Police in America shoot and kill far more people than their peers in other countries

American police shoot and kill far more people than their peers in other countries

Police officers in the US shoot and kill hundreds of people each year, according to the FBI's very limited data — far more than other developed countries like the UK, Japan, and Germany, where police officers might go an entire year without killing more than a dozen people or even anyone at all.

The Economist charted the differences in annual police shooting deaths in the US, UK, Japan, and Germany:

The Economist

One explanation for this disparity is that violent crime is much more common in the US, putting police in more situations in which the use of force is necessary. As data from the Organisation for Economic Co-operation and Development shows, the US homicide rate throughout the 2000s was more than three times the rate of Canada, four times that of the UK, and more than 10 times that of Germany.

But why does the US have a much higher violent crime rate than other countries? One explanation: Americans are much more likely to own guns than their peers around the world. This means that conflicts — not just between police and civilians but between civilians — are much more likely to escalate into deadly, violent encounters. The research bears this out: More guns lead to more gun violence. And for police in particular, one study found that every 10 percent increase in firearm ownership correlated with 10 additional officers killed at the state level over a 15-year period.

According to survey data compiled by Simon Rogers for theGuardian, the US had 88.8 guns per 100 people in 2007 — compared with 54.8 in the second-closest country, Yemen. Reddit user Phillybdizzle mapped this data, showing just how much the US stands out in gun ownership compared with the rest of the world:

Phillybdizzle/Reddit

This is a result of cultural and policy decisions made by the US that have made firearms far more available in America than most of the world. For American police officers, this means they not only will encounter more guns, but they expect to encounter more guns, making them more likely to anticipate and perceive a threat and use deadly force as a result.

But deadly police encounters have drawn increased criticism over the past few years as cops have shot and killed unarmed or otherwise innocent black men and boys, highlighting the troubling racial disparities in how police use force. For critics of law enforcement, the disparities indicate that it's not just greater rates of gun ownership and violent crime that explain the higher number of police shootings in the US. Perhaps it's the lax legal standards that allow cops to justify deadly force against suspects who pose no danger, and sometimes are only perceived to pose a threat to officers because cops hold racial biases that are endemic in the criminal justice system.