MyData:What Is MyData? | Login/Account Info | Download Saved Files | Logout Description & Citation--Study No. 3145 | | | ICPSR Study No.: | 3145 |
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| | | Title: | Gun Density, Gun Type, and the Dallas Homicide Rate, 1980-1992 |
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| | | Principal Investigator(s): | Christopher S. Koper, Crime Control Institute |
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| | | Funding Agency: | United States Department of Justice. National
Institute of Justice. |
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| | | Grant Number: | 94-IJ-CX-0038 |
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| | | Bibliographic Citation: | Koper, Christopher S. GUN DENSITY, GUN TYPE, AND THE
DALLAS HOMICIDE RATE, 1980-1992 [Computer file]. ICPSR
version. Philadelphia, PA: Crime Control Institute [producer], 1998.
Ann Arbor, MI: Inter-university Consortium for Political and Social
Research [distributor], 2001. |
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| | | | Summary: | This study examined the relationships among trends in
deadly gun violence, overall gun availability, and the availability of
more lethal types of guns. Using firearms confiscated by the Dallas,
Texas, police department from 1980 to 1992 as indicators of the types
of guns circulating among criminal/high-risk groups, the project
examined changes over time in Dallas' street gun arsenal and assessed
the impact these changes had upon gun violence mortality in
Dallas. The focus of the project was on the characteristics of the
guns rather than their numbers. All confiscated firearms were analyzed
and characterized according to basic weapon type and caliber
groupings. Dates of confiscation were missing from the majority of the
pre-1988 records, but by aggregating the gun data into bimonthly (Part
1) and quarterly (Part 2) time series databases, it was possible to
estimate the bimonthly and quarterly periods of confiscation for most
of the 1980-1992 records. Records that could not be assigned to
bimonthly or quarterly periods were dropped. Confiscated firearms were
grouped into basic categories based on stopping power (i.e., wounding
potential), rate of fire, and ammunition capacity. The following
measures were created for each bimonthly and quarterly period: (1)
weapons with high stopping power (large guns), (2) semiautomatic
weaponry (semis), (3) weapons combining high stopping power and a
semiautomatic firing mechanism (large semis), (4) handguns with high
stopping power (large handguns), (5) semiautomatic handguns (semi
handguns), and (6) handguns combining high stopping power and
semiautomatic firing (large semi handguns). Several violence measures
were obtained from the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI) Uniform
Crime Reports Supplemental Homicide Reports and Return A (or Offenses
Known and Clearances by Arrest) data files (see UNIFORM CRIME
REPORTING PROGRAM DATA [UNITED STATES]: 1975-1997 [ICPSR 9028]). These
measures were also aggregated at bimonthly and quarterly levels. Data
from the Dallas Police Department master gun property file include
total handguns, total semiautomatic handguns, total large-caliber
handguns, total large-caliber semiautomatic handguns, total shotguns,
total semiautomatic shotguns, total rifles, total semiautomatic
rifles, and total counts and total semiautomatic counts for various
calibers of handguns, shotguns, and rifles. Data that were aggregated
using the FBI data include total homicides, gun homicides, total
robberies, gun robberies, and gun aggravated assaults. The data file
also includes the year and the bimonthly or quarterly period counter. |
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| | | Subject Term(s): | assault weapons, crime reporting, firearms, gun ownership, gun use, handguns, mortality rates, police records |
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| | | Geographic Coverage: | Dallas, Texas, United States |
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| | | Time Period: | 1980 - 1992 |
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| | | Date(s) of Collection: | 1994 |
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| | | Unit of Observation: | Part 1: Bimonthly time period. Part 2: Quarterly
time period. |
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| | | Universe: | All guns confiscated by Dallas police from 1980 through
1992. |
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| | | Data Type: | administrative records data, and event/transaction data |
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| | | Data Collection Notes: | (1) Users are encouraged to obtain a copy of the Final
Report for detailed information on the generation of these data and
the project's time-series analysis. (2) The user guide and the
codebook are provided by ICPSR as Portable Document Format (PDF)
files. The PDF file format was developed by Adobe Systems Incorporated
and can be accessed using PDF reader software, such as the Adobe
Acrobat Reader. Information on how to obtain a copy of the Acrobat
Reader is provided on the ICPSR Web site. |
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| | | | Purpose of the Study: | Social scientists have rarely examined
consequences stemming from the availability and use of differentially
lethal guns, despite empirical and theoretical grounds for believing
that some guns are more lethal than others. However, a number of
recent studies have linked increases in homicides to the growing use
of semiautomatic and/or high-powered firearms by criminals. These
studies imply that gun violence is becoming more deadly due to the
substitution of more lethal firearms for less lethal firearms. Using
data from Dallas, Texas, for the period 1980-1992, this study examined
the relationships among trends in deadly gun violence, overall gun
availability, and the availability of more lethal types of guns. Using
firearms confiscated by police as indicators of the types of guns
circulating among criminal/high-risk groups, the project examined
changes over time in Dallas's street gun arsenal and assessed the
impact these changes had upon gun violence mortality in Dallas. The
project also examined whether trends in the use of different types of
guns predicted gun homicides better than a more traditional measure of
overall gun density. |
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| | | Study Design: | This study was based on information regarding
approximately 58,000 guns confiscated by Dallas police from 1980
through 1992. The data include guns seized in association with arrests
or other incidents as well as guns that were found or voluntarily
turned in by citizens. The focus of the project was on the
characteristics of the guns rather than their numbers. All confiscated
firearms were analyzed and characterized according to basic weapon
type and caliber groupings. Dates of confiscation were missing from
the majority of the pre-1988 records, but by aggregating the gun data
into bimonthly (Part 1) and quarterly (Part 2) time-series databases,
it was possible to estimate the bimonthly and quarterly periods of
confiscation for most of the 1980-1992 records. Records that could not
be assigned to bimonthly or quarterly periods were dropped.
