Firearms and Violence A Critical Review (2005) / Chapter Skim
Currently Skimming:
2 Data for Measuring Firearms Violence and Ownership
2 Data for Measuring Firearms Violence and Ownership
Pages 19-52
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 19... ...
In firearms and violence research, the outcomes of interest, although large in absolute numbers, are statistically rare events that are not observed with great frequency, if at all, in many ongoing national probability samples. Moreover, response problems are thought to be particularly severe in surveys of firearms ownership and violence.
|
From page 20... ...
Rather, there are many different sources of data that researchers use to draw inferences about the empirical questions of interest. Some information on firearms and violence is found in probability samples of well-defined populations, such as the National Crime Victimization Survey (NCVS)
|
From page 21... ...
to collect information on all violent deaths. In this section, we describe four datasets used to monitor and assess firearms-related violence: the National Crime Victimization Survey, the Uniform Crime Reports, and two emerging systems, the National IncidentBased Reporting System and the National Violent Death Reporting System.
|
From page 22... ...
Disease Control and Prevention National Violent Centers for Data on violent deaths linked from Death Reporting Disease Control medical examiners and coroners, police System (NVDRS) and Prevention departments, death certificates, and crime labs; would include circumstances of firearm-related incidents National Census of Bureau of Labor Complete count of all work-related injury Fatal Occupational Statistics fatalities; includes job-related homicides Injuries (CFOI)
|
From page 23... ...
all states started 1933 Homicide, suicide, and National Under unintentional firearm- development related deaths, and deaths of undetermined causes Employed civilians 16 National Annual/ years of age and older, started 1992 plus resident armed forces Injuries reported by National Annual/ employers in private started 1992 industry Workers age 16 and National Data available older certified on death from 1980 certificate as injured at work Admissions to hospital National Updated daily/ emergency departments redesigned 1978; all injuries included starting in 2000 Admissions to hospitals National Annual/ with emergency started 1992 departments continued
|
From page 24... ...
Statistics information; includes gunshot wounds and type of gun; 1994 supplement on firearm storage and safety National Mortality National Center 1993 survey included information on Followback Survey for Health firearm access, and circumstances of (NMFS) Statistics homicide, suicide, and unintentional injury deaths Data Elements for National Center Standardized data definitions, coding, Emergency for Injury and other specifications Department Systems Prevention and (DEEDS)
|
From page 25... ...
MEASURING FIREARMS VIOLENCE AND OWNERSHIP 25 Geographic Frequency/ Population Areas Year Started Patient visits to office- National Annual/ based, nonfederally 1995 -- detailed employed physicians injury questions added,1997 intent of injury added Civilian, National Annual/ noninstitutionalized U.S. 1996 -- detailed households injury section added Persons age 15 and older National Irregular who died in the year of frequency/ the survey started in 1960s 24-hour, hospital-based National Under emergency departments development Hospital emergency International Under department records development Firearms manufacturers National Annual Manufacturers National Producers in the mining National Monthly/ and manufacturing started 1902 industries continued
|
From page 26... ...
Tobacco, and adults; top source states; type of gun Firearms used; "time to crime" BATF Firearms Bureau of Firearms transaction records kept by Trace Data Alcohol, federal firearms licensees, including date Tobacco, and of sale and name of purchaser Firearms Law Enforcement Federal Bureau Duty-related deaths and assaults of law Officers Killed and of Investigation enforcement officers, by weapon used in Assaulted (LEOKA) incident Federal Justice Bureau of Data on federal criminal case processing Statistics Program Justice Statistics from the receipt of a criminal matter or (FJSP)
|
From page 27... ...
MEASURING FIREARMS VIOLENCE AND OWNERSHIP 27 Geographic Frequency/ Population Areas Year Started Federal firearms National licensees, except collectors of curios and relics Persons 12 years of age National Annual/ and older started 1973 Crimes reported by city, National Monthly/ county, and state law started 1930 enforcement agencies Criminal incidents National Started 1989, reported by local, state, under and federal law development enforcement agencies Criminal incidents National Started 1976 reported by police departments Guns recovered from 55 cities in Annual/ juveniles and adult 2001 started 1997 criminals Firearms submitted by National Record-keeping law enforcement for started 1968 tracing Local, state, and federal National Annual law enforcement officers Defendants in criminal National Annual cases, suspects in investigative matters, and offenders under supervision continued
|
From page 28... ...
