The Effectiveness of Policies and Programs That Attempt to Reduce Firearm Violence

Abstract

In response to rising rates of firearms violence that peaked in the mid-1990s, a wide range of policy interventions have been developed in an attempt to reduce violent crimes committed with firearms. Although some of these approaches appear to be effective at reducing gun violence, methodological variations make comparing effects across program evaluations difficult. Accordingly, in this article, the authors use meta-analytic techniques to determine what works in reducing gun violence. The results indicate that comprehensive community-based law enforcement initiatives have performed the best at reducing gun violence.

Towards a framework for preventing community violence among youth

“…Juvenile curfews, gang prevention, and gun buyback strategies all demonstrated no impacts on crime or violence (Adams, 2003;Gravel, Bouchard, Morselli, & Descormiers, 2012;Makarios & Pratt, 2012).…”

“…Targeted firearms enforcement has demonstrated moderate effects in reducing gun crime and violence (Koper & Mayo-Wilson, 2006;Makarios & Pratt, 2012). Conversely, aggressive drug enforcement appears to have minimal impacts (Mazerolle, Soole, & Rombouts, 2006) and may actually increase violence by destabilizing drug markets thereby increasing competition and violence among drug sellers (Werb et al, 2011).…”

“…Some reviews have found comprehensive or holistic approaches to be ineffective due to the inherent implementation challenges associated with getting numerous participants and organizations 'on the same page' (Gravel et al, 2012;Matjasko et al, 2012). Others claim such approaches work because they capitalize on the strength and diversity of multiple stakeholders (Makarios & Pratt, 2012;Petrosino et al, 2015). Complete comprehensiveness, while laudable in theory, is unlikely to be achievable in practice.…”

“…Both are designed to overcome limits to the external validity of individual studies (Killias & Villetaz, 2008). These techniques have grown popular as scholars recognize their usefulness for identifying themes and patterns across large numbers of empirical studies (Makarios & Pratt, 2012), and are being employed with increasing frequency in medicine, education, criminal justice, and other fields (Aos, Miller, & Drake, 2006).…”

Las evaluaciones de impacto de los planes de recolección de armas en Brasil : alcances y limitaciones

“…En la práctica, los resultados han sido divergentes, en parte por los efectos de las polí-ticas en sí mismas y en parte por la forma de medir dichos efectos, esto es, por la estrategia de evaluación de impacto aplicada (ver Laurance y Godnick, 2001, para casos de América Central; Chapman et ál., 2006, y Reuter y Mouzos, 2003, para Australia, y Beautrais et ál., 2006Villaveces et ál., 2000, para Colombia;Callahan et ál., 1996;Ludwig y Cook, 2003;Makarios y Pratt, 2008;Rosenfeld, 1995;Sherman, 2001, para Estados Unidos; Faltas et ál., 2001, para un relevamiento internacional). En este marco, el presente artículo se propone, luego de describir brevemente la evolución de la violencia armada y del plan de recolección de armas implementado en Brasil, identificar los criterios metodológicos para la evaluación del plan, para posteriormente analizar las evaluaciones hechas en Brasil.…”