Gary D. Kleck

Racial discrimination in criminal sentencing: a critical evaluation of the evidence with additional evidence on the death penalty

Reevaluation of published research on racial bias in criminal sentencing and of data on execution rates by race from 1930 to 1967 and on death-sentencing rates from 1967 to 1978 indicates that, except in the South, black homicide offenders have been less likely than whites to receive a death sentence or be executed. For the 11% of executions imposed for rape, discrimination against black defendants who had raped white victims was substantial, but only in the South. Evidence for noncapital sentencing also largely contradicts a hypothesis of overt discrimination against black defendants. Although black offender--white victim crimes are generally punished more severely than crimes involving other racial combinations, this appears to be due to legally relevant factors related to such offenses. Crimes with black victims, however, are less likely than those with white victims to result in imposition of the death penalty. The devalued status of black crime victims is one of several hypothetical explanations of the more lenient sentencing of black defendants. (abstract Adapted from Source: American Sociological Review, 1981. Copyright

Equal justice and the death penalty : a legal and empirical analysis

This bibliography was prepared by the Reference Staff of the University of Iowa Law Library and contains all published works within the following categories: Books and Monographs; Chapters in Books; Articles in Law Reviews and Other Scholarly Journals; Book Reviews; Statutory Drafting; Reports to Governmental Bodies and Professional Associations. Insofar as possible an effort has been made to consolidate all works that have been reprinted or substantially reprinted under the first published appearance of that work. This bibliography does not contain works in progress or works that have been accepted for publication but have not yet been published. This bibliography is intended to be current as of June 1, 2011.

The impact of gun control and gun ownership levels on violence rates

What effects do gun control restrictions and gun prevalence have on rates of violence and crime? Data were gathered for all 170 U.S. cities with a 1980 population of at least 100,000. The cities were coded for the presence of 19 major categories of firearms restriction, including both state- and city-level restrictions. Multiple indirect indicators of gun prevalence levels were measured and models of city violence rates were estimated using two-stage least-squares methods. The models covered all major categories of intentional violence and crime which frequently involve guns: homicide, suicide, fatal gun accidents, robbery, and aggravated assaults, as well as rape. Findings indicate that (1) gun prevalence levels generally have no net positive effect on total violence rates, (2) homicide, gun assault, and rape rates increase gun prevalence, (3) gun control restrictions have no net effect on gun prevalence levels, and (4) most gun control restrictions generally have no net effect on violence rates. There were, however, some possible exceptions to this last conclusion—of 108 assessments of effects of different gun laws on different types of violence, 7 indicated good support, and another 11 partial support, for the hypothesis of gun control efficacy.

Capital-punishment, gun ownership, and homicide

Several issues are examined: (1) the deterrent (or other preventive) effect of the death penalty, (2) the relationship between the level of gun ownership and the homicide rate, and (3) the incapacitative effect of imprisonment on the homicide rate. Findings consistently show a significant reciprocal relationship between gun ownership levels and the homicide rate, with crime pushing up gun ownership and gun ownership in turn pushing up the homicide rate. Greater certainty of arrest and conviction for homicide has a significant negative effect on the homicide rate, suggesting a deterrent effect of legal sanctions, while the homicide rate in turn has a negative effect on the certainty of punishment. This is consistent with a hypothesis of the strain on cirminal justice system resources resulting from increasing crime. Further, the hypothesis that the imprisonment o criminal offenders has an incapacitative effect on homicide rates independent of deterrence effects is supported. Contrary to the recent findings of Ehrlich (1975b), the analysis fails to detect consistent evidence of a deterrent effect of capital punishment on U.S. homicide rates for 1947-73. This may be because of the infrequency of executions during this period.

Crime Control Through the Private Use of Armed Force

Legal defensive violence by private citizens armed with firearms is a significant form of social control in the United States. Evidence indicates that private gun use against violent criminals and burglars is common and about as frequent as legal actions like arrests, is a more prompt negative consequence of crime than legal punishment and is often far more severe. In 1980 about 1,500-2,800 felons were legally killed by gun-wielding civilians, about 8,700-16,000 were nonfatally wounded and guns were used defensively about one million times. Victim resistance with guns is associated with lower rates of both victim injury and crime completion for robberies and assaults than any other victim action, including nonresistance. Survey and quasi-experimental evidence is consistent with the hypothesis that the private ownership and use of firearms deters criminal behavior. Language: en

