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Analysis of the Strength of Legal Firearms Restrictions for Perpetrators of Domestic Violence and Their Association With Intimate Partner Homicide
Abstract
In this research, we estimate the association of firearm restrictions for domestic violence offenders with intimate partner homicides (IPHs), based on the strength of the policies. We posit that the association of firearm laws with IPHs depends on the laws': 1) breadth of coverage of high-risk individuals and situations restricted; 2) power to compel firearm surrender or removal from prohibited persons; and 3) systems of accountability that prevent prohibited persons from obtaining guns. We conducted a quantitative policy evaluation using annual state-level data from 1980 through 2013 for 45 US states. Based on the results of a series of robust negative binomial regression models with state fixed effects, domestic violence restraining order firearm prohibition laws are associated with 9% reductions in IPH. Statistically significant protective associations were evident only when restraining order prohibitions covered dating partners (-10%) and ex parte orders (-12%). Laws prohibiting access to those convicted of non-specific violent misdemeanors were associated with a 23% reduction in IPH rates; there was no association when prohibitions were limited to domestic violence. Permit-to-purchase laws were associated with 10% reductions in IPHs. These findings should inform policymakers considering laws to maximize protections against intimate partner homicide.
... The US federal government and the governments of many states have passed laws to prevent known IPV perpetrators from purchasing/possessing guns. IPV-related gun regulations that lack implementation policies, however, do not appear to affect IPH rates (Dìez et al., 2017;Zeoli et al., 2018). After a relatively steady decline in the number of IPFs since 1990, IPF has been steadily increasing since 2013; this increase is entirely composed of IPFs committed with guns (Fox and Fridel, 2020). ...
... Recent research suggests that mandatory arrest laws do not affect IPF rates (Mancik et al., 2020). Conviction of a misdemeanour IPV crime is one of the main ways that IPV perpetrators are legally prohibited from gun access, yet these state-level gun restrictions are not associated with reductions in IPH (Diez et al., 2017;Vigdor and Mercy, 2006;Zeoli et al., 2018;Zeoli and Webster, 2010). However, the corresponding federal law has been associated with reductions in rates of IPHs committed with firearms (Raissian, 2016;Zeoli et al., 2018). ...
... Conviction of a misdemeanour IPV crime is one of the main ways that IPV perpetrators are legally prohibited from gun access, yet these state-level gun restrictions are not associated with reductions in IPH (Diez et al., 2017;Vigdor and Mercy, 2006;Zeoli et al., 2018;Zeoli and Webster, 2010). However, the corresponding federal law has been associated with reductions in rates of IPHs committed with firearms (Raissian, 2016;Zeoli et al., 2018). Additionally, state laws specifying that individuals convicted of violent misdemeanour crimes (not necessarily IPV crimes) are prohibited from possessing firearms are associated with a 23% reduction in IPH (Zeoli et al., 2018). ...
... IPH-related literature can be categorized based on geography, theory, and gender. For example, some IPH research is conducted at the state level (e.g., Zeoli et al., 2018); others at the city (e.g., Dugan, Nagin, & Rosenfeld, 2003) and county levels (e.g., [removed for review]; ...
... Paralleling these developments was the passage of statutes strengthening the criminalization of stalking and rape (Modi et al., 2014). Over time, sub-national statute codes across the U.S. included provisions such as firearm prohibition policies (see Bridges, Tatum, & Kunselman, 2008;Diez et al., 2017;Vigdor & Mercy, 2006;Zeoli & Webster, 2010;Zeoli et al., 2018). Indeed, the policy/program response to IPV/H has morphed over time. ...
... Domestic violence codes. Across states, there are various combinations of policy enactment, which are embodied in statutes or codes (e.g., restraining order firearm restrictions, health care provider screening for IPV; see Bridges, Tatum, & Kunselman, 2004;Diez et al., 2017;Vigdor & Mercy, 2006;Willie, Stockman, Perler, & Kershaw, 2017;Zeoli & Webster, 2010;Zeoli et al., 2018). These codes are language that is etched into legal enactment and actionable by governments to enforce such language. ...
Legal and social service interventions aim to mitigate intimate partner violence (IPV) and keep IPV from becoming lethal. Accordingly, this study examines the impact of policies and programs on female-victim intimate partner homicide (FVIPH) rates across the 67 counties of the state of Florida. It focuses on community coordinated response efforts, batterer intervention programs, local domestic violence (DV) ordinances, DV fatality review teams, and DV shelter programs. Results indicate that community coordinated response efforts are associated with decreasing FVIPH rates. Discussions of findings, limitations, and implications are provided accordingly.
... On a larger scale, it is also important to recognize the opportunity for public policy to impact IPH when it influences known risk factors. It is cited that approximately 50% of all female-victim cases of IPH in the USA are firearm related; several studies comparing different states have shown inverse associations between the presence of firearm-control policies and associated rates of female-victim IPH [77][78][79][80][81]. In reviewing data from 49 cities across the USA from 1979 to 2003, state statutes restricting those under domestic violence restraining orders (DVROs) from accessing firearms and laws allowing the warrantless arrest of DVRO violators are associated with reductions in total and firearm IPH [80]. ...
... Using FBI reports from 1991 to 2015, looking at the effect of the association between state IPV-related firearm laws and IPH rates, state laws that prohibit persons subject to IPV-related restraining orders from possessing firearms and also requiring them to relinquish firearms in their possession were associated with 9.7% lower total IPH rates and 14.0% lower firearmrelated IPH rates than in states without these laws [82]. A quantitative policy evaluation using annual state-level data from 1980 through 2013 for 45 US states showed that DVRO firearm-prohibition laws are associated with 10% reductions in IPH [81]; statistically significant protective associations were evident only when restraining order prohibitions covered dating partners (appx. 11%) and ex-partner orders (appx. ...
... Laws prohibiting access to those convicted of nonspecific violent misdemeanors were associated with a 24% reduction in IPH rates; there was no association when prohibitions were limited to domestic violence. Permit-topurchase laws were associated with 10% reductions in IPHs [81]. These findings collectively show strong evidence for an association between limiting firearm access, especially for those with DVROs and a previous history of violent misdemeanors, and a decrease in IPH rates across multiple parts of the country. ...
Purpose of Review
Intimate partner homicide (IPH), the lethal consequence of intimate partner violence (IPV), continues to account for a significant proportion of homicides worldwide. This review will highlight known risk factors of IPH, the state of risk assessment in healthcare settings, and examples of public policies that have impacted IPH risk.
Recent Findings
Studies have identified risk factors unique to IPH, which include female and transgender identities, a larger age gap between victim and perpetrator, race and ethnic minority identities, IPV during pregnancy, migration to the USA, socioeconomic instability, and a previous history of IPV. There are a variety of risk assessment tools used in healthcare settings, each developed within specific contexts of providers, participants, and settings. Finally, policies restricting firearm access to previous perpetrators of IPV has been associated with decreased rates in IPH.
Summary
While there are discrete risk factors and vulnerabilities for IPH, further work is needed to better understand risk within historically marginalized communities. The variation in risk assessment tools suggests that the administrator should select the one that best meets the patient’s specific situation. Finally, the association between firearm control and IPH rates is an encouraging example for future directions of impacting IPH. While there are still challenges to identifying and intervening on IPH, there are promising opportunities to innovate new methods of providing safety and empowerment.
... But the breadth of disqualifying conditions for firearm possession-e.g., whether convictions for violent misdemeanors, domestic violence restraining orders (DVROs) involving dating partners, and younger than 21 years of age disqualify someone from purchasing or possessing a firearm-vary significantly across states and determine the size of the pool of persons at increased risk for perpetrating firearm violence who are legally prohibited from purchasing or possessing firearms (Vittes, Vernick, & Webster, 2012). Indeed, the breadth of disqualifying conditions for persons with a history of violence was consistently associated with reductions in rates of intimate partner homicides (Zeoli et al., 2018). Because many mass shootings are committed in the context of domestic violence or involve perpetrators with a history of domestic violence (Zeoli & Paruk, 2020), broader firearm restrictions for DVROs and violent misdemeanors could potentially reduce mass shootings. ...
... Some licensing laws also require gun safety training, and a few provide officials the ability to use their discretion to deny an applicant if there is good reason to believe he or she might be dangerous (e.g., some history of violence). Rigorous studies of the impact of state CBC laws have not shown that these laws reduce homicides Kagawa et al., 2018;Zeoli et al., 2018); however, there has been consistent evidence that licensing laws reduce homicides Rudolph, Stuart, Vernick, & Webster, 2015) and suicides (Crifasi, Meyers, Vernick, & Webster, 2015). Licensing laws could potentially suppress fatal mass shootings, but there are no rigorous studies examining this question. ...
... In particular, exploratory analysis revealed that the SHR did not include several high-profile, highcasualty mass shootings including the 2012 Newtown, CT, school shooting; the 2012 Aurora, CO, movie theater shooting; and the 2017 Sutherland Springs, TX, church shooting. To remedy these and other omissions, we compared the SHR data with data on mass shootings collected by Stanford University (Stanford Mass Shootings in America, courtesy of the Stanford Geospatial Center and Stanford Libraries, n.d.) for the years 1984-2017 and the Gun Violence Archive for the years -2017(Mass Shootings in 2017 and added any missing incidents to our data set. 2 We followed Zeoli et al. (2018) in excluding Florida, Kansas, Kentucky, Nebraska, and Montana from our analysis because of systemic Uniform Crime Reports (UCR)-SHR reporting issues over multiple years. ...
Research Summary
We used data from the FBI's Supplemental Homicide Reports and other publicly available databases to calculate state‐level annual incidence of fatal mass shootings for 1984–2017. Negative binomial regression models were used to estimate the associations between changes in key gun laws and fatal mass shootings. Handgun purchaser licensing laws and bans of large‐capacity magazines (LCMs) were associated with significant reductions in the incidence of fatal mass shootings. Other laws commonly advocated as solutions to mass shootings—comprehensive background checks, assault weapons bans, and de‐regulation of civilian concealed carry of firearms—were unrelated to fatal mass shootings.
Policy Implications
Our findings suggest that laws requiring firearm purchasers to be licensed through a background check process supported by fingerprints and laws banning LCMs are the most effective gun policies for reducing fatal mass shootings.
