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This research uses rational choice theory to analyze the effects of motivation, premeditation and offender characteristics on offenders' weapons during decision-making processes when they are violent towards on-duty police officers. The paper aims to discuss the aforementioned issues.

The researchers examined 597 cases (n = 597) of violence against the police in the China Judgments Online (CJO) database, and analyzed the data using multinomial logistic regression methods. Rational choice theory was used to explore the offenders' weapons decision-making process.

The research results showed that offenders with premeditation were more likely to use a weapon, and tended to choose sharp weapons; offenders motivated to “escape arrest” were more likely to use a weapon, and tended to choose a vehicle as a weapon; and offenders motivated by “conflict resolution” were more likely to choose a sharp or blunt weapon.

These findings have limited applicability to other countries and must be considered in the local background of violence against police.

Through the rational choice theory analytical framework, this study clarifies how motivation and premeditation influence offenders' weapons decision-making processes.

Also, this study may provide support for frontline police officers' law enforcement.

The research identified some specific connections between offenders' weapon choice preferences, their motivation for the violence and whether or not there was premeditation. The findings provide guidance for police agencies developing preventive policies, and for frontline officers in interpreting and managing the situations they face.

Women comprise a significant and growing proportion of the law enforcement population. Despite this, their potentially unique reactions to job-related posttraumatic stress symptoms (PTSS) and depression have been underrepresented in the relevant literature, particularly within the context of exposure to community violence. Also understudied is the role of empathy in the development of post-trauma reactions, which has been a risk factor for the development of posttraumatic distress in previous studies. With the recent endorsement of empathy training by the President’s Task Force on 21st Century Policing, it is important to examine ways in which empathy may contribute to differences in PTSS and depression for male and female officers. The paper aims to discuss this issue.

Male and female police officers (n=189) exposed to violence during the 2014 Ferguson protests completed a battery of measures designed to assess demographic information, prior trauma history, and mental health outcomes.

Moderation analyses showed that empathy moderated the relationships between exposure and PTSS and exposure and depression in female officers, such that exposure was associated with higher posttraumatic stress and depressive symptoms only for female officers with high levels of empathy. These relationships were not found for men.

This study is the first to examine sex differences and the role of empathy in the mental health effects of law enforcement secondary to violence during community protests against policing.

The purpose of this paper is to examine the spatial influence of features of the physical environment on the risk of aggression toward law enforcement.

The spatial analytic technique, risk terrain modeling 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 pose as much as two times greater risk of battery to police officers than what is presented by other significant spatial factors in the model.

An abundance of existing research on aggression toward law enforcement is situated from the perspective of characteristics of the suspect or officer. The research advances the field of violence studies by illustrating the importance of incorporating physical features of the environment into empirical studies of aggression.

This article aims to synthesize published research on the policing of Asian communities in the United States.

This is a systematic literature review using PRISMA 2020 guidelines.

Sixteen studies were reviewed. Five examined violence by police against Asian community members and reported rates for Asians closer to those against Whites than against members of other groups. One study found no relationship between violence against police and increased minority representation on the force. Four studies reported conflicting results regarding traffic stops of Asian motorists and in general perceptions of police anti-Asian bias. One study illustrated how racialization processes reproduce inequality both between racial-ethnic categories and within them. Five studies examined Asian community members’ general attitudes toward/satisfaction with police and reported—with qualifications—generally favorable attitudes and satisfaction with them.

This is the first systematic literature review of policing Asian communities in the United States.

Actual debates around the Swiss police see a decrease in respect and an increase in attacks toward police officers. Such non-respect can be seen as a lack of feelings of obligation to obey the police. Instead of asking whether such a proclaimed increase in disrespect is indeed happening in Switzerland, this chapter analyzes aspects of legitimacy. It builds on the question whether the population sees the Swiss police as a legitimate force.

Swiss police’s legitimacy will be elaborated in two parts. After giving an overview about current debates, known theoretical aspects of legitimacy will be outlined. These aspects build the ground for empirical analyses that follow. Results are based on data of the European Social Survey ESS5.

The Swiss population sees the police as a legitimate force. The majority morally align with the police, they feel an obligation to obey their directives, and they ascribe legality to their actions. Furthermore, also procedural fairness is highly ascribed to the Swiss police. Finally, age correlates only with certain aspects of legitimacy. While moral alignment increases with age, as well as positive views about police’s procedural fairness, no effects were found for feelings of obligation to obey. However, elderly people more often see a political influence on police’s decisions and actions.

While in Anglo-Saxon countries research on legitimacy of the police is broad, no analyses are known for Switzerland so far. Moreover, topics around the Swiss police are often emotionally debated in media, with a lack of empirical evidence. This chapter contributes to close this gap. It gives an insight on the population’s perception of the Swiss police and offers an important scientific foundation for actual debates.