Institute on focus on drug use; includes frequency of Drug Abuse gun carrying at school Youth Risk Behavior Centers for Prevalence of health risk behaviors Surveillance System Disease Control including gun-carrying, weapon carrying (YRBSS) and Prevention on school property, and weapon-related threats or injuries on school property Law and Enforcement Firearm Inquiry Bureau of Handgun applications made to FFLs, Statistics (FIST)
|
From page 29... ...
MEASURING FIREARMS VIOLENCE AND OWNERSHIP 29 Geographic Frequency/ Population Areas Year Started State correctional facility National Every 5 to 7 inmates years/started 1974 U.S. households National Unrepeated/ conducted 1996 Arrestees charged with National 1996 -- gun felonies and (gun addendum misdemeanors addendum includes 11 of the 35 sites)
|
From page 30... ...
Survey of Gun National Characteristics of gun ownership, gun Owners in the Institute of carrying, and circumstances of weaponU.S. Justice related incidents NCVS and its predecessor, the National Crime Survey, underwent lengthy development periods featuring record check studies and split-ballot experiments to determine the best way to measure crime victimization (Tourangeau and McNeeley, 2003)
|
From page 31... ...
Foremost among them is that these data alone cannot be used to draw inferences about firearms use or victimization in the general population.3 The UCR is a sample of crimes reported to and recorded by local law enforcement agen 2The UCR program excludes jurisdictions covered by federal law enforcement agencies. 3In fact, the NCVS was created to address this problem by capturing data on both reported and unreported crimes, to develop a clearer picture of national crime trends.
|
From page 32... ...
is designed to provide detailed incident-level information on crimes, including firearm-related crimes. It is administered through the FBI's UCR program and augments the crime reports of local law enforcement agencies in several key respects: offense categories are greatly expanded; attributes of individual crime incidents (offenses, offenders, victims, property, and arrests)
|
From page 33... ...
National Violent Death Reporting System In 2002, Congress appropriated funds to the CDC to begin creating the NVDRS. This system builds on earlier pilot work sponsored by private foundations coordinated through the Harvard School of Public Health's Injury Control Research Center.
|
From page 34... ...
household firearms ownership over time since the early 1970s. The GSS is an ongoing, nationally representative set of sample surveys on a broad range of social issues conducted by the National Opinion Research Center (NORC)
|
From page 35... ...
As a household survey, the GSS sampling frame omits transients and others without a stable residence who may be at high risk for firearm violence. The data offer no direct indication of illicit firearms transfers.
|
From page 36... ...
. While there is some information on reporting errors in surveys on other sensitive topics, the relevance of this literature for understanding invalid reporting of firearms ownership and use is uncertain.
|
From page 37... ...
Because trace data are quite distinct from the other federal data sources, and because they have been subject to more criticism than most of the other systems, we provide a more extensive description of the regulatory background related to firearm tracing, the nature of the tracing process, and the uses and limitations of the resulting data. The Gun Control Act of 1968 established the legal framework for regulating firearms transactions and the associated record-keeping.
|
From page 38... ...
FFLs must require customers to show identification and fill out a form swearing that they do not have any of the disqualifying conditions specified in the Gun Control Act. Beginning in 1994, the Brady Violence Prevention Act required that FFLs initiate a background check on all handgun purchasers through law enforcement records; in 1998 that requirement was expanded to include the sale of long guns as well.
|
From page 39... ...