... In addition to the presence or absence of RTC laws, we included the following statelevel statutes as predictors in our analysis: permit-to-purchase laws, 21 parking-lot laws, 22 stand-your-ground laws, 17 firearm prohibition laws for those convicted of a violent misdemeanor, 23,24 firearm prohibition laws that allow dating partners to petition for a domestic violence restraining order, 24 and firearm prohibition laws that allow ex-parte domestic violence restraining orders. 24 These laws were included in the analysis as they have either previously displayed significant relationships with firearm homicides in the general population or, in the case of parking lot laws, may directly affect firearm exposure in the workplace. ...
... In addition to the presence or absence of RTC laws, we included the following statelevel statutes as predictors in our analysis: permit-to-purchase laws, 21 parking-lot laws, 22 stand-your-ground laws, 17 firearm prohibition laws for those convicted of a violent misdemeanor, 23,24 firearm prohibition laws that allow dating partners to petition for a domestic violence restraining order, 24 and firearm prohibition laws that allow ex-parte domestic violence restraining orders. 24 These laws were included in the analysis as they have either previously displayed significant relationships with firearm homicides in the general population or, in the case of parking lot laws, may directly affect firearm exposure in the workplace. Sixteen states passed laws specifically aimed at securing employee firearm access while at work via their motor vehicles, referred to as parking lot laws, from 2003 to 2013. ...
... 25 To analyze the effect of these laws over time, we coded each law as "0" in the years before the law took effect, as a fraction of months the law was in effect in its first year, and as "1" for all subsequent years. We ascertained effective dates for all laws through legal research and checked them against existing literature for accuracy 22,24,26 (see Table A, available as a supplement to the online version of this article at http:// www.ajph.org, for effective dates). ...
Objectives. To examine the impact of right-to-carry (RTC) firearm laws on firearm workplace homicides (WPHs) in the United States from 1992 to 2017.
Methods. We employed 2 longitudinal methods to examine the average effect (pooled, cross-sectional, time-series analysis) and the state-specific effect (random effects meta-analysis) of RTC laws on WPHs committed by firearms from 1992 to 2017 in a 50-state panel. Both methods utilized a generalized linear mixed model with a negative binomial distribution.
Results. From 1992 to 2017, the average effect of having an RTC law was significantly associated with 29% higher rates of firearm WPHs (95% confidence interval [CI] = 1.14, 1.45). No other state-level policies were associated with firearm WPHs. Sensitivity analyses suggest robust findings. State-specific estimates suggest that passing an RTC law during our study period was significantly associated with 24% increase in firearm WPH rates (95% CI = 1.09, 1.40).
Conclusions. This is the first study to our knowledge to examine the link between RTC firearm laws and firearm WPHs. Findings indicate that RTC laws likely pose a threat to worker safety and contribute to the recent body of literature that finds RTC laws are associated with increased incidence of violence.
... Proper implementation and enforcement of these DV firearm protections saves lives. A 2018 study found a 13% reduction in intimate partner gun homicide in states like North Carolina that restrict firearm possession by people with active DVPOs [22]. States that require firearm surrender or proof of firearm relinquishment were found to reduce intimate partner gun homicides by an additional 3% [22]. ...
... A 2018 study found a 13% reduction in intimate partner gun homicide in states like North Carolina that restrict firearm possession by people with active DVPOs [22]. States that require firearm surrender or proof of firearm relinquishment were found to reduce intimate partner gun homicides by an additional 3% [22]. These findings are supported by previous research on the life-saving impact of DVPO firearm restrictions [23,24]. ...
The United States sees far more firearm deaths than peer nations. A considerable proportion of firearm injuries and deaths, as well as mass shootings, are related to domestic violence (DV). This article discusses the relationship between guns and DV and shares policy recommendations for creating a safer North Carolina.
... Although counselors must increase knowledge and discussion of IPH, the severity of this issue suggests the need for broader social reform. Zeoli et al. (2017) indicated regulatory policies have been too focused on implementing ...
... This complexity was illustrated by Smith et al. (2014), who analyzed 4,470 cases of IPH and discovered 54.1% of victims were killed by a firearm; 25% by a sharp instrument; 8.4% by strangulation, suffocation, or hanging; 5.3% by a blunt instrument; 3.2% by personal weapons (such as fists); and 4% by other weapons. While these results correlated with previous findings from Zeoli et al. (2017) regarding the significance of IPH deaths from firearms, they also showed the prevalence of other homicidal methods. These findings demonstrate the need for more interventions rather than firearm restrictions alone to ensure client safety from IPH. ...
Intimate partner homicide (IPH) is a global public health issue. Intimate partner violence (IPV) is the highest risk factor and predictor of IPH. The emotional and psychological distress from IPV often leads clients to seek counseling services. As a result, counselors interact with individuals experiencing IPV who are at risk of IPH. The counseling literature is replete with IPV counseling interventions and discussion, but scant attention has been paid to IPH in counseling journals. Increasing discussion of IPH in the counseling literature helps counselors gain insight into preventative measures and interventions, such as assessing risk, expanding resource accessibility, and developing a safety plan to better ensure client safety. This article examines IPH literature, IPH vulnerabilities and risk factors, prevention efforts, and recommendations for counselors, such as assessing IPH risk, providing referrals to community resources, and developing safety plans.
... There is evidence that laws prohibiting PO respondents from purchasing and possessing firearms are associated with a reduction in intimate partner homicide (e.g., Vigdor & Mercy, 2006;Zeoli & Webster, 2010). A recent analysis by Zeoli et al. (2018) found that states that prohibit PO respondents (including dating partners) from firearm purchase and possession observed a 13% reduction in intimate partner homicide and a 16% reduction in firearm-related intimate partner homicide. ...
... It valuable to consider the experience of firearm-related abuse tactics as a function of PO seeking among IPV victims given there is strong evidence that firearm prohibitions for PO respondents can protect IPV victims from lethality (e.g., Vigdor & Mercy, 2006;Zeoli et al., 2018;Zeoli & Webster, 2010). This study aims to address several gaps in the literature. ...
Firearms play a critical role in the murder of intimate partner violence (IPV) victims and there is evidence that laws prohibiting protective order (PO) respondents from possessing a firearm reduce IPV fatalities. However, little research has compared specific abuse tactics involving firearms among victims who have and have not sought a PO against an abuser. This study investigates IPV victims’ experiences with a range of firearm-related abuse tactics across victim race/ethnicity, in addition to the relationship between firearm IPV and PO requests, above and beyond IPV not involving firearms. Questionnaires were administered to 215 female victims recruited from six domestic violence shelters in Texas. Over one-half of victims who sought a PO were threatened to be shot by their abuser and victims who experienced high levels of firearm abuse incurred a 302% increase in the odds of requesting a PO. There were no significant differences between White, Black, and Hispanic victims regarding firearm IPV tactics. The results shed light on the magnitude of risk IPV victims can experience when seeking a PO against an abusive partner.
... Current state laws vary greatly in the breadth of conditions that prohibit firearm possession and in the implementation of recovering firearms from prohibited individuals (Zeoli et al., 2019). These firearm restrictions have been found to reduce intimate partner homicide (Diez et al., 2017;Zeoli et al., 2018). The frequency of nonfatal firearm abuse and adverse consequences for IPV victims in this study lends urgency to the need to consider expanding laws to prohibit possession among broader groups of IPV perpetrators (e.g., dating partners) (Sorenson and Spear, 2018), to explicitly address relinquishment or seizure of firearms from those who are prohibited from possessing them (Diez et al., 2017;Gerney and Parsons, 2014), and to enhance implementation of these laws (Zeoli et al., 2018). ...
... These firearm restrictions have been found to reduce intimate partner homicide (Diez et al., 2017;Zeoli et al., 2018). The frequency of nonfatal firearm abuse and adverse consequences for IPV victims in this study lends urgency to the need to consider expanding laws to prohibit possession among broader groups of IPV perpetrators (e.g., dating partners) (Sorenson and Spear, 2018), to explicitly address relinquishment or seizure of firearms from those who are prohibited from possessing them (Diez et al., 2017;Gerney and Parsons, 2014), and to enhance implementation of these laws (Zeoli et al., 2018). More robust surveillance of nonfatal firearm use in IPV (e. g., with more granular questions added to CDC's National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey or DOJ's National Crime Victimization Survey) would also allow for future research to evaluate the impact of such laws on relevant nonfatal outcomes. ...
Research on intimate partner violence (IPV) and firearms has typically focused on homicide, so there is limited information on how firearms are used in nonfatal ways, particularly in community samples. We sought to estimate the prevalence of nonfatal firearm abuse in the context of IPV, understand how and against whom firearms are used, and examine consequences of this abuse. Using a national web-based survey of US adults who experienced IPV (n = 958), we asked respondents about experiences with firearm abuse, including the frequency of firearm behaviors and consequences. Based on screening data weighted to be nationally representative, we estimated that 9.8% (95% CI: 9.0%, 10.6%) of US adults - or nearly 25 million - have experienced nonfatal firearm abuse by an intimate partner (i.e., were threatened with a firearm, had a firearm used on them, or were threatened by a partner who possessed or had easy access to a firearm). IPV victims who experienced nonfatal firearm abuse commonly reported experiencing other forms of IPV. The most common behaviors included the partner displaying a firearm (67.5%) and threatening to shoot the victim (63.0%). The majority (80.5%) of perpetrators were male, and 49.2% of respondents had a child at home at the time of abuse. The most common consequences of firearm abuse were concerns for safety (86.2%) and feeling fearful (82.7%). Additionally, 43.1% of respondents reported physical injury, and 37.4% missed days of work or school. Practice and policy around firearm access for IPV perpetrators should attend to the nonfatal firearm use against intimate partners.
... In others, the firearm provisions are up to judicial discretion with statutes using "may" language (Greer and Purvis 2011). Prohibiting abusers' possession of firearms through protection orders has been shown to lower rates of IPV homicide (Zeoli et al. 2018(Zeoli et al. , 2019. ...
Social movements pushed to reconceptualize intimate partner violence (IPV) as a social problem deserving of intervention rather than a private family matter. However, little work has examined which interventions the public is likely to support. How and where do personal politics affect perceptions of and responses to a social problem? To address these questions, 739 participants read a victim’s narrative from a court case and indicated their concern for the victim and support for issuing a protection order, prohibiting the abuser from owning a gun, or the victim owning a gun to protect herself. Concern for the victim and support for issuing a protection order was widespread, regardless of political leaning, with minor variations driven by role-taking and attitudes towards IPV. Similarly, support for the victim receiving a protection order was high, with political ideology and political affiliation having no direct effects. While concern increased support for each intervention, it held less explanatory power for gun-related interventions. Instead, political ideology and affiliation shaped support for disarming the abuser or arming the victim. Support for these interventions seemed to filter through a political lens. Thus, one’s personal politics drive divergent intervention attitudes, even when concern for a social problem is shared.
