Firearms, policy, and intimate partner homicide: A structural and disaggregated examination of Black, Latina, and White female victimization

Date
2024-06-28
Journal Title
Journal ISSN
Volume Title
Publisher
Criminology
Abstract
Intimate partner homicide (IPH) continues to be a form of violence disproportionately affecting women in the United States, and access to firearms can greatly increase the likelihood that intimate partner violence becomes lethal. In response to concerns about firearms violence and their prevalence in IPH incidents specifically, states have passed restrictive firearms laws and policies. In this study, we provide an analysis of female IPH victimization disaggregated by race/ethnicity that incorporates state-level firearms legislation. Our analytical approach is informed by intersectionality and accounts for other key intimate partner violence policies and structural predictors. We find that the relationship between firearms legislation and IPH varies in magnitude and direction across specific race/ethnicity female victimization groups. As such, our findings provide support for an intersectional framework in that restrictive firearms laws are not consistently associated with lower levels of IPH when incidents are disaggregated by gender and race/ethnicity.
Description
This is the peer reviewed version of the following article: Gray, A. C., Kafonek, K., & Parker, K. F. (2024). Firearms, policy, and intimate partner homicide: A structural and disaggregated examination of Black, Latina, and White female victimization. Criminology, 62, 276–299. https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9125.12372, which has been published in final form at https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9125.12372. This article may be used for non-commercial purposes in accordance with Wiley Terms and Conditions for Use of Self-Archived Versions. This article may not be enhanced, enriched or otherwise transformed into a derivative work, without express permission from Wiley or by statutory rights under applicable legislation. Copyright notices must not be removed, obscured or modified. The article must be linked to Wiley’s version of record on Wiley Online Library and any embedding, framing or otherwise making available the article or pages thereof by third parties from platforms, services and websites other than Wiley Online Library must be prohibited. © 2024 American Society of Criminology. This article will be embargoed until 06/28/2026.
Keywords
firearms legislation, intersectionality, intimate partner homicide, domestic violence policy, race/ethnicity
Citation
Gray, A. C., Kafonek, K., & Parker, K. F. (2024). Firearms, policy, and intimate partner homicide: A structural and disaggregated examination of Black, Latina, and White female victimization. Criminology, 62, 276–299. https://doi.org/10.1111/1745-9125.12372