UofL Criminal Justice professor dissects 'Ferguson effect'

Justin Nix, an assistant professor in UofL’s Department of Criminal Justice, has submitted a paper examining the so-called “War on Cops,” and the idea that police are under attack due to recent high-profile shootings. As part of his research, Nix tracked data of line-of-duty police officer assault deaths before and after the August 2014 Ferguson, Mo., shooting death of Michael Brown by a police officer.

What he found was that the number of police officers killed has not significantly changed since that “key moment.”

In light of the July 7 police shootings in Dallas, Nix said they’ll need more data and time to determine whether police are being increasingly targeted. He further describes his research in the video below.