... For example, firearm violence is the end result of multiple factors, including firearm availability, social disadvantage, and structural racism; additionally, the occurrence of firearm violence can set off retaliation, increased firearm carriage, and other unhealthy dynamics that further reinforce cycles of community firearm violence. Ecological studies have shed light on effects of certain violence-related policies, such as background check laws [42,43], firearm purchase waiting period laws [44], and laws limiting firearm access to those convicted of domestic violence [45][46][47], but a majority of policies have limited or inconclusive effects on homicides [48]. In addition, both observational [49,50] and experimental [25,28] studies have examined how interventions such as demolitions, blight remediation, and urban greening reduce community violence. ...
Purpose of review:
Community violence is a serious public health problem, and generational investments are being made to address it. Agent-based models (ABMs) are computational tools that can help to optimize allocation of those investments, analogous to how computer simulation models, broadly, have informed decision making in other fields, such as infectious disease control. In this review, we describe ABMs, explain their potential role in community violence research, discuss recent studies that have applied ABMs to community violence, and point to opportunities for further progress.
Recent findings:
We identified three recent studies that applied ABMs to community violence research, which points to the paucity of this line of work. Each of these works leverages a major advantage of ABMs-their ability to study the natural evolution of a process governed by the actions of autonomous agents, and how that evolution changes under counterfactual conditions, such as different intervention strategies (e.g., violence interruption), and policy changes (e.g., alcohol outlet licensing policies).
Summary:
ABMs continue to be an underutilized tool for the study of community violence. Their increased use could add important information to help stakeholders decide between competing intervention strategies in terms of their costs and the overall resulting changes in violence rates. In addition, ABMs have value in identifying unintended changes/diffusions resulting from interventions. Regardless of the application, ABMs can only be impactful if stakeholders believe and use the information, pointing to the importance of engaging policy makers and other stakeholders in the model formulation process when possible.
... Notably, federal law does not prohibit people who misuse alcohol from obtaining firearms (Branas et al. 2016;Carr et al. 2010). While limited data are available on the effectiveness of specific firearms denial criteria, and implementation of denial criteria varies across states, prior research suggests denying access to firearms to persons convicted of violent misdemeanors (Wintemute et al. 2001;Zeoli et al. 2017) and persons convicted or arrested for a felony (Wright et al. 1999) are associated with fewer firearm crimes and homicides. Our previous simulation study indicates that denying firearm purchases based on psychiatric disorders would reduce suicide among those denied firearms but would have varying impacts on population rates of firearm suicide depending on the prevalence of disqualification criteria . ...
Background:
Substance-related interactions with the criminal justice system are a potential touchpoint to identify people at risk for firearm violence. We used an agent-based model to simulate the change in firearm violence after disqualifying people from owning a firearm given prior alcohol- and drug-related misdemeanors.
Methods:
We created a population of 800,000 agents reflecting a 15% sample of the adult New York City population.
Results:
Disqualification from purchasing firearms for 5 years after an alcohol-related misdemeanor conviction reduced population-level rates of firearm homicide by 1.0% [95% CI 0.4-1.6%] and suicide by 3.0% [95% CI 1.9-4.0%]. Disqualification based on a drug-related misdemeanor conviction reduced homicide by 1.6% [95% CI 1.1-2.2%] and suicide by 4.6% [95% CI 3.4-5.8%]. Reductions were generally 2 to 8 times larger for agents meeting the disqualification criteria.
Conclusions:
Denying firearm access based on a history of drug and alcohol misdemeanors may reduce firearm violence among the high-risk group. Enactment of substance use-related firearms denial criteria needs to be balanced against concerns about introducing new sources of disenfranchisement among already vulnerable populations.
... Moderate prevalence disqualifications included 1) drug misdemeanor convictions (532/ 100,000) and 2) DVROs (517/100,000); the rate of firearm-related homicide among the moderate prevalence group was 22/100,000 in the model. Drugs convictions [65,66] and intimate partner violence [67] are both substantially associated with an increased risk of firearm violence. ...
Background
Firearm violence remains a persistent public health threat. Comparing the impact of targeted high-risk versus population-based approaches to prevention may point to efficient and efficacious interventions. We used agent-based modeling to conduct a hypothetical experiment contrasting the impact of high-risk (disqualification) and population-based (price increase) approaches on firearm homicide in New York City (NYC).
Methods
We simulated 800,000 agents reflecting a 15% sample of the adult population of NYC. Three groups were considered and disqualified from all firearm ownership for five years, grouped based on prevalence: low prevalence (psychiatric hospitalization, alcohol-related misdemeanor and felony convictions, 0.23%); moderate prevalence (drug misdemeanor convictions, domestic violence restraining orders, 1.03%); and high prevalence (all other felony/misdemeanor convictions, 2.30%). Population-level firearm ownership was impacted by increasing the price of firearms, assuming 1% price elasticity.
Results
In this hypothetical scenario, to reduce firearm homicide by 5% in NYC, 25% of the moderate prevalence group, or 12% of the high prevalence group needed to be effectively disqualified; even when all of the low prevalence group was disqualified, homicide did not decrease by 5%. An 18% increase in price similarly reduced firearm homicide by 5.37% (95% CI 4.43–6.31%). Firearm homicide declined monotonically as the proportion of disqualified individuals increased and/or price increased. A combined intervention that both increased price and effectively disqualified “high-risk” groups achieved approximately double the reduction in homicide as any one intervention alone. Increasing illegal firearm ownership by 20%, a hypothetical response to price increases, did not meaningfully change results.
Conclusion
A key takeaway of our study is that adopting high-risk versus population-based approaches should not be an “either-or” question. When individual risk is variable and diffuse in the population, “high-risk approaches” to firearm violence need to focus on relatively prevalent groups and be highly efficacious in disarming people at elevated risk to achieve meaningful reductions in firearm homicide, though countering issues of social justice and stigma should be carefully considered. Similar reductions can be achieved with population-based approaches, such as price increases, albeit with fewer such countering issues.
... Research suggests that when states enact supplemental DVPO firearm restriction laws, it yields a clear benefit. According to an analysis by Zeoli et al. (2017), any state-level DVPO firearm restriction law is associated with a 10% reduction in rates of IPH. These analyses show in particular that DVPO firearm surrender laws are associated with a significant decrease in IPH rates (IRR = 0.88), but if DVPO firearm restrictions do not cover ex parte orders, there are no significant preventative effects on IPH (Zeoli et al., 2018). ...
Research summary
We investigated the degree to which legislatively mandated firearm restrictions for domestic violence protective orders (DVPOs) have been implemented in North Carolina. We used a representative sample of n = 406 DVPO hearings (2016–17) and found that defendant access to firearms was seldom discussed (23.81%). Among granted orders ( n = 303), 69.5% prohibited defendant firearm possession ( n = 238) but only 38.61% ordered firearm surrender ( n = 143). There were higher odds of restrictions when the defendant had threatened to kill the plaintiff (OR for prohibited possession: 2.25, CI: 1.02, 4.97; OR for firearm surrender: 1.93, CI: 1.09, 3.40); no other lethality indicators were significant. Judges verbally announced firearm restrictions only in one out of three cases (30.87% of DVPOs granted with prohibited possession; 33.02% of firearm surrender cases).
Policy implications
Protocol to assess firearm access, implement firearm restrictions, and communicate these provisions to litigants must be more clearly and consistently applied in the courtroom.
... Between 2010 and 2019, 57% of IPH of women were committed with firearms (Kaplan, 2021;WISQARS, 2021) and increases in IPH since 2013 are composed of IPH of women with firearms (Fox & Fridel, 2020). Efforts to curb gun ownership and access among people who have committed intimate partner violence are largely ineffective at reducing IPH without policies in place to ensure implementation (Dìez et al., 2017;Zeoli et al., 2018). ...
Intimate partner homicide (IPH) consists primarily of men killing women in the context of intimate partner violence. Researchers have described and identified risk factors associated with IPH; additional comprehensive data collection is needed to better understand IPH risk and to develop risk-informed prevention. Due to structural racism, available interventions within the criminal legal and social service systems may be eschewed by those—such as Black women—who are at the highest risk. Anti-racist research, practice, and policy are key to reducing IPH. Gender and racial equity, combined with fostering relational health leads, ultimately, down the long road to IPH prevention.
... Understanding the scope and nature of partner perpetrated firearmrelated threats as well as the context of those threats may help increase the credibility of those threats so that they are taken more seriously by law enforcement and courts. Although research suggests that firearm restrictions for (ex)partner abusers are effective at reducing partner homicide (Díez et al., 2017;Gollub & Gardner, 2019;Sivaraman et al., 2019;Zeoli et al., 2018;Zeoli & Webster, 2010), there are limitations such as dating relationships and stalking that are not covered by those laws (Barboza, 2019;Everytown for Gun Safety, 2019). Even if these laws were fully enforced there would still be many abusers with guns, which means safety planning with victims around this specific risk as well as developing other interventions to reduce partner perpetrated firearm-related risks and increase victim and public safety is crucial. ...
Although many partner abuse victims experience firearm-related threats there has been limited research on the scope and nature of those threats. For the present study, women with partner abuse experiences who were threatened with firearms by that partner completed an online survey via Prolific to explore experiences of abuse and perceptions of abuser gun-related attitudes and behaviors. Differences were examined for women with abusive (ex)partners who did (n = 125), and who did not (n = 152), threaten to shoot people other than the victim. Almost half (45%) of the participants reported their (ex)partner had threatened to shoot others. Victims with (ex)partners who threatened to shoot others had higher fear levels and experienced more control, severe physical/sexual violence, victim directed firearm-related threats, and stalking than those with partners who did not threaten to shoot others. Additionally, more victims with abusers who threatened to shoot others reported their (ex)partner had a history of problem behavior, carried their guns out in public, and engaged in more risky gun-handling practices. Also, victims with (ex)partners who threatened to shoot others reported their abuser was more likely to socialize (online and offline) with others who were violent, had more angry and racist views, and were more likely to report their abuser had behaviors that suggested guns were part of their identity compared to those with (ex)partners who did not threaten to shoot others. Safety planning with partner violence victims should incorporate standardized screening for firearm-related threats directed toward both the victim and others.
