Characteristics of the Situations Where Police Officers are Victimisated

"An attack on the police is an attack on the state" is a sentence we can often hear when an event occurs in which police officers are injured or killed. Victimologists often overlook police officers as victims, who are not given much relevance, and such phenomena are rarely investigated. This study aims to examine the characteristics of the situations in which crimes against police officers occur. Police data of crimes against police officers registered in the period 2017-2020 in the city of Zrenjanin, Serbia, were categorically summarized and statistically processed, and the characteristics of the situations in which the criminal offences occur were analyzed. The results suggest that the victims are male police officers, predominantly in uniform; mostl attacks take place in urban areas, at night, while the perpetrators are younger than 34, often under the influence of alcohol. The limitation of this research refers to the fact that it was conducted on the territory of only one police department, and only certain variables were taken into account that defines the characteristics of the situations in which police officers are victimised.