The title not only consists of the topic that is being discussed through out the paper, but it also gives the reader a clear perspective of what information will be presented to them line by line. “Gun Ownership as a Risk Factor for Homicide in the Home” this title does not only embody what a article will be about it is an a quick look about what this paper will consist of, especially in today’s society when people are so amply for quick solutions. A title now holds power either it attracts readers or turns them off before they read the first sentence.
The title consists of the research subjects in this case it would be gun owners. One of the main variables that can be seen within this article is the risk of homicide in the home specifically pertaining to gun owners. The title does not consist of any acronyms that may be popular and or recognizable within the committed research community. The abstracted consisted of the methodology that was utilized in this particularly study. The methods that were used to conduct this study relied on many variables and people to make this study successful; data was collected from police and medical examiners.
A proxy or someone to represent the victim perspective was interviewed there answered were compared to the control subjects that were matched to the victims; such as neighborhood, sex, race and or age. It was then calculated with matched pairs methods, which was the type of methodology used to complete this study. The purpose of this article is not particularly stated but it is very obvious to those who use there context clues, such as utilizing the title and background information that is presented in the abstract.
The main purpose of this study was to study homicide occurring in homes of victims in three particular metropolitan counties. The correlation between gun ownership and deaths within the homes of these gun owners is the main topic of this particular study. A short excerpt of the results are consisted within the abstract; during the allotted time exactly 1860 homicide occurred in the three counties that where chosen to be studied.
This number was then quickly broken down into how many of these homicides transpired in home. During a majority of studies and or experiments some cases that you are over viewing have to be discarded due to various reasons that is relevant to finding research pertaining specifically to the study. There was some consists correlation where found with these homicides, “case households more commonly contained in an illicit-drug sex, a person with prior arrests, or someone who had been hit or hurt in a fight in the home.
After looking at these particular characteristics were linked to keeping guns in the homes which eventually lead to an increase risk of gun related homicide. The introduction clearly states some of the statistics that are related to the homicide rates within the United States. One of the main problems that is addressed by the author and it is not even specifically a problem. Many people are owners of hand guns to protect their home even though there are other methods that can be used to keep their home and family safe.
This study is trying to show if the risk of keeping a firearm in the home way outweigh the potential benefits, especially if a potential down fall can lead to gun related homicides. The introduction starts with a very wide net of a formulated topic then narrows it down to a specific topic that is then used to conduct the study. The topic “TO clarify these issues, we conducted a population based case-control study to determine the strength of the association between a variety of potential risk factors and the incidence of homicide in the home.
The lit review offers correct citations for the research utilized within the study, these researches used the lit reviews to help support their own study, the citations appeared at the bottom of the reference page but it offers a small number at the end of the sentence which is directly correlated to that particular reference. When discussing results table one breaks down the characteristics of the four hundred and twenty homicides that had been committed in the home of the victims, by many particular characteristics that help break down the results even further.
Some of these characteristics may be offense to some people they way they are broken down but when dealing with a research study facts are facts that need to be translated so that they have a track of validity within the study. I personally find Table 1 very interesting in the ways the it breaks down obvious characteristics but then goes farther such as “ victim resisted assailant, evidence of forced entry, legally excusable circumstances. ” Along with the more common factors such as age, gender and circumstances.
With a more detailed break down it offers the reader a more insightful look at the study especially for learners such as me who need to see things in a hands on approach to be able to fully understand what the study is trying to translate. Through out the entire study the author does a very good job of discussing the research topic and making sure that the evidence found matches with the particular topic so that there is a answer to the proposed question made by the researchers. Additionally, that this answer is based on the facts found not on the personal opinion and or bias form the researchers themselves.
The researchers of this particular study conducted many interviews by offering an incentive to complete these interviews, by doing os they were able to attain more enhanced answers to the proposed questions along with truthful answers. The limitations that were set on this specific experiment they restricted their study to homicides that occurred in the home of the victim. When completing this study they were in search of correlations that could link specific individual to a particular household characteristics.
They state that their research “our case definition excluded the rare instances in which a nonresident intruder was killed by a homeowner, our methodology was capable of demonstrating significant protective effects of gun ownership as readily as any evidence of increased risk. ” Some of the threats that presented themselves “other threats to the validity of the study were less easy to control. A respondents recollection of events can be powerfully affected by a tragedy as extreme as a homicide in the home. To diminish the effect of the recall bias, we delayed our contract with the case proxies to allow for an initial period of grief.
The basic research question for this particular article is to see if gun ownership a high risk factor to homicides that are taking place in the home? This particular study not only finds the answers to this particular question but it breaks it down in a more coherent manner by analyzing many other variables that can also play a part in homicides that transpire within the home as well. This particular studies I personally believe stayed within the ethical standards that are presented in today’s standards.
I believe is that the compensation that were offered to the proxies was a very intelligent way to attain participants that would be willing to tell stories. Many people would not be willing to spend their time with researchers answering numerous questions about a particular cases, if there was not an apparent compensation and or reward for their time. This case deiced to study only three particular counties then taking those and making this study even similar and only looking at cases that where pertaining to homicides that had taken place in homes.
I feel that a better foundation for this particular study is to expand their sampling size by increasing the counties by either two or more, still in the same area that the prior three counties where located out. To increase the amount of homicides and to be able to offer more support for their claims that they made within the article. I feel also that the sampling size was adequate to making generalization about the the public on a small scale.
But if the study did become more popular and utilized after publication then I feel that the size needs to be larger prior to making generalization about the public. The different types of methodology that was used during the time of the case study I feel like it was very valid especially the type of system that they used to collect information pertaining to the cases; using the proxies. It provide a validity to their case and the information that they were able to attain from these proxies, that it would be coherent and correct information.
The likely hood for this case study to be replicated exactly, I feel that the methods used would be able to be replicated, on the other hand I feel that going to the same particular county would be unlikely, especially tying to find all of the same proxies and or cases would be highly unlikely. I feel that it would be very interesting to replicate this study using the same exact methods in a different location and then comparing these two studies against each other to see the different results that would be collected after these two studies would have been completed.
There was known pre or post test that were conducted or even created for this particular case, with that being said it was a quasi experiment. Due to the fact that there was no pre or post test present within this study. Some of the threats for validity would be the sampling group, saying that the researchers were searching within three particular counties just for homicides within the home. While not looking at homicides in general then narrowing down the study to homicides within the home.