... Moreover, states should consider perpetrator limits on firearm possession. While research has yet to explore the impact of this policy in stalking, studies have found that restricting domestic violence offender access to firearms reduces female intimate partner homicide rates (Vigdor & Mercy, 2006;Zeoli et al., 2018). Accordingly, we offer tentative support for limiting firearm possession among convicted stalkers. ...
Stalking began to be criminalized on the heels of news stories in the late 1980s in the United States of America (USA). Unfortunately, little is known about how states have responded to stalking, especially in light of its occurrence, harm, and case attrition in the criminal justice system. To explore these issues, the present study offers a content analysis of the USA’s state stalking statutes. Though innovative laws were observed, the Nation’s stalking laws are best described as a patchwork of legislation. In light of these findings, policy implications and the directions of future research are discussed.
... Specifically, laws containing provisions requiring relinquishment of weapons by people subject to domestic violence restraining orders or prohibiting firearm possession among all people convicted of a violent misdemeanor had a greater magnitude of association with the black firearm homicide rate than the white firearm homicide rate. These findings add to previous research reporting that laws prohibiting firearm possession by people convicted of a violent misdemeanor were associated with decreased overall homicide rates (Frattaroli & Teret, 2016;Wintemute, Frattaroli, Claire, Vittes, & Webster, 2014;Zeoli et al., 2018) by suggesting that these laws may have a stronger relationship with the black homicide rate than the white homicide rate. As a result, it appears that policy innovation that is grounded on the principle of keeping firearms out of the hands of people who have been convicted of violent crimes may be especially protective for the black population, although the reason for this is not clear. ...
This study aimed to investigate the potential differential effects of state-level firearm laws on black and white populations. Using a panel design, authors examined the relationship between state firearm laws and homicide victimization rates among white people and black people in 39 states during the period between 1991 and 2016. Authors modeled homicide rates using linear regression with year and state fixed effects and controlled for a range of time-varying, state-level factors. Results showed that universal background check laws and permit requirement laws were associated with lower homicide rates among both white and black populations, and “shall issue” laws were associated with higher homicide rates among both white and black populations. Laws that prohibit firearm possession among people convicted of a violent misdemeanor or require relinquishment of firearms by people with a domestic violence restraining order were associated with lower black homicide rates, but not with white homicide rates. Author identification of heterogeneity in the associations between state firearm laws and homicide rates among different racial groups has implications for reducing racial health disparities.
... there is evidence that firearm restrictions for domestic violence offenders or people convicted of violent misdemeanors correspond to reductions in domestic violence homicide. 11 Similarly, there are policies that have child-specific effects. Laws preventing child access correspond to lower rates of firearm suicide 12 and unintentional firearm death 13 among children. ...
Nationwide firearm-related mortality rates increased in 2015-17 after remaining relatively stable in 1999-2014. Recent increases are reflected across most states and demographics to varying degrees, which suggests a worsening epidemic of firearm mortality that is geographically and demographically broad. In both time periods the fractions of firearm deaths due to suicide and homicide remained consistent.
... Legal provisions to reduce intimate partner homicide can include prohibiting firearms from protective order respondents and domestic violence misdemeanants. A recent analysis found states that prohibit protective order respondents from possessing a firearm are associated with a 13% decrease in intimate partner homicide and laws that prohibit firearm access to those convicted of any violent misdemeanors were associated with a 23% reduction in intimate partner homicide (Zeoli et al. 2018). ...
... Firearm restrictions for violent offenders is another potential strategy, although the evidence for this approach is mixed. Several studies have found that restricting access to firearms for those under domestic violence restraining orders (Vigdor & Mercy, 2006) or for general violent offenses was associated with reduced intimate partner homicides (Zeoli et al., 2018). These reductions did not persist when limited to domestic violence offenses (Zeoli & Webster, 2010). ...
The primary aim of this study is to determine the relationship between situational factors, method of death, and homicide-suicide deaths, specifically comparing method of death (firearm vs. nonfirearm) across these factors. We used data from the national violence death reporting system, a reporting system for violent deaths that links data from multiple sources. We included incidents that involved at least one homicide death followed by perpetrator suicide in the 42 states from 2013 to 2016. In addition to univariate analyses, we compared proportions of incidents that included a firearm to non-firearm incidents by incident, victim, and perpetrator characteristics. By far, firearm-related injuries were the most frequent cause of death for victims (85.6%) and for perpetrators (89.5%). Women, Hispanic individuals, individuals with a current mental health issue, and individuals with recent depression symptoms had lower odds of using a firearm, as did perpetrators who killed both an intimate partner and other family member. Individuals who had recently been in a fight had increased odds of using a firearm. Despite these differences, the overwhelming majority of homicide-suicide deaths involved firearms, which supports the need for adequate, appropriate firearm control measures to prevent these tragedies.
... Studies into these policies suggest that states with laws that prohibit individuals at high risk of intimate partner violence from possessing firearms and require them to relinquish any firearms they currently own have a lower incidence of domestic firearm homicide. 17,32 The current results suggest that firearm ownership is associated with higher levels of domestic, but not nondomestic, firearm homicide, suggesting that homicide rates vary as a function of firearm ownership only within specific victim−offender relationships. Firearm ownership not being associated with nondomestic homicide is an area for further research to better understand the social dynamics at play and where firearms used in these incidents are being obtained. ...
Introduction:
Gun ownership is associated with firearm mortality, although this association differs across victim-offender relationships. This study examines the relationship between gun ownership and domestic versus nondomestic homicide rates by victim sex.
Methods:
Several sources of state-level panel data from 1990 through 2016 were merged from each of the 50 states to model domestic (i.e., family and intimate partners) and nondomestic firearm homicide as a function of state-level household firearm ownership. Firearm ownership was examined using a validated proxy measure and homicide rates came from the Supplemental Homicide Reports of the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reports. Negative binomial regression with fixed effects was used to model the outcomes and employed generalized estimating equations to account for clustering within states. Statistical analyses were completed in 2018.
Results:
State-level firearm ownership was uniquely associated with domestic (incidence rate ratio=1.013, 95% CI=1.008, 1.018) but not nondomestic (incidence rate ratio=1.002, 95% CI=0.996, 1.008) firearm homicide rates, and this pattern held for both male and female victims. States in the top quartile of firearm ownership had a 64.6% (p<0.001) higher incidence rate of domestic firearm homicide than states in the lowest quartile; however, states in the top quartile did not differ significantly from states in the lowest quartile of firearm ownership in observed incidence rates of nondomestic firearm homicide.
Conclusions:
State-level firearm ownership rates are related to rates of domestic but not nondomestic firearm homicide.
The COVID-19 pandemic has exposed some of our best and worst qualities as a country. This commentary on “Domestic Firearm Violence Against Women (2018-2021)” discusses weaknesses in federal legislation and proposes ways for states to fill these gaps.
Most Americans view intimate partner violence as wrong. Less is known, however, about how the general population evaluates threats from romantic partners. When do third parties support interventions such as police involvement, restraining orders, or prohibiting the abuser from owning a gun? Through a survey-based experiment, participants reacted to a separated dating relationship scenario in which three elements were manipulated: the race of the couple, the medium of communication between the perpetrator and the victim, and whether the male character referenced a gun. Using a structural equation model, the authors find that the inclusion of a gun dramatically increases concern, which in turn fosters support for interventions. However, participants’ race and gender and the race of the couple shape these effects. When the victims in the separated dating scenario are Black, participants were less likely to call for the abuser to be prohibited from owning a gun, even when they have expressed concern about the situation. This suggests that although a gun has a clear and strong effect, racial and gender effects are more complex.
This study examined relationship abuse, firearm threats, and threat credibility factors as well as help‐seeking for (ex)partner‐stalking victims with partners who did (n = 153) and did not own guns (n = 263). Victims with (ex)partners who owned guns experienced increased coercive control and physical violence, a longer duration of stalking, and more threats during the relationship and during the course of stalking. Victims reported that (ex)partner gun owners had more extremist beliefs and other risk factors, and more of them believed their (ex)partner was extremely capable of harming them. Most, regardless of partner gun ownership, turned to informal sources of help, while about one‐quarter of victims whose partners did not own guns tried to obtain a protective order or talked to police, compared to about 40% of stalking victims with abusers who owned guns. Fear of harm from guns, coercive control during the relationship, and believing their partner was capable of harming harm them were all associated with an increased number of help‐seeking sources whereas being threatened with a firearm and abuser gun ownership were not.
Intimate partner homicides (IPHs) often occur in the context of violent relationships, and firearms often facilitate lethal outcomes. Accordingly, policies have been implemented to reduce firearm access among individuals with histories of intimate partner violence (IPV) or violent propensities. There is considerable variation, however, in the enactment and implementation of such state-level firearm protection laws. Some states fail to extend IPV-related firearm related protections to dating partners, creating what has been referred to elsewhere as the “boyfriend loophole”, or what will be referred to here as the “partner loophole”. The goal of this analysis was to examine trends in National Violent Death Reporting System (NVDRS) data to assess the relationship of IPHs among unmarried victims in association with state partner loopholes. State policies were abstracted to identify partner loopholes. A series of negative binomial generalized estimating equations were performed using lagged policy variables, year fixed-effects, robust standard errors, and errors clustered by state. Model findings suggest that increased firearm access is related to higher rates of unmarried IPH victimization, however, the associations between the presence of a partner loophole and IPH rates amongst unmarried victims varied between racial subgroups. Significant, protective relationships with closed partner loopholes were identified for the IPH rates amongst white unmarried victims, however, not amongst victims of color. The partner loophole policies considered here, and other individual IPV-related and/or firearm-related policies may be an important component of protections, however, our findings suggest they are not independently sufficient to equitably reduce the burden of IPH. Continuing to develop public health and policy evaluation literature will be essential to progressing towards a policy landscape and cultural environment that are equitably protective.
Purpose
One-third of all women in the United States have experienced intimate partner violence, and when an abuser has access to a gun, the risk of intimate partner homicide increases fivefold. The inclusion of firearm restrictions in domestic violence protective orders (DVPOs) can reduce homicide risk; however, little is known about the implementation of these restrictions. Our study explores the processes Sheriff’s officers use when serving emergency (ex parte) DVPOs with firearm restrictions.
