It has often been argued that civilian firearm ownership acts as a deterrent to crime. Much of the support for this claim is based on incidents that have called attention to the prevalence of privately owned guns. We examined several such incidents and failed to find...
It is well known that many crimes in the United States are committed with firearms. Less adequately documented is the frequency with which victims use guns in self-defense. We used National Crime Victimization Survey data to examine incidents where victims employed...
The analysis is based on six case studies which monitored the effects of mandatory sentencing on violent crime in Detroit, Jacksonville, Tampa, Miami, Philadelphia, and Pittsburgh. Key features of mandatory sentencing laws were the same in each area: each required...
Background In November 1986, a Detroit, Michigan city ordinance requiring mandatory jail sentences for illegally carrying a firearm in public was passed to preserve “the public peace, health, safety, and welfare of the people.” Methods We conducted a set...
The strength of research designs is relative. Compared with true experiments, quasi-experimental designs are weak. Compared with cross-sectional designs, they are strong. One can further strengthen inferences from quasi-experiments by examining a broader pattern of...
