Life-course processes as cause and effect of trends in gun violence

• In Event: 20807 - Violence

Abstract

Cohorts are comprised of individuals that, as a result of being born in a particular range of time, all experience macro-scale historical contexts at a similar age. Life course and demographic research on crime and deviance often focuses on the micro-level (individual) outcomes of macro-scale (societal) causes such as COVID-19. When societal (macro-scale) outcomes are considered, the focus is usually on aggregated individual outcomes such as mortality rates. Less often considered is how macro-level events affect crime-relevant social processes to produce emergent (i.e., not simple aggregate) macro-level outcomes. We present a tentative cohort micro-macro model of social change and use it to examine trends in concealed handgun carrying, legal cynicism, and gun violence in the US over the last 30 years.

Authors

• Charles C Lanfear, University of Cambridge

• Robert J. Sampson, Harvard University