SAGE Journal Articles

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Hart, T.C. & Miethe, T.D. (2009). Self-defensive gun use by crime victims: A conjunctive analysis of its situational contexts. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 25(1), 6-19.

As a means for analyzing categorical data, conjunctive analysis is an emerging analytic approach used in both exploratory and confirmatory research. This technique is applied in the current study to examine two important issues related to the use of firearms as a means of self-defense by crime victims. Using data from the National Crime Victimization Survey, the current study uses conjunctive analysis (a) to examine the contextual factors associated with the use of a firearm by crime victims as a means of self-defense and (b) to identify the situational factors most closely associated with instances where the self-defensive use of a firearm is most and least effective. Results are discussed in terms of their implications for future research.

Kleck, G. & Kovandzic, T. (2009). City-level characteristics and individual handgun ownership: Effects of collective security and homicide. Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice, 25(1), 45-66.

General Social Survey (GSS) data are used in a multilevel analysis to examine the relationship between an individual’s decision to own a handgun and his or her city’s (a) homicide rate and (b) police strength level. The cities in which respondents lived were identified using special supplementary codes provided by the National Opinion Research Center so that information about surrounding cities could be attached to each GSS respondent. Logistic regression analyses indicate that the likelihood of handgun ownership is increased by higher local homicide rates. The effects are not mediated by the individual’s own victimization experiences or fear of crime. Positive macro-level associations previously found between homicide rates and gun ownership levels may be indicative of homicide effects on handgun acquisition rather than the reverse. Larger city police forces discourage handgun ownership, supporting the idea that the provision of greater collective security reduces the felt need of the citizenry to provide their own protection.

Stults, B.J. (2010). Determinants of Chicago neighborhood homicide trajectories: 1965-1995. Homicide Studies, 14(3), 244-267.

The homicide rate in Chicago nearly tripled between 1965 and 1992 and subsequently declined by more than 50% through 2005. However, is this trend representative of all areas in the city? Drawing on the social disorganization and concentrated disadvantage perspectives, this article uses semiparametric group-based trajectory modeling to examine homicide trajectories in Chicago neighborhoods from 1965 to 1995. Significant variability is found in homicide trajectories across neighborhoods. Multivariate results show that disadvantage increases the likelihood of having an increasing or persistently high homicide trajectory. Social disorganization and family disruption are also predictive of variation in homicide trajectories but only in communities with already low levels of homicide. Other theoretically relevant predictors are evaluated, and suggestions for theoretical refinement and future research are discussed.

Smith, C. M. (2014). The influence of gentrification on gang homicides in Chicago neighborhoods, 1994 to 2005. Crime & Delinquency, 60(4), 569-591.

In this study, the author examines the effects of three forms of gentrification—demographic shifts, private investment, and state intervention—on gang-motivated homicides in Chicago from 1994 to 2005 using data from the U.S. Census, the Chicago Police Department, business directories, and the Chicago Housing Authority. The findings suggest that demographic shifts have a strong negative effect on gang homicide. Private investment gentrification, measured here as the proliferation of coffee shops, has a marginally significant and negative effect on gang homicide. In contrast, state-based gentrification, operationalized as the demolition of public housing, has a positive effect on gang homicide.