Firearm Ownership and the Murder of Women in the United States: Evidence That the State-Level Firearm Ownership Rate Is Associated with the Nonstranger Femicide Rate

Abstract

Abstract Femicide is an important but understudied public health and criminal justice issue. The majority of femicides in the United States are perpetrated with a firearm, and policies that may reduce firearm-related homicides are now being considered at federal and state levels. Unfortunately, there is a paucity of data on firearm ownership and homicide rates in general, and there is an even more severe lack of data on this topic as it pertains to femicide specifically. This is the first study to examine the relationship between firearm ownership and total and gender-specific, stranger versus nonstranger firearm, and total homicide rates across all 50 states during the 33-year period from 1981 through 2013, while controlling for age, gender, race/ethnicity, region, urbanization, poverty, unemployment, income, education, income inequality, divorce rate, alcohol use, nonviolent crime rate, hate crime rate, suicide rate, and incarceration rate. This study expands upon previous work by using a new and improv...