Spatial Risk Factors of Felonious Battery to Police Officers

• NCJ Number: 250054
• Author(s): M. C. Joel, M. Phillip
• Date Published: November 2014
• Length: 16 pages
• Agencies: NIJ-Sponsored
• Award: Risk Terrain Modeling Experiment: A Multi-Jurisdictional Place-Based Test of an Environmental Risk-Based Patrol Deployment Strategy

Annotation

This study examined the spatial influence of features of the physical environment on the risk of aggression toward law enforcement.

Abstract

Risk terrain modeling, a spatial analytic technique, was performed on felonious battery data provided by the Chicago Police Department. Out of the 991 batteries against law enforcement officers (LEOs) in Chicago, 11 features of the physical environment were identified as presenting a statistically significant spatial risk of battery to LEOs. Calls for service within three blocks of foreclosures and/or within a dense area of problem buildings posed as much as a two times greater risk of battery to police officers than what is presented by other significant spatial factors in the model. abundance of existing research on aggression toward law enforcement is situated from the perspective of characteristics of the suspect or officer. This research advances the field of violence studies by illustrating the importance of incorporating physical features of the environment into empirical studies of aggression. (Publisher abstract modified)