Suchergebnisse

Recent work (Cook and Ludwig, 2003) has linked local firearm density to increased burglary victimization risk. The current work investigates within‐household gun density or household firearm collection size. Previous work has suggested two subcultures of gun owners: protection‐minded and sport‐ or hunting‐minded. It also has identified gender gaps in reporting any household guns and in the number reported. None of the earlier work, however, has controlled for selection into gun‐owning household status. This limitation raises potential questions about earlier findings. The current research controls for selection. If the two subcultures thesis is correct, protection‐minded owners should report smaller household firearm collections. The expected impact is observed in one national survey and is partially replicated in a second. Gender gaps seemed more independent than previously suggested. This study is the first to provide evidence of two partially overlapping subcultures of gun owners even after controlling for selection into gun‐owning household status. Practical implications for burglary risk may exist.

The city of Philadelphia has long been criticized for the amount of litter strewn about its streets. To more fully understand this problem, a recent city initiative, the Clean PHL program, sent out individuals to rate the amount of litter on more than 28,000 blocks across the city. We used multilevel models to analyze these data to identify both address-level and block group–level correlates of increased litter ratings. The results show that being on an arterial or collector street, the late summer and early fall seasons, and exposure to food-serving businesses and vacant properties are linked with the odds of increased litter, whereas proximity to a park is linked with decreased litter. We also found that increased block group–level disadvantage is directly related to increased litter and serves to moderate the relationships between some address-level predictors and litter.