The Prevalence of Terrorist Motives Among Civilians Who Kill Police Officers
A Mixed-Method Analysis
Bibliographic Data
| ID | 4086942 |
|---|---|
| Authors | James J Norris (0000-0002-0326-9668, SUNY Fredonia, corresponding author) |
| Year | 2025 |
| Volume | 38 |
| Issue | 5 |
| Pages | 1-24 |
| Publication date | 2025-03-04 |
| Open Access | No |
| Type | ARTICLE |
| Venue | Terrorism and Political Violence (JOURNAL) |
| Journal identifiers | ISSN: 0954-6553 • E-ISSN: 1556-1836 |
| Publisher | Informa UK Limited (PUBLISHER • GB) |
| DOI | 10.1080/09546553.2025.2458799 |
| OpenAlex | W4408150465 |
| Language | EN |
| Citations received | 1 |
Alleging a “war on cops,” critics of US movements for police reform claim that the movements are inspiring civilians to murder officers. While studies find no increase in civilian-on-police homicides after these movements gained prominence in 2014, no research has directly evaluated this claim by testing for temporal patterns in terrorist motivations in civilian-on-police homicides. In this study, interrupted time series analysis of all recorded homicides of US police between 2008 and 2021 (n = 595) reveals no significant increase in civilian-on-police homicides with terrorist motives after 2014, though certain ideological sub-categories did significantly increase. Contrary to the “war on cops” narrative, very few homicides were inspired by protests against police, and even offenders with such motivations were also driven by mental illness and far-right influences. Results also showed that offenders who are veterans or are mentally ill were several times more likely to have terrorist intent. Several case studies illustrate both terrorist and ideologically-motivated but non-terrorist civilian-on-police homicides
Criminology · Political science · Terrorism · Law · Psychology · Social Psychology · Terrorism, Counterterrorism, and Political Violence
| Citations per year | 1 |
|---|---|
| Citation span | 2025 - 2025 (1) |
| Highly cited | No |