First Advisor

Aaron Roussell

Term of Graduation

January 2025

Date of Publication

1-1-2025

Document Type

Thesis

Language

English

Subjects

Fatal Encounters Database, Media Representation, Police, State Violence

Physical Description

1 online resource ( pages)

Abstract

This study utilizes case information from an online database called Fatal Encounters, which has over 30,000 incident reports of civilian deaths involving a police officer. From this larger population, a sample of 415 cases is used to run an additional mixed method research design, which integrates quantitative data analysis and qualitative content analyses. The quantitative analysis sample includes all 415 cases, and the qualitative content analysis uses a subsample of 34 cases. Using demographic data provided by Fatal Encounters, this study expands case information to create new data sets. Both quantitative and qualitative data are collected, developed, and then analyzed. The quantitative section works to determine how measures of social advocacy affect rates of state accountability, while accounting for alternative explanations and moderating for race. The qualitative content analysis works to demonstrate the role of media as an apparatus of state violence by operationalizing neutralization theory as a technique to thematically code patterns of anti-social and harmful behaviors demonstrated by state players. All proponents of this study work together to understand if media representation works as a tool of justice for fatal encounter victims and/or if it works as an apparatus of state violence and avoidance of accountability.

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Available for download on Saturday, June 27, 2026

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Criminology Commons

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