NCJ Number
221906
Journal
Criminal Justice Policy Review Volume: 19 Issue: 1 Dated: March 2008 Pages: 117-130
Date Published
March 2008
Length
14 pages
Annotation
The goal of this study was to examine statutes recently passed by State legislatures targeting domestic violence offenders and to determine whether there was a correlation of some predictive explanation between legislation and homicide rates.
Abstract
In testing whether the presence of aggressive legislative statutes might be correlated with lower rates of intimate partner or family homicide rates, findings suggest no correlation between these laws and the intimate partner and family homicide rates with one exception. The exception notably was a moderate, but significant inverse correlation between family homicide rates and States mandating firearm restrictions during restraining order. This means the family homicide rate decreased across 47 States as the number of States restricting firearms during a restraining order increased or vice versa, suggesting that limiting firearm availability once a restraining order has been served may help to reduce family homicide rates. The importance of examining the generality of research results over time is illustrated. That is, despite the increase in States adopting domestic violence provisions over the past 20 years, the present study identified only one association between State laws and the rate of domestic violence. As public awareness of domestic violence has increased over the last decade, so has the number of laws passed by State legislatures to help address the problem of domestic violence. This study explored whether States adopting specific domestic violence laws had significantly lower rates of intimate partner and family homicide, as well as a lower average of the two homicide rates. Figure, tables, and references