NCJ Number
167956
Journal
Women and Criminal Justice Volume: 7 Issue: 2 Dated: (1996) Pages: 69-87
Date Published
1996
Length
19 pages
Annotation
Using data from the General Social Survey (GSS), this study tested an emancipation model of women's firearm ownership.
Abstract
The data were taken from the 1989, 1990, and 1991 GSS's. The measure of gun ownership was derived from two GSS questions. The first asks respondents whether there are any guns in their home, and the second asks whether any of these guns belong to them. Owners are defined as those who report having personally owned guns in their homes. Although relatively few women hunt, hunting was included as a control variable. The following items were used to measure cognitive emancipation: It is more important for a wife to help her husband's career than to have one herself; and it is much better for everyone involved if the man is the achiever outside the home and the woman takes care of the home and family. The first stage of the analysis tested the additive model of women's gun ownership to determine whether emancipation from male influence increases or decreases the likelihood of gun ownership. Findings show that both cognitive and behavioral emancipation increase the likelihood of owning a gun, although cognitive emancipation is a much stronger and more statistically significant predictor than behavioral emancipation that approaches significance. Consistent with previous research, strong relationships between gun ownership and southern and rural residence at age 16 were found. Among the control variables, age and hunting were positively associated with gun ownership. Also, married women were more likely to own guns than unmarried women. Married women who scored lower on emancipation than unmarried women were more likely than the latter to own guns. This raises the question of whether emancipation influences gun ownership among married women, or whether their greater exposure to the male gun culture is an alternative explanation for their disproportionate level of firearm ownership. The findings suggest that marriage may provide direct exposure to and subsequent socialization into a male gun culture. 3 tables, 3 notes, 43 references, and appended outline of the operationalization of variables