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Armed vs Unarmed Police Shooting Records
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About
This collection of data offers deep insight into fatal police violence across the United States spanning 2013 through late 2020. It serves as a critical resource for examining patterns of excessive force, focusing particularly on demographic elements such as race and gender discrepancies, the victim's armed or unarmed status at the time of the incident, and the geographic distribution of these events. The file provides detailed records enabling analysis of agency accountability, alleged threat levels, and whether the victim displayed symptoms of mental illness.
Columns
The dataset comprises seventeen specific fields documenting each incident:
- Victim's name: The name of the individual who died.
- Victim's age: The age of the victim, often listing "Unknown" in some cases.
- Victim's gender: Primarily distinguishing between male (95%) and female (5%) victims.
- Victim's race: Key demographic information, with White (43%) and Black (25%) being the most frequent categories.
- Date of Incident (month/day/year): The precise date the incident occurred.
- City: The municipality where the event took place.
- State: The US state, with California (15%) and Texas (9%) being most common.
- Zipcode: The postal code of the incident location.
- Agency responsible for death: The specific law enforcement department involved, such as the Los Angeles Police Department.
- Cause of death: The identified mechanism of death, overwhelmingly recorded as "Gunshot" (92%).
- Criminal Charges?: Indicates whether the victim faced criminal charges, with 98% having "No known charges".
- Symptoms of mental illness?: Notes if the victim exhibited signs of a mental health condition (18% marked 'Yes').
- Alleged Weapon (Source: WaPo and Review of Cases Not Included in WaPo Database): The object the victim was allegedly carrying, with 'gun' being the most common (53%).
- Alleged Threat Level (Source: WaPo): Categorisation of the perceived threat, with 'attack' being the top response (47%).
- Fleeing (Source: WaPo): Status indicating if the victim was attempting to escape (40% were 'Not fleeing').
- Armed/Unarmed Status: Classification detailing if the victim was allegedly armed (72%) or unarmed/did not have an actual weapon (13%).
Distribution
The data is provided in a CSV file format named USPoliceViolence.csv, with a size of 1.62 MB. It contains approximately 9,537 individual records, representing 17 columns of data detailing incidents between January 2013 and late 2021, though the focus is primarily 2013–2020.
Usage
This data is ideal for quantitative analysis seeking to address critical questions regarding police use of deadly force. Potential applications include:
- Mapping the geographic distribution of police violence to identify high-incidence states.
- Investigating racial disparity in outcomes, particularly concerning the victim's armed status.
- Analysing trends over time to determine if police violence levels are increasing or decreasing.
- Examining the correlation between alleged threat level, fleeing status, and fatal incidents.
Coverage
The geographic scope covers incidents across the United States. The temporal coverage spans from 2013-01-01 to 2021-09-21. Demographically, the records include details on the victim's age, gender, and race, providing necessary inputs for intersectional studies on who is disproportionately affected by fatal police encounters.
License
CC0: Public Domain
Who Can Use It
Intended users include Journalists covering law enforcement accountability, Academics and Researchers studying criminology or social justice issues, and Policy Analysts aiming to draft evidence-based recommendations for police reform. These users can leverage the data to quantify disparities and identify systemic issues in police protocols.
Dataset Name Suggestions
- US Police Use of Force Demographics
- Fatal Encounters & Racial Disparity
- American Police Violence Data 2013-2020
- Armed vs Unarmed Police Shooting Records
Attributes
Original Data Source: Armed vs Unarmed Police Shooting Records
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