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BETTER GUN ENFORCEMENT, LESS CRIME *
Author(s) -
LUDWIG JENS
Publication year - 2005
Publication title -
criminology and public policy
Language(s) - English
Resource type - Journals
SCImago Journal Rank - 1.6
H-Index - 33
eISSN - 1745-9133
pISSN - 1538-6473
DOI - 10.1111/j.1745-9133.2005.00352.x
Subject(s) - gun violence , enforcement , punishment (psychology) , argument (complex analysis) , law enforcement , criminology , business , poison control , computer security , political science , suicide prevention , law , psychology , environmental health , computer science , medicine , social psychology
Research Summary: Project Safe Neighborhoods (PSN), which for the past several years has been the major federal initiative to combat gun violence, includes several elements (such as gun locks and other efforts to reduce gun availability) that research suggests are likely to have at best modest effects on gun crime. In general, enforcement activities targeted at the “demand side” of the underground gun market currently enjoy stronger empirical support. However much of PSN's budget has been devoted to increasing the severity of punishment, such as by federaliz‐ing gun cases, which seems to be less effective than targeted street‐level enforcement designed to increase the probability of punishment for gun carrying or use in crime. Policy Implications: PSN and other enforcement activities could be made more effective by redirecting resources toward activities such as targeted patrols against illegal gun carrying. Given the substantial social costs of gun violence, an efficiency argument can also be made for increasing funding beyond previous levels.