Correctional Officer Fatalities in Line of Duty During 2005 to 2015: A Survival Analysis

DOI10.1177/0032885518814705
AuthorBruce Taylor,Weiwei Liu
Published date01 January 2019
Date01 January 2019
Subject MatterArticles
https://doi.org/10.1177/0032885518814705
The Prison Journal
2019, Vol. 99(1) 26 –45
© 2018 SAGE Publications
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DOI: 10.1177/0032885518814705
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Article
Correctional Officer
Fatalities in Line of Duty
During 2005 to 2015: A
Survival Analysis
Weiwei Liu1 and Bruce Taylor1
Abstract
Using correctional officer data from the National Law Enforcement Officers
Memorial (NLEOMF) database, we describe the characteristics of U.S.
correctional officers killed in line of duty in the past decade, and explore
how the hazard probability changed over the life span and factors related
to these changes. Survival analysis results show that several demographic
characteristics were significantly related to changes in hazard probabilities.
Study results provided the most recent statistics on profiles of U.S.
correctional officers killed in line of duty. Findings have implications for
prevention programs aimed at increasing correctional officer safety.
Keywords
correctional officer fatality, survival analysis, correctional officer safety,
hazard probability
Introduction
While research has been conducted on police officer fatalities (Blair, Fowler,
Betz, & Baumgardner, 2016; Brandl & Stroshine, 2012; Fridell, Faggiani,
Taylor, Brito, & Kubu, 2009; LaTourrette, 2010; Liu & Taylor, 2017) and
1NORC at the University of Chicago, Bethesda, MD, USA
Corresponding Author:
Weiwei Liu, NORC at the University of Chicago, 4350 East West Highway, Suite 800,
Bethesda, MD 20814, USA.
Email: liu-weiwei@norc.org
814705TPJXXX10.1177/0032885518814705The Prison JournalLiu and Taylor
research-article2018
Liu and Taylor 27
specialized databases, such as the Law Enforcement Officers Killed and
Assaulted (LEOKA) Program database, that are available to researchers on
police officer fatalities and injuries, very little systematic research has been
done on correctional officer fatalities. This is surprising given that there are
close to a half a million correctional officers in the United States (Bureau of
Justice Assistance, 2016) responsible for supervising over 2 million inmates
in the unique controlled environment of a prison (Konda, Tiesman, Reichard,
& Hartley, 2013). Correctional officers are an important group to study, as
they have one of the highest rates of nonfatal, work-related injury rates,
among all U.S. workers (Bureau of Labor Statistics [BLS], 2015). In 2014,
correctional officers had 491 work-related injuries or illnesses per 10,000
full-time employees (FTEs), which were serious enough to require that they
missed a day of work (BLS, 2015). This was almost 3 times greater than the
rate for all public sector workers who missed a day of work (167 cases per
10,000; BLS, 2015). Correctional officers experienced 153 work-related
injuries per 10,000 full-time equivalent employees (FTEs) due to assaults and
violent acts in 2014 which is much higher than the rate for all workers (seven
per 10,000 FTEs; BLS, 2015).
One important reason for the limited research on correctional officer fatal-
ities is the lack of data. Most of what is known about correctional officer
fatalities comes from broader studies on occupational fatalities conducted by
the BLS (2016) through their Census of Fatal Occupational Injuries (CFOI)
database. Unfortunately, the CFOI data are a restricted access database not
easily available to researchers, with access to most of the data fields limited
to BLS or National Institute for Occupational Safety and Health (NIOSH)
researchers (Tiesman, Swedler, Konda, & Pollack, 2013). In addition, the
CFOI database lacks details on the circumstances of the fatalities (other than
a short narrative text field), for example, it does not include the use protective
equipment or the type of weapons used in an assault (Konda et al., 2013).
Another dataset that includes correctional officer fatalities is the National
Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS), a state-based surveillance sys-
tem that collects information on violent deaths in participating states in the
United States (Blair et. al., 2016). However, the NVDRS dataset has a num-
ber of limitations. For example, only 17 states currently participate in
NVDRS; thus, the data are not nationally representative. While NVDRS col-
lects fatality information on all law enforcement officers (LEOs), it focuses
heavily on police officers and includes very few correctional officer fatality
cases, making a separate analysis of correctional officer fatalities difficult. In
addition, NVDRS does not collect information on accidental deaths in-the-
line-of-duty. Last, NVDRS does not collect any information on the use of
body armor or any protective method used by the victims.

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