Firearms and Violence A Critical Review (2005) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
5 The Use of Firearms to Defend Against Criminals
5 The Use of Firearms to Defend Against Criminals
Pages 102-119
The Chapter Skim interface presents what we've algorithmically identified as the most significant single chunk of text within every page in the chapter.
Select key terms on the right to highlight them within pages of the chapter.
From page 102... ...
There is also uncertainty regarding the accuracy of survey responses to sensitive questions and the related problems of how to effectively measure defensive gun use, the types of questions that should be asked, and the methods of data collection. These disagreements over definition and measurement have resulted in prevalence rates that differ by a factor of 22 or more.
|
From page 103... ...
. To characterize the wide gap in the estimated prevalence rate, it is sufficient to consider the estimates derived from the NSDS and recent waves of the NCVS.
|
From page 104... ...
The NSDS was a one-shot cross-sectional phone survey conducted by a private polling firm, Research Network, of a representative sample of nearly 5,000 adults (age 18 and over)
|
From page 105... ...
Statistical variability, usually reflected by the standard error or confidence interval of the parameter, also plays some role but cannot explain these order of magnitude differences. Coverage Perhaps the most obvious explanation for the wide variation in the range of DGU estimates is that the surveys measure different variables.
|
From page 106... ...
Given this ambiguity, perhaps one of the more important and difficult problems is to develop a common language for understanding defensive and offensive gun use. Uniform concepts and a common language will serve to facilitate future survey work, guide scholarly discussions, and enhance understanding of the complex ways in which firearms are related to crime, violence and injury.
|
From page 107... ...
USE OF FIREARMS TO DEFEND AGAINST CRIMINALS 107 Event Outcomes Completed Crime/Injury Uncompleted Crime/Injury Crime or Injury Completed Crime/ No Injury Uncompleted Attack Criminal Events Noncriminal Events Realized Threat No Attack Perceived Threat FIGURE 5-1 Stages and outcome of potential criminal encounters. SOURCE: Adapted from Kleck (1997: Figure 7.1)
|
From page 108... ...
Eliciting and interpreting relatively objective questions about whether and how one uses a gun may be relatively simple and lead to consensus on these basic matters. Eliciting and interpreting relatively subjective questions on intent may be much more complex and less amenable to consensus conclusions.3 Ultimately, researchers may conclude that it is impossible to effectively measure many aspects of defensive gun use.
|
From page 109... ...
The literature speculates widely on the nature of reporting errors in the firearms use surveys.5 Some argue that reporting errors cause the estimates derived from the NCVS to be biased downward.6 Kleck and Gertz (1995) and Kleck (2001a)
|
From page 110... ...
Hemenway (1997a) and others suggest that estimates from the NSDS are biased upward, arguing that memory telescoping, self-presentation biases, and the rare events problem more generally lead the numbers of false positive reports to substantially exceed the numbers of false negative reports.
|
From page 111... ...
, a national phone survey designed to elicit information about firearms ownership and use, Cook and Ludwig (1998) report that 29,917 persons were part of the original sampling scheme, of which 15,948 were determined to be ineligible (phones not working, not residential, etc.)
|
From page 112... ...
points out that results from the NSDS imply that firearms are used defensively in every burglary committed in occupied households and in nearly 60 percent of rapes and sexual assaults committed against persons over 18 years of age; that defensive gun users thought they wounded or killed offenders in 207,000 incidents, yet only 100,000 people are treated in emergency rooms for nonfatal firearms injuries; and that hundreds of thousands of persons almost certainly would have been killed if they had not used a firearm defensively, implying that nearly all potentially fatal attacks are successfully defended against (Cook and Ludwig, 1998)
|
From page 113... ...
Evidence from self-reported surveys will invariably be subject to concerns over reporting errors and other biases. Still, we can hope to have a greater degree of confidence in the survey results by relying on replications and survey sampling experiments that serve to effectively reduce the degree of uncertainty about the true prevalence rate.
|
From page 114... ...
develop methods to reduce reporting errors to the extent possible. Well-established survey sampling methods can and should be brought to bear to evaluate the response problems.
|
From page 115... ...
Lizotte (1986) draws similar conclusions using data from city victim surveys.
|
From page 116... ...
rely on multivariate linear regression methods that implicitly assume that firearms use, conditional on observed factors, is statistically independent of the unobserved factors influencing the outcomes, as would be the case in a classical randomized experiment.12 Is this exogenous selection assumption reasonable? Arguably, the decisions to own, carry, and use a firearm for self-defense are very complex, involving both individual and environmental factors that are related to whether a crime is attempted, as well as the outcomes of interest.13 The ability of a person to defend himself or herself, attitudes toward violence and crime, emotional well-being, and neighborhood characteristics may all influence whether a person uses a firearm and the resulting injury and crime.
|
From page 117... ...
If, for example, respondents are inclined to report being victimized when a crime is "successful" but conceal unsuccessful crimes, the estimated efficacy of resistance will be biased downward. In contrast, if respondents, concerned about being perceived as inept, are inclined to report successful forms of resistance but conceal ineffective forms, the estimated efficacy of self-defense will be biased upward.
|
From page 118... ...
do not draw such strong causal conclusions, but instead simply describe the observed positive association between firearms and homicide. In the committee's view, the exogenous selection assumption and the resulting conclusions are not tenable.
|
From page 119... ...
Thus, while the observed associations may reflect a causal albeit unspecified pathway, they may also be entirely spurious. As Kellermann and his colleagues note (1993:1089)
|
Key Terms
This material may be derived from roughly machine-read images, and so is provided only to facilitate research.
More
information on Chapter Skim is available.