Victim resistance and offender weapon effects in robbery

What happens when victims resist robbers? Logistic regression analysis of over 4500 sample robbery incidents reported in the 1979–1985 National Crime Surveys reveals the following about various forms of victim resistance. Self-protection (SP) of any kind apparently reduces the probability of the robbery being completed, i.e., the robber getting away with the victims property. Armed resistance is more effective than unarmed resistance, and resistance with a gun, though relatively rare, is the most effective victim response of all. Resistance with a gun also appears to reduce the likelihood of the victim being injured, while two types of resistance appear to increase it: (1) unarmed physical force against the robber and (2) trying to get help, attract attention, or scare the robber away. The robbers possession of a gun appears to inhibit victim resistance, which can sometimes provoke a robber to attack; robber gun possession thereby reduces the probability of victim injury. However, even controlling for victim resistance, robber gun possession, is associated with a lower rate of injury to the victim. Finally, robbers with handguns are much more likely to complete their robberies, and those with knives and other weapons are somewhat more likely to do so, compared to unarmed robbers.

Rape and Resistance

What are the consequences when rape victims resist rapists? Analysis of a nationally representative sample of rape incidents reported in the National Crime Surveys for 1979 to 1985 yields the following findings: (1) Victims who resist are much less likely to have the rape completed against them than nonresisting victims, a pattern generally apparent regardless of the specific form of resistance; (2) The form of resistance that appears most effective in preventing rape completion is resistance with a gun, knife, or other weapon; (3) Most forms of resistance are not significantly associated with higher rates of victim injury. The exceptions are unarmed forceful resistance and threatening or arguing with the rapist; (4) Even these two forms of resistance probably do not generally provoke rapists to injure their victims, as ancillary evidence concerning assaults and robberies indicates that resistance rarely precedes injury. Attack against the victim appears to provoke victim resistance, rather than the reverse; (5) Only about three percent of rape incidents involve some additional injury that could be described as serious. Thus it is the rape itself that is nearly always the most serious injury the victim suffers. Consequently, refraining from resistance in order to avoid injury in addition to the rape is a questionable tradeoff.

Measures of Gun Ownership Levels for Macro-Level Crime and Violence Research

Valid measures of macro-level gun levels are essential to assessing the impact of gun levels on crime and violence rates, yet almost all prior research on this topic uses proxies that are either invalid or whose validity has been assumed rather than demonstrated. The present study uses city, state, cross-national, and time series data to assess the criterion validity of over two dozen gun indicators. The criterion measures used are primarily direct survey measures of household gun prevalence. The results indicate that (1) most measures used in past research have poor validity, making past findings uninterpretable, (2) the best measure for cross-sectional research is the percentage of suicides committed with guns, and (3) there are no known measures that are valid indicators of trends in gun levels, making credible longitudinal research on the subject impossible at present.

Article Productivity Among the Faculty of Criminology and Criminal Justice Doctoral Programs, 2000-2005

One important dimension of the quality of a graduate program is the quality of its faculty. Previous assessments of the publication productivity of criminology and criminal justice (CCJ) faculties have been needlessly incomplete and narrow, reflecting publications only in a small number of CCJ journals. Assessments covering only CCJ journals fail to reflect the multi-disciplinary nature of CCJ and bias results against programs whose most productive scholars publish in non-CCJ journals. The present research covers the full array of major journals in which CCJ-related research appears, by searching for articles using the Web of Science and ProQuest databases. This article is an update of two previous evaluations, covering 2000–2004 and 2005–2009. Based on article counts, the most productive faculties are those of Sam Houston State University, Florida State University and the University of Cincinnati. The article also summarizes changes in rankings of CCJ programs from 2000 through 2014.

Crime, Culture Conflict and the Sources of Support for Gun Control: A Multilevel Application of the General Social Surveys

National survey data were combined with information about the cities in which urban respondents lived to determine whether support for gun control is increased by exposure to high crime rates, prior victimization, and fear of crime, or is a product of membership in social groups with cultures hostile to ownership and use of guns. Results indicate that support for gun permits is generally unrelated to crime-related variables but is heaviest among those social groups regarded as most hostile to gun ownership and its associated cultural traits. That is, support is stronger among liberals, higher-income persons, those with more schooling, Jews, and those who do not own guns or hunt. The results support the view that gun control support is more a product of culture conflict than a response to crime. Results for contextual variables also indicate that support is stronger in cities with more police and fewer gun owners per capita.