2016 Vernon Prize

AWARD GIVEN BY THE VERNON PRIZE COMMITTEE FOR VOLUME 35 OF JPAM

Kerri Raissian

“Hold Your Fire: Did the 1996 Federal Gun Control Act Expansion Reduce Domestic Homicides?” by Kerri Raissian was selected as the winner of the Vernon Prize for the best article in the 35th Volume of the Journal of Policy Analysis and Management. This research provides the first empirical examination of the impact of the 1996 expansion of the Federal Gun Control Act on domestic homicides. The 1968 Gun Control Act prohibited convicted felons from having a firearm, and then the 1996 Lautenberg Amendment extended the Act to those who had been convicted of misdemeanor domestic violence offenses.

Differences across states in their preexisting domestic assault laws as well as differences in Federal Circuit Court interpretations of the Lautenberg Amendment provided variation in the timing when provisions of the Act are applied across states. The analysis uses this differential timing when the provisions of the Lautenberg Amendment are applied to examine its effects on homicides among intimate partners, children, and other family members. The research shows that the expansion of the Gun Control Act resulted in fewer homicides for female intimate partners and male children as well as for other family members. The author's work is certainly exemplary of careful empirical work examining an important change in social policy and its impacts.

Vernon Prize Committee:

Sarah Hamersma, Syracuse University

Dave Marcotte, American University

Peter Mueser, University of Missouri

Jodi Sandfort, University of Minnesota