IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/eee/jcjust/v43y2015i1p40-48.html
   My bibliography  Save this article

The Impact of Gun Ownership Rates on Crime Rates: A Methodological Review of the Evidence

Author

Listed:
  • Kleck, Gary

Abstract

This paper reviews 41 English-language studies that tested the hypothesis that higher gun prevalence levels cause higher crime rates, especially higher homicide rates.

Suggested Citation

  • Kleck, Gary, 2015. "The Impact of Gun Ownership Rates on Crime Rates: A Methodological Review of the Evidence," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 43(1), pages 40-48.
    • Handle: RePEc:eee:jcjust:v:43:y:2015:i:1:p:40-48
    DOI: 10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2014.12.002
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S004723521400107X
    Download Restriction: Full text for ScienceDirect subscribers only
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1016/j.jcrimjus.2014.12.002?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to search for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. Kleck, Gary & Kovandzic, Tomislav & Saber, Mark & Hauser, Will, 2011. "The effect of perceived risk and victimization on plans to purchase a gun for self-protection," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 39(4), pages 312-319, July.
    2. Carlisle E. Moody & Thomas B. Marvell, 2005. "Guns and Crime," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 71(4), pages 720-736, April.
    3. Lawrence Southwick, 1997. "Do guns cause crime? Does crime cause guns? A granger test," Atlantic Economic Journal, Springer;International Atlantic Economic Society, vol. 25(3), pages 256-273, September.
    4. Siegel, M. & Negussie, Y. & Vanture, S. & Pleskunas, J. & Ross, C.S. & King, C., III, 2014. "The relationship between gun ownership and stranger and nonstranger firearm homicide rates in the United States, 1981-2010," American Journal of Public Health, American Public Health Association, vol. 104(10), pages 1912-1919.
    5. Bice, Douglas C & Hemley, David D, 2002. "The Market for New Handguns: An Empirical Investigation," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 45(1), pages 251-265, April.
    6. Mark Duggan, 2001. "More Guns, More Crime," Journal of Political Economy, University of Chicago Press, vol. 109(5), pages 1086-1114, October.
    7. Bruce L. Benson & Paul R. Zimmerman (ed.), 2010. "Handbook on the Economics of Crime," Books, Edward Elgar Publishing, number 13180.
    8. Southwick, Lawrence, 2000. "Self-defense with guns: The consequences," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 28(5), pages 351-370.
    9. Miller, Matthew & Hemenway, David & Azrael, Deborah, 2007. "State-level homicide victimization rates in the US in relation to survey measures of household firearm ownership, 2001-2003," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 64(3), pages 656-664, February.
    10. Carlisle E. Moody, 2010. "Firearms and Homicide," Chapters, in: Bruce L. Benson & Paul R. Zimmerman (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Crime, chapter 17, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    11. Miron, Jeffrey A, 2001. "Violence, Guns, and Drugs: A Cross-Country Analysis," Journal of Law and Economics, University of Chicago Press, vol. 44(2), pages 615-633, October.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Steffen Hurka & Christoph Knill, 2020. "Does regulation matter? A cross‐national analysis of the impact of gun policies on homicide and suicide rates," Regulation & Governance, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 14(4), pages 787-803, October.
    2. Daniel Cerqueira & Danilo Coelho & Marcelo Fernandes & Jony Pinto Junior, 2018. "Guns and Suicides," The American Statistician, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 72(3), pages 289-294, July.
    3. Matthew Lang, 2016. "State Firearm Sales and Criminal Activity: Evidence from Firearm Background Checks," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 83(1), pages 45-68, July.
    4. Crokidakis, Nuno, 2022. "Modeling the impact of civilian firearm ownership in the evolution of violent crimes," Applied Mathematics and Computation, Elsevier, vol. 429(C).
    5. Hamlin, Daniel, 2021. "Are gun ownership rates and regulations associated with firearm incidents in American schools? A forty-year analysis (1980–2019)," Journal of Criminal Justice, Elsevier, vol. 76(C).
    6. Schiff, Maurice, 2019. "Greater US Gun Ownership, Lethality and Murder Rates: Analysis and Policy Proposals," IZA Discussion Papers 12784, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    7. Caillin Langmann, 2020. "Effect of firearms legislation on suicide and homicide in Canada from 1981 to 2016," PLOS ONE, Public Library of Science, vol. 15(6), pages 1-17, June.
    8. S. E. Costanza & Ronald Helms & John C. Kilburn & David A. Bowers, 2020. "Criminal Threat, Immigrant/Minority Threat, and Political Ideology: An Examination of Handgun Permits Across Texas Counties," Social Science Quarterly, Southwestern Social Science Association, vol. 101(4), pages 1442-1460, July.
