Editor-in-Chief, Dr Guohua Li:Dr. Crifasi, congratulations on winning the Jess Kraus Award inInjury Epidemiology。Would you please briefly introduce yourself and your award-winning study?
Cassandra K. Crifasi博士：我是一个系的助理教授Health Policy and Management at the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. Prior to joining the faculty in 2014, I earned an MPH in Environmental and Occupational Health from the Drexel Dornsife School of Public Health and my PhD in Health Policy and Management from the Johns Hopkins Bloomberg School of Public Health. My research interests include injury epidemiology and prevention, firearm policy, and the evaluation of policies that affect first responders and public safety. Much of the existing literature on assaults against law enforcement officers (LEOs) has focused on fatal assaults. But we know that for each fatality, there are many more assaults that result in injury but not death. The goal of this study was to examine differences in characteristics between fatal and nonfatal assaults to determine which characteristics increased the odds that an assault would be fatal.
EIC:Compared to other high-risk occupations such as flying, logging, and commercial fishing, how dangerous is law enforcement? What are the unique risks facing law enforcement officers?
CKC:执法是最危险的职业之一。LEO不仅具有较高的总体职业死亡率，而且职业杀人案的率是美国最高的。十个国家职业安全与健康研究所中的七个工作场所暴力因素与执法有关：与公众联系；移动工作场所；与不稳定或动荡的人一起工作；独自工作或少量工作；在深夜或清晨工作；在高犯罪区工作；并在基于社区的设置中工作。LEO经常在犯罪犯罪后或不久后与嫌疑人互动，嫌疑人可能会攻击Leos逃避俘虏。
EIC:近年来，与执法遭遇有关的悲剧一直在新闻中。是否有任何特定因素引发您进行这项研究？
CKC:这项工作始于我的博士学位论文的一部分。经过了预防职业伤害的培训，我寻找了一个与我的兴趣相符但也具有政策相关解决方案的问题。我对一般的第一响应者的安全感兴趣。研究对LEO的攻击是很自然的。
EIC:您是如何获得研究数据的？您能简要描述执法人员被杀和殴打数据库吗？
CKC:我向联邦调查局（FBI）提交了一份请求，以获取有关对LEO的所有致命和非致命袭击的原始数据。联邦调查局（FBI）作为统一犯罪报告计划的一部分生成了执法人员杀害和殴打（LEOKA）数据库。该数据库包括有关每项致命攻击的消除数据，以及使用枪支或刀具/切割工具造成伤害的非致命攻击。它包括有关遭遇（例如交通停止），任务（例如两官员车辆），嫌疑人使用的武器以及LEO特征的许多变量，例如他们是否戴着防弹衣和主要伤口的位置。致命的攻击数据收集始于1980年，非致命攻击数据收集始于1998年。
EIC:What is the most striking finding from your study?
CKC:There is significant evidence in previous literature suggesting traffic stops are dangerous for LEOs, so we expected to see increased likelihood that an assault would result in a fatality when LEOs were conducting traffic stops. We also expected to see increased likelihood for assaults in situations where LEOs were responding to domestic disturbance calls, as those are regularly cited by law enforcement as dangerous situations. However, after controlling for other factors, those calls did not increase the odds of a fatality. At the same time, we were surprised to see such high odds for LEOs that were ambushed or experienced an unprovoked attack. At the time of the initial analysis, we had not yet witnessed the increasing ambush style attacks against LEOs. Looking at the results now, in the context of increases in these attacks, it makes sense that an ambush or unprovoked attack would result in higher likelihood of a fatality. When LEOs are caught off guard or have limited opportunity to defend themselves, they are more likely to be victims of homicide.
EIC:Any other important messages that may help save lives?
CKC:The topic of law enforcement and shootings has become incredibly politically charged. But ultimately, people want the same thing – less violence. This study, and others I have conducted, show that good policies can prevent gun violence directed at anyone, including law enforcement.
EIC:您的合着者Keshia Pollack博士和Daniel Webster博士是受伤和预防暴力领域的著名学者。在研究过程中，您从他们那里学到了什么？
CKC:Keshia Pollack博士和Daniel Webster博士都有一种独特的思考问题的方式，并带来了互补的专业知识。在过去的几年中，他们对我的工作产生了重大影响，增强了我的研究方法，并帮助我将工作转化为有意义的政策，以减少暴力行为。我发现自己很幸运能够让他们成为同事和导师。
EIC:If you are continuing this line of inquiry, could you tell us what kind of questions you are tackling?
CKC:There are still many questions to answer about assaults against LEOs. We have conducted an evaluation of how some crime and gun policies affect LEO safety, but there are still many other policies that could affect the working environment of law enforcement. Some additional work focuses more specifically on LEOs killed with firearms and looks at the effectiveness of body armor to protect against different types of firearms used.
EIC:Thank you for your time. I look forward to reading your next paper inInjury Epidemiology。
https://blogs.springeropen.com/springeropen/2017/03/23/winner-jess-kraus-kraus-kraus-wighlights-importance-good-policies-policies-policies-priventing-gun-violence/
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