Method
We conducted phone interviews (n = 20) with representatives from Sheriff’s offices (n=20) across North Carolina, and conducted a content analysis of the interviews, utilizing deductive and inductive codes to analyze themes.
Results
Most officers described proactively explaining ex parte orders to the defendant (alleged abuser), relating to defendants as allies in a friendly manner during service, and clearly stating the consequences of an ex parte order violation. Officers described various motivations for employing these techniques, the most common being to protect defendants from criminal charges by ensuring their comprehension of and compliance with firearm restrictions. A minority of Officers described intentionally avoiding further explanation of ex parte orders during service.
Conclusion
Officers use different informal communication tactics to implement DVPO firearm restrictions. Some of these strategies have a behavioral science evidence base and could be shared across agencies. Some of these strategies, however, may have unintentional negative consequences, such as reinforcing harmful stereotypes about plaintiffs’ motivations for seeking DVPOs. Further research is needed to explore the formal and informal approaches that Sheriff’s Officers use to implement DVPO firearm restrictions, and the respective impact of these strategies.
This work explores the ways that federalism exacerbates gender inequality among women by explaining the adoption of domestic violence laws across different states in the context of policy diffusion. Using an original dataset of domestic violence firearm law (DVFL) enactments across all 50 states in the United States from 1990 to 2017, we analyze the circumstances under which states will adopt these laws. Using a set of political and demographic indicators as independent variables, we find evidence that state and federal factors influence policy adoption. In particular, the number of gun-related homicides, partisan control of the legislature, citizen ideology, federal policy, and election years each influence the likelihood of DVFL enactments. We find support for the effects of vertical policy diffusion on initial enactment of federal laws in this domain, but not for reauthorizations, which raises important questions about the continuous influence of the federal government on state policies.
Since the 2000s, there has been growth in the literature and research on male perpetrators of IPH.
Introduction
Little is known about intimate partner violence-related fatalities among young people. This study comprehensively identifies and describes intimate partner violence-related homicides, homicide–suicides, legal intervention deaths, and suicides among young people.
Methods
Data from the 2014–2018 National Violent Death Reporting System were analyzed for all decedents aged 0–24 years in 38 states, the District of Columbia, and Puerto Rico with known circumstances of death (n=29,702). Intimate partner violence-related deaths were identified using National Violent Death Reporting System variables across all manners of death and supplementary narrative review for suicides. This article reports the proportion of intimate partner violence versus non–intimate partner violence-related deaths by manner of death, descriptive statistics, and rate of intimate partner violence-related death per 100,000 person years. To examine disparities in intimate partner violence-related deaths, generalized estimating equations were used with robust standard errors to account for clustering of deaths within states and fixed effects for years. Statistical analyses were conducted May and August 2021.
Results
A total of 1,927 intimate partner violence-related deaths were identified, which represents 6.5% of violent deaths with known circumstances, at a rate of 0.35 per 100,000 person years. Supplementary narrative review identified 44.7% of all intimate partner violence-related deaths. There were significant differences by race/ethnicity and whether a firearm inflicted the fatal injury for male and female decedents by manner of death.
Conclusions
If the National Violent Death Reporting System does not assess whether intimate partner violence was a precipitating factor across all death manners, the true magnitude of intimate partner violence's contribution to violent death will be underestimated. Future research that identifies factors associated with all manners of intimate partner violence-related deaths among young people will help inform intervention and prevention strategies to save young lives.
Background:
Firearm injury remains a major cause of morbidity and mortality in the United States. Due to prior lack of comprehensive data sources, there is a paucity of literature on nonfatal firearm injury. Associations have previously been shown between state-level firearm laws and firearm fatalities, but few studies have examined the effects of these laws on nonfatal firearm hospitalization rates. Our objective was to examine the relationship between state firearm laws and firearm injury-related hospitalization rates across all 50 states over a 17-year period.
Methods:
In this panel study design, we used fixed effects multivariate regression models to analyze the relationship between twelve laws and firearm state-level injury-related hospitalization rates from 2000-2016 utilizing the RAND Corporation Inpatient Hospitalizations for Firearm Injury Database. We utilized difference-in-differences to determine the impact of law passage in a given state compared to those states without the law, controlling for state-level covariates. The main outcome measure was the change in annual firearm injury-related inpatient hospitalization rates after passage or repeal of a state-level firearm law.
Results:
Examining each law individually, passage of violent misdemeanor, permitting, firearm removal from domestic violence offenders, and ten-round limit laws were associated with significant firearm injury-related hospitalization rate reductions. Examining multiple laws in the same model, passage of violent misdemeanor laws was associated with a 19.9% (CI 11.6, 27.4) reduction and removal of firearms from domestic violence offenders was associated with a 17.0% (CI 9.9, 23.6) reduction in hospitalization rates.
Conclusions:
State laws related to preventing violent offenders from possessing firearms are associated with firearm injury-related hospitalization rate reductions. Given significant physical, mental, and social burdens of nonfatal firearm injury, determining the efficacy of firearm-related policy is critical to violence and injury prevention efforts.Study Type: EpidemiologicLevel of Evidence: III.
Background
Perpetrators of intimate partner violence (IPV) use firearms to injure, scare, and manipulate their partners. Abusers who have a firearm in their homes are more likely to threaten and/or kill their partner. To date, however, limited research documents the nature of IPV perpetrator firearm access or the prevalence of nonfatal firearm abuse behaviors.
Methods
Federal law restricts firearm access for IPV perpetrators in qualifying domestic violence protective order (DVPO) cases; thus, information about firearms should be disclosed during the DVPO process. We used secondary data from civil DVPO cases (n = 406) in North Carolina that were collected using a representative sampling strategy. Data were from DVPO case files and structured DVPO hearing observations. We conducted a content analysis to record IPV perpetrator access to guns and reported firearm abuse behaviors. We used a linear regression analysis to determine whether IPV perpetrator gun access was associated with higher levels of abuse. We also examined factors associated with perpetration of nonfatal firearm abuse.
Results
We found evidence of perpetrator firearm access in nearly half of all cases (46%, n = 108). Controlling for covariates, gun access was significantly associated with higher levels of reported IPV (b = 0.5, p < .001). Firearm abuse was reported in nearly one out of four cases (23.1%, n = 101), and often entailed spoken threats, displaying a gun, or holding a partner at gun point. The only factors associated with firearm abuse in the multivariate models were related to English language speaking/fluency.
Conclusions
Gun access should be considered an indicator for severe IPV. We must ensure that existing legal mechanisms to identify and restrict abuser access to firearms are fully implemented and enforced. Firearm abuse often manifests as non-physical coercive control which is traumatic and has the potential to escalate to homicide, even in the absence of past physical violence.
Firearms are used in over half of partner violence victim homicides, and many victims experience firearm-related threats from their abusive partners. It is unclear whether, and to what extent, abusers who make firearm-related threats also engage in other forms of control and violence. An online community-based sample of women whose abusive partners caused them to experience fear because of their access to guns or threats to use them were recruited for the study. This study examined coercive control, threats, violence, and help-seeking for women whose partner held them at gunpoint (n = 112) compared to women whose partners did not hold them at gunpoint (n = 125). Women whose partners held them at gunpoint experienced more severe and frequent firearm and non-firearm related threats and physical/sexual violence. Additionally, abusers used a variety of strategies to control victims including tactics to increase dependency, debility, and dread—all of which were more frequent and severe among women held at gunpoint by the abuser. Only about half of the women held at gunpoint, and 30% of those not held at gunpoint, talked to police or sought a civil protective order. Among those that sought help through the justice system, only about 70% told police or the court about the firearm threats. Current legal remedies that restrict firearms may reduce some lethality risk, but safety is far from guaranteed by solely restricting gun ownership underscoring the importance of assessment and safety planning for partner violence victims who experience firearm-related threats.
Background:
Public mass shootings are a significant public health problem that require ongoing systematic surveillance to test and inform policies that combat gun injuries. While there is widespread agreement that something needs to be done to stop public mass shootings, exactly which policies that entails varies, such as the prohibition of assault weapons and large capacity magazines.
Objective:
To determine if the Federal Assault Weapons Ban (FAWB) (1994-2004) reduced the number of public mass shootings while it was in place.
Methods:
We extracted public mass shooting surveillance data from the Violence Project that matched our inclusion criteria of four or more fatalities in a public space during a single event. We performed regression discontinuity analysis, taking advantage of the imposition of the FAWB which included a prohibition on large capacity magazines in addition to assault weapons. We estimated a regression model of the five-year moving average number of public mass shootings per year for the period 1966 to 2019 controlling for population growth and homicides in general; introduced regression discontinuities in the intercept and a time trend, for years coincident with the federal legislation, i.e. 1994-2004, and also allowed for a differential effect of the homicide rate during this period. We introduced a second set of trend and intercept discontinuities for post-FAWB years to capture the effects of the termination of the policy. We use regression results to predict what would have happened from 1995 to 2019 had there been no FAWB and also to project what would have happened from 2005 onward had it remained in place.
Results:
The FAWB resulted in a significant decrease in public mass shootings, number of gun deaths, and number of gun injuries. We estimate the FAWB prevented 11 public mass shootings during the decade the ban was in place. A continuation of the FAWB would have prevented 30 public mass shootings that killed 339 people and injured an additional 1139 people.
Conclusions:
This study demonstrates the utility of public health surveillance on gun violence. Surveillance informs policy on whether a ban on assault weapons and high capacity magazines reduces public mass shootings. As society searches for effective policies to prevent the next mass shooting, we must consider the overwhelming evidence that assault weapon bans and/or large capacity magazine bans work.
Clinicaltrial:
Not Applicable.
Objective:
To examine patterns and trends of firearm injuries in a nationally representative sample of US women.
Summary background data:
Gun violence in the United States exceeds rates seen in most other industrialized countries. Due to the paucity of data little is known regarding demographics and temporal variations in firearm injuries among women.
Methods:
Data was extracted from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention's Web-based Injury Statistics Query and Reporting System (2001 - 2017) for women 18 years and older. Number of non-fatal firearm assaults and homicide per year were extracted and crude population-based injury rates were calculated. Sub-stratification by age-group and time period were performed.
