Crime statistics

[angry_platypus]

I'm writing a paper for a Criminology class, and as part of the paper, I'm going to be looking into the effect shall-issue concealed carry laws have on violent crime rates. Now, I know a lot of people refer to such statistics around here, but I'm reasonably sure the professor wouldn't be too keen on me citing "some guy from the internet" as my source, so I was wondering if anyone could perhaps push me in the right direction to actually find the numbers that people have cited. Thanks in advance for your help.

 

[armoredman]

http://www.gunfacts.info/

 

[Librarian]

FBI's Uniform Crime Reports.

DOJ's Bureau of Justice Statistics

 

[junyo]

Criminal victimization stats:
http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/abstract/cvusst.htm

Keep in mind that reported crime stats can be manipulated. Some people prefer victimization surveys because they tend to account for unreported crimes and normalize across reporting methods.

 

[SDC]

You can also look at http://www.gun-nuttery.com/rtc.php for an overview of how CCW laws have changed over time, and the corresponding drop in the murder rate. Here in Canada, the LIEberal government passed a universal gun registration law (with some associated wholesale prohibitions, mag capacity laws, etc.) in 1993, and some interesting facts have come to light since.

In 1993 the Canadian murder rate was 2.19 per 100,00, while the American murder rate was 9.5 per 100,000; by 2005, the Canadian murder rate had dropped to 2.04 per 100,000 (a drop of 6.8%), while the American murder rate had dropped to 5.6 per 100,000 (a drop of 41%). In order to get OUR drop of 6.8%, the LIEberals flushed more than a billion dollars down the toilet, and prohibited millions of dollars worth of private prooperty; in order to get THEIR drop of 41%, all the Americans had to do was treat their citizens like responsible adults. Over the twelve years from 1993 to 2005, twelve more US states passed laws allowing responsible adults to carry concealed handguns for self-defence, and the "Assault Weapons Ban" (actually a "Military-looking Gun Ban") was allowed to sunset.

 

[Jeff White]

Gun laws be they progun or antigun have little effect on the crime rate. The crime rate is determined by a lot of complex social-economic factors. The biggest factor in the US seems to be the number of males between 14 nd 25 or so. That group commits the majority of the crime in our society.

When crime went down in the 90's it had absolutely nothing to do with the Brady Bill and the Clinton gun ban. It also had nothing to do with the increased number of CCW holders armed on the streets or even the increased number of guns in private hands. It had everything to do with the fact that the number of males in that age group dropped nationwide. To put it simply, many of the criminals grew up and moved away from the life.

Now crime is going up again. We have more CCW holders now then probably at any time in history. But it's not stopping the crime rate from going up. I imagine that in a couple months you're going to hear a lot about how it's going up because the Clinton AWB was allowed to expire. Of course that has nothing to do with it. Crime is going up because the number of males in the age group that commits the most crime has gone up.

Guns and the relative availbilty of them has almost no effect on the crime rate. That's the truth, without any emotion from either side of the aisle.

Jeff

 

[agricola]

*applauds Jeff*

 

[Low-Sci]

Yeah, point goes to Jeff on this one. Its really not black and white; social scientists are still debating as to whether concealed carry laws have any significant, credible effect on the crime rate.

Evidence of that is here http://www.cato.org/pubs/pas/pa-284.html in a Libertarian policy analysis, which explains in an understandable fashion how some of these statistics are generated, and some of the things that are wrong with them.

 

[Redneck with a 40]

John Lott's book "More Guns, Less Crime". This is a gold mine of relevant stats.