IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jcjust/v93y2024ics0047235224000643.html

An experimental test of the contagious fire thesis in policing

Author

Listed:
  • DeCarlo, John
  • Dlugolenski, Eric
  • Myers, David

Abstract

This randomized experiment investigated the “contagious fire” thesis, which was first empirically investigated by White and Klinger (2012). They were the first to empirically investigate the notion, which had been widely discussed in and around Policing. The thesis posits that in deadly force scenarios, police officers are prone to use their firearms and discharge more rounds following the catalyst of peer officer gunfire.

Suggested Citation

  • DeCarlo, John & Dlugolenski, Eric & Myers, David, 2024. "An experimental test of the contagious fire thesis in policing," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 93(C).
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jcjust:v:93:y:2024:i:c:s0047235224000643
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2024.102215
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0047235224000643
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2024.102215?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Rao, Arjun H. & Marais, Karen, 2018. "High risk occurrence chains in helicopter accidents," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 170(C), pages 83-98.
    2. Diana C. Mutz & Robin Pemantle & Philip Pham, 2019. "The Perils of Balance Testing in Experimental Design: Messy Analyses of Clean Data," The American Statistician, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 73(1), pages 32-42, January.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Zhen Gao, 2025. "The effects of service quality of hybrid electronic commerce platform on consumer’s purchase intention: An assemblage theory approach," Electronic Markets, Springer;IIM University of St. Gallen, vol. 35(1), pages 1-16, December.
    2. Daoust, Jean-François & Nadeau, Richard & Dassonneville, Ruth & Lachapelle, Erick & Bélanger, Éric & Savoie, Justin & van der Linden, Clifton, 2020. "How to survey citizens’ compliance with COVID-19 public health measures? Evidence from three survey experiments," SocArXiv gursd, Center for Open Science.
    3. Pete Leasure & Hunter M. Boehme, 2024. "An Experimental Investigation Examining the Impact of Medical Association Statements about Drug Addiction on Perceptions of Criminal Culpability and Punishment," Social Sciences, MDPI, vol. 13(7), pages 1-8, July.
    4. Bao, Haixu & Liu, Wenfei & Dai, Zheng, 2025. "Artificial intelligence vs. public administrators: Public trust, efficiency, and tolerance for errors," Technological Forecasting and Social Change, Elsevier, vol. 215(C).
    5. Manuel Salas-Velasco, 2024. "Debiasing the availability heuristic in student loan decision-making," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 51(2), pages 501-528, May.
    6. repec:osf:socarx:tkrs7_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    7. Rao, Arjun H. & Marais, Karen, 2020. "A state-based approach to modeling general aviation accidents," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 193(C).
    8. Hema Yoganarasimhan & Ebrahim Barzegary & Abhishek Pani, 2020. "Design and Evaluation of Personalized Free Trials," Papers 2006.13420, arXiv.org.
    9. Berlin, Noémi & Jaber-Lopez, Tarek & Sarr, Moustapha, 2025. "The effect of social norms on parents’ beliefs and food choices: Evidence from a lab-in-the-field experiment," Journal of Behavioral and Experimental Economics (formerly The Journal of Socio-Economics), Elsevier, vol. 119(C).
    10. Kevin L. Cope, 2023. "Measuring law's normative force," Journal of Empirical Legal Studies, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 20(4), pages 1005-1044, December.
    11. Jung, Sohee & Boehme, Hunter M. & Leasure, Peter & Kidd, Lekendra & Nolan, Melissa, 2024. "Who is culpable in fentanyl-induced deaths? A survey vignette investigating public perceptions of drug supplier culpability," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 95(C).
    12. Chian Jones Ritten & Linda Thunström & Mariah Ehmke & Jenny Beiermann & Donald McLeod, 2019. "International honey laundering and consumer willingness to pay a premium for local honey: an experimental study," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 63(4), pages 726-741, October.
    13. Hema Yoganarasimhan & Ebrahim Barzegary & Abhishek Pani, 2023. "Design and Evaluation of Optimal Free Trials," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(6), pages 3220-3240, June.
    14. Omrani, Farzane & Etemadfard, Hossein & Shad, Rouzbeh, 2024. "Assessment of aviation accident datasets in severity prediction through machine learning," Journal of Air Transport Management, Elsevier, vol. 115(C).
    15. Eliot L. Sherman & Raina Brands & Gillian Ku, 2023. "Dropping Anchor: A Field Experiment Assessing a Salary History Ban with Archival Replication," Management Science, INFORMS, vol. 69(5), pages 2919-2932, May.
    16. Geschwind, Stephan & Graf Lambsdorff, Johann, 2025. "Does scarcity induce hostility? An experimental investigation of common-pool resources," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 227(C).
    17. repec:osf:socarx:gursd_v1 is not listed on IDEAS
    18. Cecchi, Francesco & Garcia, Adriana & Lensink, Robert & Wydick, Bruce, 2022. "Aspirational hope, dairy farming practices, and milk production: Evidence from a randomized controlled trial in Bolivia," World Development, Elsevier, vol. 160(C).
    19. Jean-François Daoust & Eric Bélanger & Ruth Dassonneville & Erick Lachapelle & Richard Nadeau & Michael Becher & Sylvain Brouard & Martial Foucault & Christoph Hönninge & Daniel Stegmueller, 2021. "A guilt-free strategy increases self-reported non-compliance with COVID-19 preventive measures: Experimental evidence from 12 countries," Post-Print hal-03244320, HAL.
    20. Cankaya, Burak & Topuz, Kazim & Delen, Dursun & Glassman, Aaron, 2023. "Evidence-based managerial decision-making with machine learning: The case of Bayesian inference in aviation incidents," Omega, Elsevier, vol. 120(C).
    21. Wang, Lei & Liu, Qing & Dong, Shiyu & Guedes Soares, C., 2022. "Selection of countermeasure portfolio for shipping safety with consideration of investment risk aversion," Reliability Engineering and System Safety, Elsevier, vol. 219(C).
    22. Pierre‐Marc Daigneault & Mathieu Ouimet & Alexandre Fortier‐Chouinard & Eriole Zita Nonki Tadida & Antoine Baby‐Bouchard, 2025. "How effective are behavioral interventions to increase the take‐up of social benefits? A systematic review of field experiments," Journal of Policy Analysis and Management, John Wiley & Sons, Ltd., vol. 44(3), pages 997-1059, June.

    More about this item

    Keywords

    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;
    ;

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jcjust:v:93:y:2024:i:c:s0047235224000643. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jcrimjus .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.