The study compares the impact of two different pedagogical approaches in police training by assessing the knife defense performance of German police recruits against different types of knife attacks. Linear or nonlinear – which pedagogical approach leads to more efficient knife defense performance?

A total of 20 German state police recruits (w = 5, m = 15) were assigned to linear and nonlinear groups. The linear and nonlinear groups' performance on knife defense was assessed in a pretest, after a three-week training intervention in a posttest and eight weeks thereafter in a retention test, utilizing a mixed-method design (Sendall et al., 2018).

Quantitative data on knife defense performance suggest a lastingly better performance of the nonlinear group: in the retention test, participants of the nonlinear group were hit less (p = 0.029), solved the attack faster (p = 0.044) and more often (81.8%) than participants of the linear group (55.6%). In contrast, qualitative data reveal that, despite of evidence for a high level of perceived competence, the nonlinear teaching of knife defense skills has been accompanied by considerable uncertainties, affected by the lack of techniques and the focus on principles and operational parameters only.

It is the first study assessing the impact of different pedagogical approaches in police training. For the practice of police trainers, the results provide empirical orientations for an evidence-based planning of and reflection on pedagogical demands within their training (Mitchell and Lewis, 2017).

Despite increased scholarly inquiry regarding intelligence-led policing (ILP) and popularity among law enforcement agencies around the globe, ambiguity remains regarding the conceptual foundation and appropriate measurement of ILP. Although most scholars agree that ILP is indeed a unique policing philosophy, there is less consensus regarding the relationship between ILP and the ever-present model of community-oriented policing (COP). Consequently, there is a clear need to study the empirical distinctions and overlaps in these policing philosophies as implemented by US law enforcement agencies. The paper aims to discuss these issues.

Data were gleaned from the 2007 LEMAS and 2009 NIJ Intelligence surveys. A total of 227 unique police agencies in the USA are included. A series of bivariate, exploratory factor analyses and structural models are used to determine discriminatory or convergent validity across COP and ILP constructs.

The goal was to answer the question: are these two policing philosophies are being implemented as separate and distinct strategies? Results of our exploratory and structural models indicate that COP and ILP loaded on unique latent constructs. This affirms the results of the bivariate correlations, and indicates that COP and ILP have discriminant measurement validity. In other words, COP and ILP are conceptually distinct, even when implemented in police departments across the USA. Implications of these findings and suggestions for future research are discussed.

This is the first study to empirically test the discriminant or convergent validity of COP and ILP.

The purpose of this paper is to examine whether the counter-terrorism financing regime provides a solid platform for a better understanding of who should be considered terrorists or what forms terrorism, terrorist acts and terrorist groups, the financing of which is the subject matter. In the absence of an internationally agreed definition of terrorism, the question which needs to be posed is whether there is a clear and common understanding of what constitutes terrorism, terrorist acts and terrorist groups, the financing of which needs to be stopped. That is, from a criminal law perspective, whether the Terrorist Financing Convention, as the backbone of the counter-terrorist financing regime, clarifies what types of conduct, by who, in what circumstances and when, against whom (targets or victims) and with what intention or motivation should be considered terrorism?

It will be explained how and why it has been difficult to reach an agreement on the definition of terrorism. The endeavour of the drafters of the Terrorist Financing Convention and others involved in countering terrorist financing to establish a general definition of terrorism will be examined.

The record of attempts to define the elements of terrorism proves that it is hardly possible to reach an agreement on a generic definition of terrorism because the concept of terrorism is elusive and subject to various understandings. Even the definition provided by the Terrorist Financing Convention, is not convincing.

With regard to the findings, this paper calls for further research on the legal consequences of the implementation of the terrorist financing-counter measures, while the scope of terrorism, terrorist acts and terrorist organizations have been left vague.

Violence against the police represents an ongoing and serious problem in the USA. In 2014, over 48,000 law enforcement officers assaulted while on duty. Although over one in four of these resulted in injury, little is known about the conditions under which injury is likely to occur. The purpose of this paper is to provide an assessment of the individual and situational factors that predict injurious assaults against law enforcement.

Using logistic regression, the current study analyzes data from the 2012 National Incident-Based Reporting System (NIBRS) on all assaults against the police (n=8,987) in order to understand, within a routine activities theoretical framework, how individual-level characteristics (i.e. officer and offender characteristics) and situational influences (i.e. assignment type, activity type, and location) predict the likelihood that an assault will result in injury.

Overall, findings suggest support for a routine activities theory of violence against the police. Initiating an arrest, one-officer vehicle type, and incidents occurring on highways/roads were all more likely to result in injurious assaults against the police. Other predictors of injury include officer and offender demographics as well as the time the incident took place.

This research was unable to control for some factors that may influence the likelihood of injury such as wearing body armor. Additionally, NIBRS data are not nationally representative, which limits the generalizability of the findings.

This is one of the first papers to use national data to examine the individual and situational factors that predict injurious assaults against law enforcement.