NCJ Number
219544
Journal
Crime & Justice International Volume: 23 Issue: 97 Dated: March/April 2007 Pages: 4-13
Date Published
March 2007
Length
10 pages
Annotation
This study examined the underlying causes of citizen violence against police officers in Korea.
Abstract
Results indicated that the majority of offenders were males between the ages of 21 and 40 years. Almost half of offenders (40 percent) were unemployed while over 35 percent were employed in blue-collar jobs. Half of the officers assaulted held the rank of “policeman” and over 30 percent were senior policemen. Officers were most likely to be assaulted at night. The most frequent motives for police assaults were “expression of contempt” followed by the motives of “defense of autonomy” and “perseverance in violence.” The findings lend support to conflict theory in that the lower-class people who were socially and economically marginalized were more likely to commit assaults on police officers in Korea. Data on citizen assaults on police officers was drawn from the Report of Justice Obstruction from the Busanjin Police Station. Included in this study were all reports submitted between July 2001 and June 2002, which involved 155 cases of assaults on officers. Multiple cases of assault of multiple assailants put the final number of cases under analysis at 189 cases of assault against officers at the Busanjin Police Station in Korea during the 1-year study period. Main factors under analysis included demographic information and rank for the assaulted officers, month of occurrence, time of occurrence, place of assault, offender characteristics including whether they were under the influence of alcohol, and how the contact between the police officer and the citizen was initiated. Motives for police assaults were reviewed and categorized by six types: perseverance in violence, defense of autonomy, protection of danger, expression of contempt, and unclassifiable. The analysis also categorized six types of verbal abuse: simple abuse, physical threat, threat by higher authority, distrust, hostility toward authority, and derision. Tables, notes