Confiscated firearms were grouped into basic categories based on
stopping power (i.e., wounding potential), rate of fire, and
ammunition capacity. The following measures were created for each
bimonthly and quarterly period: (1) weapons with high stopping power
(large guns), (2) semiautomatic weaponry (semis), (3) weapons
combining high stopping power and a semiautomatic firing mechanism
(large semis), (4) handguns with high stopping power (large handguns),
(5) semiautomatic handguns (semi handguns), and (6) handguns combining
high stopping power and semiautomatic firing (large semi handguns).
Several violence measures were obtained from the Federal Bureau of
Investigation's (FBI) Uniform Crime Reports Supplemental Homicide
Reports and Return A (or Offenses Known and Clearances by
Arrest) data files (see UNIFORM CRIME REPORTING PROGRAM DATA [UNITED STATES]:
1975-1997 [ICPSR 9028]). These measures were also aggregated at
bimonthly and quarterly levels. An added advantage to using the
bimonthly and quarterly time points was that they provide robust gun
measures that are less sensitive to random events that could
conceivably distort the gun measures (such as drug busts, which might
produce large caches of weapons). |
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| | | Sample: | For the years 1984 through 1992, the data
represent nearly 100 percent of the guns confiscated by Dallas
police. For earlier years, the data represent approximately 85 to 95
percent of the records received from the Dallas police
department. Preliminary work with the data suggested that there were
very low rates of error with respect to the designation and recording
of basic firearm characteristics. Less than 1 percent of the records
in the master file had missing or obviously invalid (i.e.,
nonexistent) weapon type designations or caliber fields. The
researcher recoded relatively small numbers of records corresponding
to categories of weapons, which, based on available narrative
descriptions in the database, appeared to represent systematic
miscodes. After this initial inspection, records for air guns, blank
guns, flare guns, toy guns, and other miscellaneous codes
corresponding to weapons other than handguns, rifles, or shotguns were
removed. However, any remaining true caliber and weapon type errors
may have no consequence for analysis because the weapons were later
grouped into broad semiautomatic/nonsemiautomatic and large/small
caliber categories. Though a large majority of records in the master
file included an indicator for the year during which the firearm was
seized, the exact date of confiscation was missing for a substantial
percentage of pre-1988 records. The approximate period of confiscation
was estimated for the majority of early-year records based on an
inspection of the service incident numbers, which ascended with
confiscation dates. This estimation was accomplished with more
accuracy and with less remaining missing data by using the bimonthly
and quarterly aggregations. Records that could not be assigned to
bimonthly or quarterly periods were dropped. There was no reason to
believe that the guns excluded due to missing date information
differed systematically from the other guns. Due to limitations in the
data, it was not possible to take into account other potentially
important factors, such as ammunition shape and jacketing, exact
ammunition capacity, or barrel length. Justifiable homicides and
negligent manslaughters were excluded from the homicide counts. |
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| | | Data Source: | (1) Master gun property file from the Property/Auto
Pound Section of the Dallas, Texas, police department, (2) Federal
Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reporting Program data |
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| | | Mode of Data Collection: | Data providing basic weapon type and caliber
groupings were collected from a master gun property file provided by
the Property/Auto Pound Section of the Dallas, Texas, police
department. Offense counts were obtained using data from the Federal
Bureau of Investigation's Uniform Crime Reporting Program. |
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| | | Description of Variables: | Data from the Dallas, Texas, police department
master gun property file include total handguns, total semiautomatic
handguns, total large-caliber handguns, total large-caliber
semiautomatic handguns, total shotguns, total semiautomatic shotguns,
total rifles, total semiautomatic rifles, and total counts and total
semiautomatic counts for various calibers of handguns, shotguns, and
rifles. Data aggregated using the FBI data include total homicides,
gun homicides, total robberies, gun robberies, and gun aggravated
assaults. The data file also includes the year and the bimonthly or
quarterly period counter. |
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| | | Response Rates: | Not applicable. |
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| | | Presence of Common Scales: | None. |
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| | | Extent of Processing: | ICPSR reformatted the data and
documentation. ICPSR also performed checks for undocumented codes,
created codebooks, and generated SAS and SPSS data definition
statements for this collection. |
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| | | | Note: | A list of the data formats available for this study can be found in the
summary of holdings. Detailed file-level information (such as LRECL, case count, and variable count) is listed in the
file manifest. |
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| | | Original ICPSR Release: | 2001-05-09 |
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| | | Version History: | The last update of this study occurred on 2005-11-04. |
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| 2006-03-30 - File CB3145.ALL.PDF was removed from any previous datasets and flagged as a study-level file, so that it will accompany all downloads. |
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| 2005-11-04 - On 2005-03-14 new files were added to one
or more datasets. These files included additional setup files as well
as one or more of the following: SAS program, SAS transport, SPSS portable,
and Stata system files. The metadata record was revised 2005-11-04 to
reflect these additions. |
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| | | Dataset(s): | - DS1: Bimonthly Data
- DS2: Quarterly Data
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