BATF was charged with initiating a concerted effort to increase the amount of crime gun tracing, improve the quality of firearms trace data, increase the regulation of gun dealers, educate law enforcement on the benefits of tracing, and increase investigative resources devoted to gun traffickers. Comprehensive tracing of all firearms recovered by police is a key component of BATF's supply-side strategy to reduce the availability of illegal firearms.
|
From page 40... ...
suggested how the addendum might be used to provide estimates of the frequency and characteristics of arrests in which the arrested persons owned and used firearms (National Research 9Comprehensive tracing of all firearm recoveries reduces some of the problems in trace data introduced by police decision making. Jurisdictions that submit all confiscated guns for tracing can be confident that the resulting data base of trace requests represents the firearms recovered by police during a particular period of time.
|
From page 41... ...
ADAM data do not reveal the association between regulation and the behavior of offenders, potential offenders, the crime rate, or policing. Thus, observing that the prevalence of gun ownership and use among arrestees changes after some interventions does not reveal how gun use or crime more generally changed in the population of interest.
|
From page 42... ...
GENERAL OBJECTIVES FOR DEVELOPING USEFUL RESEARCH DATA In this section, we discuss several basic features that data on firearm ownership and violence ought to exhibit, individually or in combination, in order for researchers, practitioners, and policy makers to better understand the role of firearms in violent injury and death, both selfand other-inflicted. In particular, the following qualities of data sets are minimally necessary for credible research and evaluation on firearm violence: representativeness, accuracy, comprehensiveness, standardization, and timeliness.
|
From page 43... ...
The validity of data that measure firearms ownership, use, and violence on the basis of respondent self-reports depends on the ability and willingness of persons to disclose highly personal and sometimes incriminating or traumatic information to interviewers. As discussed above, there are reasons to expect response errors in regard to questions about ownership and use, as elicited in the GSS and other gun use surveys.
|
From page 44... ...
The collection of information on violence from hospitals and emergency departments is intended to reveal types of violence, such as partner abuse, thought to be underreported in crime data sources. The patchwork of existing data sources, in other words, has been created with the best of intentions and has shed light on aspects of violence, including the role of firearms, that otherwise would have remained hidden
|
From page 45... ...
. The most promising emerging data source with respect to information on the context and circumstances of firearm violence is the National Violent Death Reporting System, which will compile individual-level data from both criminal justice and public health sources on event circumstances, as well as detailed descriptions of the weapons used in violence.
|
From page 46... ...
The UCR, in contrast, has no direct control over local data collection and must rely on data checks conducted by state UCR programs, as well as its own quality controls, to ensure adherence to standard coding and classification criteria. The National Vital Statistics System mortality series lie somewhere between the NCVS and the UCR with respect to direct control over local data collection.
|
From page 47... ...
CDC has tested its own short version as a means for capturing external cause of injury information from hospital emergency departments records in the United States with promising results. The European Union is also testing portions of ICECI as part of its efforts to create a minimum data set on injuries.
|
From page 48... ...
Emergency departments and hospitals collect information on violent injuries and death just as frequently. Electronic data entry, coding, and checking have greatly reduced the time required to compile data on firearms violence, and the Internet permits nearly instantaneous dissemination both to special access users and broader audiences.
|
From page 49... ...
Emerging data have the potential to make important advances in understanding firearms and violence. In particular, the National IncidentBased Reporting System and the National Violent Death Reporting System can provide a wealth of information for characterizing violent events.
|
From page 50... ...
and others to support the development and maintenance of the National Violent Death Reporting System and the National Incident-Based Reporting System. We also recognize that these types of data systems have been the subject of great controversy and, in light of wellfounded concerns, strongly urge that special care be taken to ensure the credibility of these data.
|
From page 51... ...
What would the desired improvements contribute to research on policy interventions for reducing firearms violence? How can trace data be used, considering the deficiencies of these data?
|
From page 52... ...
To do this, researchers need access to the data. Thus, the committee recommends that appropriate access for research purposes be given to the Monitoring The Future survey, as well as to the data maintained by regulatory and law enforcement agencies, including the trace data maintained by BATF, registration data maintained by the FBI and state agencies, and manufacturing and sales data.13 These data may or may not be useful for understanding firearms markets and the role of firearms in crime and violence.
|
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.