    9. Marco Rogna & Bich Diep Nguyen, 2022. "Firearms law and fatal police shootings: a panel data analysis," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 54(27), pages 3121-3137, June.
    10. Bilgel, Firat, 2020. "State Gun Control Laws, Gun Ownership and the Supply of Homicide Organ Donors," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    11. Jessica Jumee Kim & Kenneth C. Wilbur, 2022. "Proxies for legal firearm prevalence," Quantitative Marketing and Economics (QME), Springer, vol. 20(3), pages 239-273, September.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Carlisle E. Moody, 2010. "Firearms and Homicide," Chapters, in: Bruce L. Benson & Paul R. Zimmerman (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Crime, chapter 17, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    2. Wolfgang Stroebe, 2014. "Firearm possession and violent death: A critical review," CREMA Working Paper Series 2014-07, Center for Research in Economics, Management and the Arts (CREMA).
    3. Abdul Munasib & Genti Kostandini & Jeffrey L. Jordan, 2018. "Impact of the Stand Your Ground law on gun deaths: evidence of a rural urban dichotomy," European Journal of Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 45(3), pages 527-554, June.
    4. Durlauf, Steven N. & Navarro, Salvador & Rivers, David A., 2016. "Model uncertainty and the effect of shall-issue right-to-carry laws on crime," European Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 32-67.
    5. Jaewook Byeon & Iljoong Kim & Dongwon Lee, 2018. "Protest and property crime: political use of police resources and the deterrence of crime," Public Choice, Springer, vol. 175(1), pages 181-196, April.
    6. Gerdes, Madison B, 2023. "Assessing the relationship between gun ownership and fear of mass shootings," Social Science & Medicine, Elsevier, vol. 336(C).
    7. Kovandzic, Tomislav & Schaffer, Mark E & Kleck, Gary, 2008. "Estimating the Causal Effect of Gun Prevalence on Homicide Rates: A Local Average Treatment Effect Approach," IZA Discussion Papers 3589, Institute of Labor Economics (IZA).
    8. Raul Caruso & Adelaide Baronchelli, 2013. "Economic aspects of the complementarity between corruption and crime: evidence from Italy in the period 1996-2005," International Journal of Monetary Economics and Finance, Inderscience Enterprises Ltd, vol. 6(2/3), pages 244-260.
    9. Matthew Lang, 2016. "State Firearm Sales and Criminal Activity: Evidence from Firearm Background Checks," Southern Economic Journal, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 83(1), pages 45-68, July.
    10. Huber III Arthur & Newman Rebecca & LaFave Daniel, 2016. "Cannabis Control and Crime: Medicinal Use, Depenalization and the War on Drugs," The B.E. Journal of Economic Analysis & Policy, De Gruyter, vol. 16(4), pages 1-35, October.
    11. Schaffer, Mark & Kleck, Gary & Kovandzic, Tomislav, 2005. "Gun Prevalence, Homicide Rates and Causality: A GMM Approach to Endogeneity Bias," CEPR Discussion Papers 5357, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    12. Bilgel, Firat, 2020. "State Gun Control Laws, Gun Ownership and the Supply of Homicide Organ Donors," International Review of Law and Economics, Elsevier, vol. 63(C).
    13. Chalfin, Aaron & Danagoulian, Shooshan & Deza, Monica, 2019. "More sneezing, less crime? Health shocks and the market for offenses," Journal of Health Economics, Elsevier, vol. 68(C).
    14. Tannenbaum, Daniel I., 2020. "Does the disclosure of gun ownership affect crime? Evidence from New York," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 181(C).
    15. Khalil, Umair, 2017. "Do more guns lead to more crime? Understanding the role of illegal firearms," Journal of Economic Behavior & Organization, Elsevier, vol. 133(C), pages 342-361.
    16. Grönqvist, Hans & Niknami, Susan, 2014. "Alcohol availability and crime: Lessons from liberalized weekend sales restrictions," Journal of Urban Economics, Elsevier, vol. 81(C), pages 77-84.
    17. Laurent Bouton & Paola Conconi & Francisco Pino & Maurizio Zanardi, 2018. "Guns, Environment, and Abortion: How Single-Minded Voters Shape Politicians' Decisions," Working Papers gueconwpa~18-18-15, Georgetown University, Department of Economics.
    18. Edward M. Shepard & Paul R. Blackely, 2010. "Economics of Crime and Drugs: Prohibition and Public Policies for Illicit Drug Control," Chapters, in: Bruce L. Benson & Paul R. Zimmerman (ed.), Handbook on the Economics of Crime, chapter 10, Edward Elgar Publishing.
    19. Alexandre Belloni & Victor Chernozhukov & Christian Hansen & Damian Kozbur, 2016. "Inference in High-Dimensional Panel Models With an Application to Gun Control," Journal of Business & Economic Statistics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(4), pages 590-605, October.
    20. Keith Ihlanfeldt & Tom Mayock, 2016. "The Variance in Foreclosure Spillovers across Neighborhood Types," Public Finance Review, , vol. 44(1), pages 80-108, January.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:eee:jcjust:v:43:y:2015:i:1:p:40-48. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Catherine Liu (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.elsevier.com/locate/jcrimjus .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.