Results:
Between 2001 and 2017, there were 88,823 non-fatal firearm assaults involving women and 29,106 firearm homicides. There were 4,116 victims of non-fatal firearm assault in 2001 (3.8 per 10) and 12,959 by 2017 (10.0 per 10). Homicide rates were 1.5 per 10 in 2001 and 1.7 per 10 in 2017. Sub-stratification by age-group and time period showed that there were no significant changes in non-fatal firearm assault rates between 2001 and 2010 (P-trend = 0.132 in 18 - 44 yo; 0.298 in 45 - 64 yo). However between 2011 and 2017, non-fatal assault rates increased from 7.10 per 10 to 19.24 per 10 in 18 - 44 yo (P-trend = 0.013) and from 1.48 per 10 to 3.93 per 10 in 45 - 64 yo (P-trend = 0.003). Similar trends were seen with firearm homicide among 18 - 44 yo (1.91 per 10 to 2.47 per 10 in 2011-2017, P-trend = 0.022). However, the trends among 45 - 64 yo were not significant in both time periods.
Conclusions:
Female victims of gun violence are increasing and more recent years have been marked with higher rates of firearm injuries, particularly among younger women. These data suggest that improved public health strategies and policies may be beneficial in reducing gun violence against US women.
Background
Comprehensive state firearm policies related to intimate partner violence (IPV) may have a significant public health impact on non-lethal IPV-related injuries. Research indicates that more restrictive firearm policies may reduce risk for intimate partner homicide, however it is unclear whether firearm policies prevent or reduce the risk of non-lethal IPV-related injuries. This study sought to examine associations between state-level policies and injuries among U.S. IPV survivors.
Methods
Individual-level data were drawn from the National Intimate Partner and Sexual Violence Survey, a nationally-representative study of noninstitutionalized adults. State-level data were drawn from a firearm policy compendium. Multivariable regressions were used to test associations of individual policies with non-fatal IPV-related injuries ( N = 5493). Regression models were also conducted to explore differences in the policy-injury associations among women and men survivors.
Results
Three categories of policies were associated with IPV-related injuries. The odds of injuries was lower for IPV survivors living in states that prohibited firearm possession and require firearm relinquishment among persons convicted of IPV-related misdemeanors (aOR [95% CI] = .76 [.59, .97]); prohibited firearm possession and require firearm relinquishment among persons subject to IPV-related restraining orders (aOR [95% CI] = .81 [.66, .98]); and prohibited firearm possession among convicted of stalking (aOR [95% CI] = .82 [.68, .98]) than IPV survivors living in states without these policies. There was a significant difference between women and men survivors in the association between IPV-related misdemeanors policy and injuries (B [SE] = .60 [.29]), such that the association was stronger for men survivors (aOR [95% CI] = .10 [.06, .17]) than women survivors (aOR [95% CI] = .60 [.48, .76]).
Conclusions
Restrictive state firearm policies regarding IPV may provide unique opportunities to protect IPV survivors from injuries.
An abusive partner’s access to a firearm is one of the strongest predictors of intimate partner homicide, and there is evidence that laws limiting abusers’ access to firearms are associated with fewer fatalities. Yet, there is a movement to increase access to firearms as a strategy for self‐protection among intimate partner violence (IPV) victims. The present study describes both firearm‐related and non‐firearm‐related protective actions among victims of IPV, and further examines which factors (e.g., pro‐gun attitudes) are associated with engaging in firearm‐related protective actions. Questionnaires were administered to women recruited from six domestic violence shelters in Texas from December 2017 to September 2018. Nearly 13 percent of victims in the analytic sample (N = 197) engaged in one or more forms of firearm‐related protective actions in the past year. Multivariate analyses revealed that participants were more likely to have engaged in firearm‐related protective actions if they experienced higher firearm‐related IPV and if they held stronger pro‐gun attitudes. The results highlight the importance of basing firearm policy on empirical evidence as firearms can have deadly consequences.
In December 2019, for the first time in more than 20 years, the US Congress appropriated, and the president signed, a bill that included $25 million for gun violence prevention research at the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention and the National Institutes of Health. This research should find ways to reduce injury, death, and suffering while protecting the right of law-abiding citizens to own firearms. Four questions can structure this research agenda. First, what is the problem: How many people get shot, who are they, where does it happen, what is the relationship between the shooter and the victim, what other types of damage are incurred, and are the shootings increasing or decreasing? Second, what are the causes: What is the role of alcohol and drugs; what is the role of gangs, poverty, and systemic racism; what is the role of mental illness, robbery, and domestic violence; what is the role of private gun ownership (both positive and negative) and easy access to guns? What are the factors that protect us, such as stable families and safe environments? Third, what works: Which practices, interventions, policies, and laws work best to prevent these deaths and injuries? And fourth, how do you do it: How do you implement the findings and translate them into policies, legislation, and practices that can be scaled up?
Expected final online publication date for the Annual Review of Public Health, Volume 42 is April 2021. Please see http://www.annualreviews.org/page/journal/pubdates for revised estimates.
In this article, we show that domestic violence public policies are implemented inconsistently across states under federalism. Using original survey data of public defenders across 16 states, with data on domestic violence laws, we demonstrate that there are differing policies and implementation practices regarding domestic violence cases depending on where they are adjudicated. State level domestic violence laws, such as mandatory arrest and firearm access restrictions, combined with structural elements of the judicial system, and public defender personal characteristics, exert significant influence in determining the outcomes of domestic violence cases. Overall, our analysis shows that the lack of uniformity in the implementation of domestic violence policy creates inequality in the criminal justice system’s treatment of domestic violence and makes personal security for women contingent on where they live.
Intimate partner violence (IPV) and sexual violence (SV) are drivers of women’s morbidity and mortality yet remain among the most underreported crimes in the United States. Understanding IPV/SV survivors’ justice preferences and justice definitions can strengthen violence prevention and response systems. In-depth interviews were conducted with women who experienced past-year IPV ( n = 26), to explore their justice preferences and recommendations. Primary themes included accountability, safety, and rehabilitation, with examples within and outside the current justice system, and across restorative and retributive justice frameworks. Women sought accountability through a variety of means. Retributive approaches like incarceration offered accountability as well as fleeting safety, but were critically limited in addressing the root causes of violence and, in some cases, were felt to exacerbate the problem. Women’s expressed needs and preferences centered on restorative aspects of justice, including perpetrator’s acknowledgment of harm, achieving physical safety and stability, and perpetrator rehabilitation through counseling. Paradoxically, women’s safety-related justice goals both encouraged and discouraged their engagement in the formal justice system. The discordance between women’s justice preferences and their perceptions and experiences within the current justice system illustrate complex and difficult trade-offs faced by survivors in achieving physical, social, and economic safety. Moreover, they likely contribute to the low levels of IPV/SV reporting to police. Women’s goals were aligned with restorative justice principles, illustrating the value of this approach. In an era of unprecedented dialogue on justice reform, results provide direction for integrating restorative justice practices to strengthen the justice response to violence against women.
After the school shooting at Marjory Stoneman Douglas High School in Parkland, Florida in 2018, there was an increase in gun violence prevention-related advocacy. While much of this recent political activity and engagement was led by young adults, little is known about support for specific gun policies within this age group. This study uses data from two nationally representative surveys fielded in 2017 and 2019 to compare public support for gun policies: (1) between young adults age 18–29 years and adults age 30 and older, and (2) between young adults in 2017 and young adults in 2019, before and after the Parkland shooting. Relative to adults age 30 and older, young adults had lower support for 16 of 20 gun violence prevention policies examined. Public support was largely unchanged between 2017 and 2019 among survey respondents ages 18–29; however, support for requiring a safety test for concealed carry decreased significantly among young adults between 2017 and 2019. Despite owning fewer guns and finding gun violence prevention important generally, young adults appear to have lower support for policies that regulate guns compared to older adults.
Intimate partner violence (IPV) is a major threat to women’s safety and well-being worldwide. Firearms heighten this threat by increasing the morbidity and mortality of IPV. This paper focuses on the United States, a nation with high rates of IPV alongside high rates of gun ownership. The United States has implemented several policy approaches to reduce the harmful role that firearms play in IPV by limiting access to firearms for IPV offenders. One such law prohibits persons under Domestic Violence Restraining Orders (DVROs) from purchasing or possessing firearms or ammunition. Although DVRO firearm prohibitions can reduce the risk of firearm-related injury and homicide associated with IPV, implementation and enforcement of these laws at regional and local levels is challenging and variable. We discuss implications for DVRO research, policy, and practice as part of a comprehensive approach to prevent and reduce firearm-related IPV.
Mandatory background checks on firearm purchasers receive widespread support from the general public and firearm owners. Background checks appear to reduce the risk of violence substantially among prohibited persons whose purchases are denied. However, population-level studies, including studies of comprehensive background check policies, have often shown no clear evidence of benefit. There is one notable exception: Permit-to-purchase policies have consistently been associated with beneficial population-level effects. The findings of no benefit may in part be an artifact of history, as the completeness of the data on which background checks are run has improved substantially since the periods examined by those studies. Nonetheless, significant problems with implementation and design still limit the population-level effectiveness of background check policies. In this article I review nine of these problem areas and suggest actions that could substantially improve the effectiveness of background check policies in preventing firearm-related violence.
Laws have been enacted to keep firearms out of the hands of abusers. In this study, we examined one such effort—removal of a firearm at the scene of intimate partner violence (IPV)—to assess the subsequent occurrence and number of IPV incidents responded to by police and subsequent risk of injury to the victim. Using the 28,977 IPV calls in one large U.S. city to which officers responded during the 2013 calendar year, we identified 220 first-time incidents in which offenders used (i.e., brandished, pistol whipped, shot) a pistol, revolver, rifle, or shotgun. Officers reported removing a firearm from 52 (24%) of the offenders. After using full propensity score matching to control for potential confounders, logistic and Poisson regressions were used to assess differences between those from whom a firearm was removed and those whose firearm was not removed. Firearm removal at the scene of an IPV incident appears to increase the likelihood of subsequent IPV reports to police and suggestive evidence that subsequent injury to the victim might increase as well. The offender shifting from threats with a firearm to physical violence and a change (an increase as well as a decrease) in victim willingness to summon police may account for the findings.
Purpose:
This article aims to examine whether state firearm laws impact homicide rates differently in suburban and rural areas compared to large cities in the United States.
Methods:
We analyzed serial, cross-sectional data for the 26-year period 1991-2016 using a panel design. We examined the relationship between 6 specific state firearm laws and homicide rates in large cities (those with greater than 100,000 people in 1990) and in all geographic areas outside of these cities. Using a city-level fixed effects negative binomial regression, we modeled the number of homicides as a function of state firearm laws, while controlling for time fixed effects and time-varying state- and city-level sociodemographic factors.
