Race/Ethnicity, Weapon Use, and Lethality

• In Event: Posters I

Abstract

In this paper we examine the relationships between race and ethnicity, weapon use, and lethality. Building on the extant literature, we specifically seek to determine if there are racial and/or ethnic differences in weapon use in assaultive violence and whether there are differences across groups in the lethality of outcomes depending on whether a gun or other weapon is used. To address these issues, we use 2013 and 2014 incident data from the National Incident Based Reporting System (NIBRS). Focusing on aggravated assault and homicide incidents, multinomial logistic regression is used to assess differences in types of weapons used (gun, knife, or other) based on victims’ race and ethnicity. In subsequent analyses we examine whether weapon use varies by the offenders’ race and ethnicity, and whether victim and offender race and ethnicity interact to predict weapon use in assaultive violence. Finally, we use logistic regression to examine whether the incident is an aggravated assault or homicide and whether this varies by race and ethnicity of the victim and/or offender as well as the weapon used. The results show some differences in weapon use by race and ethnicity as well as the likelihood of the whether the incident involved lethal violence

Authors

• Amie L. Nielsen, University of Miami

• Feodor Gostjev, Bridgewater State University

• Eric Louderback, University of Miami