers have pulled back from enforcement activity in recent years. On the one hand, traffic stops

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  made by police officers do appear to have declined after 2014. However, the decline in traffic stops does not appear to be race-specific and there is little evidence of a broad increase in risky driving behaviors like speeding and driving without a seat belt.

Cambridge, MA: National Bureau of Economic Research, 2022. 58p.