Findings:
Two policies-universal background checks and "may issue" laws that required a heightened showing of suitability for concealed carry-were associated with lower firearm homicide rates in large cities but were not associated with firearm homicide rates in suburban and rural areas. In contrast, laws that prohibited gun possession by people convicted of a violent misdemeanor were associated with lower firearm homicide rates in suburban and rural areas, but were not associated with firearm homicide rates in large cities. Permit requirements were associated with lower firearm homicide rates in both large cities and suburban and rural areas.
Conclusions:
This article provides the first evidence that state firearm laws may have a differential impact on firearm homicide rates in suburban and rural areas compared to urban areas in the United States.
Over the past 5 years, intimate partner homicides have increased among Hispanic women, although ethnicity has rarely been brought into macro-level research on intimate partner homicide. These trends have occurred alongside many macro-level changes in the United States. Although both Hispanic and non-Hispanic women are most likely to die at the hands of a partner via a firearm, no study to date has examined the importance of licensed firearm dealer availability in addition to leading macro-level correlates of intimate partner homicide. Using data from the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention’s National Violent Death Reporting System, the current study explores the role of licensed firearm dealer availability, economic disadvantage, and other features of counties to explore ethnic-specific variation in intimate partner homicides from 2010 to 2016. Results from multilevel negative binomial models revealed consistency in the estimated effects of the rate of licensed firearm dealers and divorce on partner homicides across all models, although the significant association of gun stores and intimate partner homicide was witnessed in urban counties for total and non-Hispanic (both Black and White) models only. Important variation also exists across racial and ethnic groups, including well-established correlates of overall intimate partner homicide (i.e., economic disadvantage, rurality, non-intimate homicide rate, and state policies).
Research on intimate partner homicide has increased along with public awareness and policy responses toward domestic violence. The current study addresses the decline in gender-specific intimate partner homicides during a time marked by significant transformations in domestic violence legislation, including the enactment of the 1994 Violence Against Women’s Act. In an attempt to account for changes in intimate partner homicide during this time period, we examine the exposure reducing potential of domesticity, domestic violence resources, and females’ economic status, while also acknowledging their possible backlash/retaliation effects when accounting for inequalities in the economic statuses of males and females. By incorporating a pooled time-series design to model change, our research reveals changes between 1990 and 2000 in key theoretical predictors of domesticity, domestic violence resources, and economic deprivation significantly influence the trends in male-victim intimate partner homicide, but not female-victim intimate partner homicide for a large sample of 178 urban cities.
The Supplementary Homicide Reports (SHR), assembled by the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI), have for many years represented
the most valuable source of information on the patterns and trends in murder and non-negligent manslaughter. Despite their
widespread use by researchers and policy makers alike, these data are not completely without their limitations, the most important
of which involves missing or incomplete incident reports. In this analysis, we develop methods for addressing missing data
in the 1976–2005 SHR cumulative file, related to both non-reports (unit missingness) and incomplete reports (item missingness).
For incomplete case data (that is, missing characteristics on victims, offenders or incidents), we implement a multiple imputation
(MI) approach based on a log-linear model for incomplete multivariate categorical data. Then, to adjust for unit missingness,
we adopt a weighting scheme linked to FBI annual estimates of homicide counts by state and National Center for Health Statistics
mortality data on decedent characteristics in coroners’ reports for deaths classified as homicide. The result is a fully-imputed
SHR database for 1976–2005. This paper examines the effects of MI and case weighting on victim/offender/incident characteristics,
including standard errors of parameter estimates resulting from imputation uncertainty.
To assess the relationships between intimate partner homicide (IPH) and public policies including police staffing levels in large US cities.
The research uses a multiple time-series design to examine the effects of statutes aimed at restricting access to firearms for perpetrators of domestic violence, allowing or mandating arrest for violators of domestic violence restraining orders (DVROs), beer excise taxes, and police staffing levels on IPH in 46 of the largest US cities from 1979 to 2003. Both total IPH and IPH committed with a firearm are analysed. Generalised estimating equations using a Poisson distribution are used to regress IPH on the policies and potential confounders.
State statutes restricting those under DVROs from accessing firearms, and laws allowing the warrantless arrest of DVRO violators are associated with reductions in total and firearm IPH. Police staffing levels are also negatively associated with IPH and firearm IPH. There was no evidence that other policies to restrict firearm access to domestic violence offenders or alcohol taxes had a significant impact on IPH.
Reducing access to firearms for DVRO defendants, increasing police staffing levels and allowing the warrantless arrest of DVRO violators may reduce the city-level risk of IPH. Future research should evaluate factors that may mediate the effect of these laws and increased police staffing levels on IPH to determine whether there are opportunities to increase their protective effect. Further research is needed on firearm law implementation to determine why the other tested laws were not found effective.
The purpose of this study was to describe the perceptions of women who sought court protection orders for domestic violence (PODV) about actions to implement laws intended to disarm their abusers.
We identified female victims of intimate partner violence (IPV) in New York and Los Angeles primarily through family courts and records of police calls for domestic violence. Of these, 782 were surveyed and asked about their experiences seeking PODV from courts, judges ordering the removal of firearms from defendants, and if firearms were actually surrendered or confiscated.
Of the 542 victims who had obtained a PODV and knew whether their abuser owned a firearm, 82 (15%) reported that their abuser owned a firearm. Although state law either allowed or mandated judges issuing PODVs to require abusers to surrender their firearms, 21 victims (26%) reported that judges used this authority. Ten victims (12% of victims with armed abusers) reported that their abuser had either surrendered all of his firearms or had the firearms seized. When victims reported that the judge ordered their abuser to surrender his firearms, victims were more likely to report that all firearms were either surrendered by the abuser or confiscated by law enforcement.
Based on the perceptions of the IPV victims in this study, laws designed to disarm domestic violence offenders were either poorly implemented or failed to inform victims when their abuser's firearms were surrendered or confiscated.
Criminals illegally obtaining firearms represent a great risk to many urban residents. This cross-sectional study of 54 US cities uses data on state laws governing gun sales, a survey of law enforcement agencies' practices to promote compliance with gun sales laws, and crime gun trace data to examine associations between these policies and practices with gun trafficking indicators. Higher levels of local gun ownership were linked with greater intrastate gun trafficking. Regression models estimate that comprehensive regulation and oversight of gun dealers and state regulation of private sales of handguns were each associated with significantly lower levels of intrastate gun trafficking. Discretionary permit-to-purchase licensing laws' negative association with intrastate trafficking disappeared when local gun ownership is controlled. The effects of these relatively restrictive gun purchase laws on trafficking may be mediated by the laws' lowering of gun ownership. Relatively low prevalence of gun ownership may also be a prerequisite for passage of discretionary purchase. We observed no effect on intrastate trafficking of laws limiting handgun sales to a maximum of one per person per month.
This 11-city study sought to identify risk factors for femicide in abusive relationships.
Proxies of 220 intimate partner femicide victims identified from police or medical examiner records were interviewed, along with 343 abused control women.
Preincident risk factors associated in multivariate analyses with increased risk of intimate partner femicide included perpetrator's access to a gun and previous threat with a weapon, perpetrator's stepchild in the home, and estrangement, especially from a controlling partner. Never living together and prior domestic violence arrest were associated with lowered risks. Significant incident factors included the victim having left for another partner and the perpetrator's use of a gun. Other significant bivariate-level risks included stalking, forced sex, and abuse during pregnancy.
There are identifiable risk factors for intimate partner femicides.
Firearms play an important role in lethal domestic violence incidents. The authors review state laws regarding two policies to separate batterers from firearms: laws authorizing police to remove firearms when responding to a domestic violence complaint ("police gun removal laws") and laws authorizing courts to order guns removed from batterers through a protective order ("court-ordered removal laws"). As of April 2004, 18 states had police gun removal laws; 16 states had court-ordered removal laws. The authors examine relevant characteristics of the laws and recommend that these laws be mandatory, apply to all guns and ammunition possessed by an abuser, and include clear procedures to enhance implementation.
Background:
To prevent intimate partner homicide (IPH), some states have adopted laws restricting firearm possession by intimate partner violence (IPV) offenders. "Possession" laws prohibit the possession of firearms by these offenders. "Relinquishment" laws prohibit firearm possession and also explicitly require offenders to surrender their firearms. Few studies have assessed the effect of these policies.
Objective:
To study the association between state IPV-related firearm laws and IPH rates over a 25-year period (1991 to 2015).
Design:
Panel study.
Setting:
United States, 1991 to 2015.
Participants:
Homicides committed by intimate partners, as identified in the Federal Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reports, Supplementary Homicide Reports.
Measurements:
IPV-related firearm laws (predictor) and annual, state-specific, total, and firearm-related IPH rates (outcome).
Results:
State laws that prohibit persons subject to IPV-related restraining orders from possessing firearms and also require them to relinquish firearms in their possession were associated with 9.7% lower total IPH rates (95% CI, 3.4% to 15.5% reduction) and 14.0% lower firearm-related IPH rates (CI, 5.1% to 22.0% reduction) than in states without these laws. Laws that did not explicitly require relinquishment of firearms were associated with a non-statistically significant 6.6% reduction in IPH rates.
Limitations:
The model did not control for variation in implementation of the laws. Causal interpretation is limited by the observational and ecological nature of the analysis.
Conclusion:
Our findings suggest that state laws restricting firearm possession by persons deemed to be at risk for perpetrating intimate partner abuse may save lives. Laws requiring at-risk persons to surrender firearms already in their possession were associated with lower IPH rates.
Primary funding source:
Robert Wood Johnson Foundation.
Under federal and many state laws, persons under domestic violence restraining orders (DVROs) are prohibited from possession of firearms. Using multiple sources and a Lexis Nexis search, we developed a list of state laws pertaining to the relinquishment or removal of firearms from persons prohibited from possession by DVROs. After downloading the text of each law, we conducted a legal analysis to enumerate provisions of the laws specifying implementation. We found 49 laws in 29 states and Washington, DC. The laws were conceptualized as instructions to the court, the respondent, and law enforcement. We detail the content of each state’s law, including such elements as whether it applies to ex parte DVROs; whether certain criteria must be met, such as previous use of a firearm in domestic violence or lack of an employment exemption, before the law can be applied; and whether the application of the law is mandatory. We also detail instructions to the respondent regarding to whom firearms may be relinquished, whether the respondent must seek permission to transfer the firearm to a third party, and the time by which dispossession must occur. Finally, whether law enforcement bears the responsibility for removing the firearm or whether the law gives the court the authority to order a search and seizure for the firearms is discussed. The purpose of the research is to provide an overview of these state laws that can be used by key stakeholders in legislative, judicial, advocacy, or research roles. Implications are discussed.
