Do Gun Policies Really Protect Women? A Cross-national Test of the Relationship between Gun Regulations and Female Homicide Victimization

Abstract

Globally, firearms are the most frequent means of committing homicide and young males are most likely to be victimized with guns. However, females’ risk of lethal gun violence rises significantly within the context of intimate partner and family violence. Some countries have addressed the gendered nature of gun violence in the private sphere by regulating access to guns based on the risk of domestic or family violence. There has been little research conducted on the extent to which such policies have been adopted around the world and their effectiveness for protecting females against gun violence. This quantitative, cross-national study tested the effects of gun availability and gun policies on levels of lethal violence against women in a relatively large sample of countries, controlling for other structural and cultural predictors of macro-level homicide rates. We found that the civilian gun ownership rate was positively associated with lethal gun violence against women. However, the relationship between gun policies to protect against domestic and family violence did not have a direct effect on female homicide rates. Instead, domestic violence background checks for gun permits only had a moderate negative effect on female homicides in countries with large numbers of private firearms.