Nice guys finish last: A critical review of Killed in the Line of Duty

Abstract

In 1992, the FBI published the report Killed in the Line of Duty: A Study of Selected Felonious Killings of Law Enforcement Officers. This study of 51 incidents in which law enforcement officers were killed, reported on the personality and characteristics of those who murder law enforcement officers, the types of officers who were killed and factors which contribute to officer deaths. Unfortunately, this study suffers from methodological shortcomings in sample selection and the method of data collection that make the findings suspect. By comparing the results of the FBI study to previous research and other data on police homicides, it appears that some of the FBI’s findings are methodological artifacts and not accurate depictions of law enforcement officer homicides.

Citation

King, W.R. and Sanders, B.A. (1997), "Nice guys finish last: A critical review of Killed in the Line of Duty", Policing: An International Journal, Vol. 20 No. 2, pp. 392-407. https://doi.org/10.1108/13639519710169207