Objectives: Existing theory and policy regarding domestic violence (DV) often assume a highly specialized offender. Specialization literature in general, however, holds that specialization is not very common—even in DV. The current study builds on previous work by using multiple analytic methods to assess specialization/versatility among DV offenders, with a focus on gender differences. Methods: The sample includes 730 individuals processed through a misdemeanor DV docket. Demographic measures were available, and complete criminal histories were compiled for each defendant. Analyses include the diversity index and offense specialization coefficient, multivariate models predicting those measures, multilevel item response theory analysis, and latent class analysis (LCA). Results: Results are generally consistent in finding an effect of gender on DV specialization as well as relationships between the age of onset and the overall offending frequency. Female offenders demonstrate a greater degree of DV specialization than male offenders did. However, gender did not distinguish between the DV specialist group and two more versatile groups derived from the LCA. Conclusions: Findings of the overall generality of offending among DV offenders, as well as a greater degree of specialization among female offenders, suggest the need to reevaluate current specialized theory, policy, and practice.
We sought to estimate the effect of Connecticut's implementation of a handgun permit-to-purchase law in October 1995 on subsequent homicides.
Using the synthetic control method, we compared Connecticut's homicide rates after the law's implementation to rates we would have expected had the law not been implemented. To estimate the counterfactual, we used longitudinal data from a weighted combination of comparison states identified based on the ability of their prelaw homicide trends and covariates to predict prelaw homicide trends in Connecticut.
We estimated that the law was associated with a 40% reduction in Connecticut's firearm homicide rates during the first 10 years that the law was in place. By contrast, there was no evidence for a reduction in nonfirearm homicides.
Consistent with prior research, this study demonstrated that Connecticut's handgun permit-to-purchase law was associated with a subsequent reduction in homicide rates. As would be expected if the law drove the reduction, the policy's effects were only evident for homicides committed with firearms. (Am J Public Health. Published online ahead of print June 11, 2015: e1-e6. doi:10.2105/AJPH.2015.302703).
In the USA, homicide is a leading cause of death for young males and a major cause of racial disparities in life expectancy for men. There are intense debate and little rigorous research on the effects of firearm sales regulation on homicides. This study estimates the impact of Missouri's 2007 repeal of its permit-to-purchase (PTP) handgun law on states' homicide rates and controls for changes in poverty, unemployment, crime, incarceration, policing levels, and other policies that could potentially affect homicides. Using death certificate data available through 2010, the repeal of Missouri's PTP law was associated with an increase in annual firearm homicides rates of 1.09 per 100,000 (+23 %) but was unrelated to changes in non-firearm homicide rates. Using Uniform Crime Reporting data from police through 2012, the law's repeal was associated with increased annual murders rates of 0.93 per 100,000 (+16 %). These estimated effects translate to increases of between 55 and 63 homicides per year in Missouri.
Objectives:
We evaluated a law enforcement initiative to screen respondents to domestic violence restraining orders for firearm ownership or possession and recover their firearms.
Methods:
The initiative was implemented in San Mateo and Butte counties in California from 2007 through 2010. We used descriptive methods to evaluate the screening process and recovery effort in each county, relying on records for individual cases.
Results:
Screening relied on an archive of firearm transactions, court records, and petitioner interviews; no single source was adequate. Screening linked 525 respondents (17.7%) in San Mateo County to firearms; 405 firearms were recovered from 119 (22.7%) of them. In Butte County, 88 (31.1%) respondents were linked to firearms; 260 firearms were recovered from 45 (51.1%) of them. Nonrecovery occurred most often when orders were never served or respondents denied having firearms. There were no reports of serious violence or injury.
Conclusions:
Recovering firearms from persons subject to domestic violence restraining orders is possible. We have identified design and implementation changes that may improve the screening process and the yield from recovery efforts. Larger implementation trials are needed.
Using a rich data set for St. Louis, this article documents a substantial decline in intimate partner homicide over the past 25 years, compares intimate partner events with other types of homicide, and explores the relationship between changes over time in the level and type of intimate partner homicide and the living arrangements of men and women. The author finds that much of the decrease in partner homicide is a function of the declining rate of marriage and that, in certain key respects, homicides involving unmarried couples more closely resemble acquaintance homicides than spousal homicides. Finally, the author proposes that some of the broad social changes involving marriage and family that have contributed to the decline in intimate partner homicide may be deeply implicated in the dramatic rise in youth violence over the past 10 years.
To expand our understanding of gender inequality and violent crime, this study provides an assessment of the relationship between gender inequality and lethal violence against women. The authors use a cross-sectional design with racially disaggregated census data for 158 large U.S.cities in 1990 to assess the degree to which women's absolute status and their status relative to men affect their risk of homicide victimization. Overall, the findings suggestthat although certain measures of women's absolute and relative socioeconomic status are related to female homicide victimization rates, when race-specific measures are used, theeffects hold only for White women.
Rates of homicide involving intimate partners have declined substantially over the past 25 years in the United States, while public awareness of and policy responses to domestic violence have grown. To what extent has the social response to domestic violence contributed to the decline in intimate-partner homicide? We evaluate the relationship between intimate-partner homicide and domestic violence prevention resources in 48 large cities between 1976 and 1996. Controlling for other influences, several types of prevention resources are linked to lower levels of intimate-partner homicide, which we interpret in terms of their capacity to effectively reduce victims' exposure to abusive or violent partners. Other resources, however, are related to higher levels of homicide, suggesting a retaliation effect when interventions stimulate increased aggression without adequately reducing exposure. In light of other research on deficiencies in accessing and implementing prevention resources, our results suggest that too little exposure reduction in severely violent relationships may be worse than none at all.
To describe the epidemiology of intimate partner violence (IPV) homicide in Massachusetts, an IPV mortality data set developed by the Massachusetts Department of Public Health was analyzed. The rates of death were estimated by dividing the number of decedents over the aged-matched population and Poisson regression was used to estimate the contribution of race, ethnicity, and foreign-born status to the risk of dying from IPV. Out of the total 270 women whose deaths were associated with IPV, 239 (89%) were killed by a male partner. Black women had a risk of dying from IPV of 16.2 per 1,000,000 person-years. Hispanic women also had a higher risk of dying from IPV than non-Hispanic women; incidence risk ratio of 9.7 (Poisson regression 95% confidence interval 6.8-13.8). IPV femicide disproportionately affected Black and Hispanic women. Agencies must consider the importance of providing culturally appropriate services to IPV survivors and their community.
Some states prohibit the purchase of handguns by persons convicted of selected misdemeanor crimes, but most do not. California has denied handgun purchases by violent misdemeanants since 1991; the effectiveness of these policies is unknown.
To determine the risk factors for new criminal activity among violent misdemeanants who seek to purchase handguns and whether denial of handgun purchase by violent misdemeanants affects their risk of arrest for new crimes, particularly gun and/or violent crimes.
Retrospective, population-based cohort study.
Persons aged 21 to 34 years who sought to purchase a handgun through a licensed dealer in California during 1989-1991 and who had at least 1 violent misdemeanor conviction in the preceding 10 years. The study cohorts consisted of 986 persons whose purchase applications were made in 1991 and were denied (denied persons) and 787 persons whose purchase applications were made in 1989-1990 and were approved (purchasers).
Incidence and relative risk of first arrest in California for new gun and/or violent crimes and for nongun, nonviolent crimes during a 3-year follow-up after actual or attempted handgun purchase.
During the 3-year follow-up, 546 (33.0%) of 1654 subjects with follow-up information were arrested for a new crime, including 296 (31.9%) of 927 denied persons and 250 (34.4%) of 727 purchasers. After adjusting for differences in age, sex, and prior criminal history, purchasers were more likely than denied persons to be arrested for new gun and/or violent crimes (relative hazard [RH], 1.29; 95% confidence interval [CI], 1.04-1.60), but not for nongun, nonviolent crimes (RH, 0.96; 95% CI, 0.78-1.19). In both groups, risk of arrest was strongly related to age and number of convictions accrued prior to actual or attempted handgun purchase.
Our results indicate that denial of handgun purchase to violent misdemeanants is associated with a specific decrease in risk of arrest for new gun and/or violent crimes.
The purpose of this study was to examine rural and urban women's perceptions of barriers to health and mental health services as well as barriers to criminal justice system services. Eight focus groups were conducted, two in a selected urban county (n = 30 women) and two in each of three selected rural counties (n = 98 women). Results were classified into a barrier framework developed in the health service utilization literature which suggests there are four main dimensions of barriers: affordability, availability, accessibility, and acceptability. Results indicate that: (1) women face many barriers to service use including affordability, availability, accessibility, and acceptability barriers; (2) it takes an inordinate level of effort to obtain all kinds of services; however, women with victimization histories may face additional barriers over and above women without victimization histories; (3) barriers to health and mental health service utilization overlap with barriers to utilizing the criminal justice system; and (4) there are many similarities in barriers to service use among rural and urban women; however, there are some important differences suggesting barriers are contextual. Future research is needed to further clarify barriers to service use for women with victimization histories in general, and specifically for rural and urban women. In addition, future research is needed to better understand how women cope with victimization in the context of the specific barriers they face in their communities.
Domestic violence imposes a large cost on society. The authors exploit state variation in timing to examine the impact of three types of law on intimate partner homicides. These laws restrict access to firearms by individuals who are subject to a restraining order or have been convicted of a domestic violence misdemeanor or allow law enforcement officers to confiscate firearms at a domestic violence scene. The authors find that female intimate partner homicide rates decline 7% after a state passes a restraining order law. They find no effect from the domestic violence misdemeanor or confiscation laws.
Rural and urban women’s perceptions of barriers to health, mental health, and criminal justice services: implications for victim services
- Logan
The Impact of Policies, Programs, and Other Exposure Reducing Factors on Intimate Partner Homicide
- L Dugan
Dugan L. The Impact of Policies, Programs, and Other
Exposure Reducing Factors on Intimate Partner Homicide
[Dissertation]. Pittsburgh, PA: Public Policy and Management,
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