Hostname: page-component-586b7cd67f-rcrh6 Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-11-25T08:18:14.406Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Avoidance and Misunderstanding: A Rejoinder to McDowall et al.

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  02 April 2024

Rights & Permissions [Opens in a new window]

Extract

Core share and HTML view are not available for this content. However, as you have access to this content, a full PDF is available via the ‘Save PDF’ action button.

McDowall, Loftin, and Wiersma (1996) avoid our criticisms of the univariate interrupted time series design (ITSD) by misstating our criticisms, by addressing what they claim we “implied” rather than what we plainly stated, and by ignoring crucial points in our article in this issue (Britt et al. 1996). We reiterate: McDowall et al.'s (1992) conclusions regarding the alleged efficacy of the Washington, D.C., handgun ban (mislabeled by McDowall et al. as a licensing law) collapsed once any of three improvements were made to their analysis: (1) use of a more appropriate control series, (2) use of a more appropriate, theoretically based specification of the intervention model, and (3) use of an alternative, extended time series beyond the period studied by McDowall et al. (1992). Nothing McDowall et al. (1996) write has rebutted our assertions.

Type
Articles
Copyright
Copyright © 1996 by The Law and Society Association

References

Britt, Chester L., Kleck, Gary, & Bordua, David J. (1996) “A Reassessment of the D.C. Gun Law: Some Cautionary Notes on the Use of Interrupted Time Series Designs for Policy Impact,” 30 Law & Society Rev. 361.Google Scholar
Kleck, Gary (1991) Point Blank: Guns and Violence in America. New York: Aldine de Gruyter.Google Scholar
Kleck, Gary, Britt, Chester L., & Bordua, David J. (1993) “The Emperor Has No Clothes: Using Interrupted Time Series Designs to Evaluate Policy Impact.” Presented at Annual Meetings of American Society of Criminology, Phoenix, AZ.Google Scholar
Loftin, Colin, McDowall, David, Wiersma, Brian, & Cottey, Talbert J. (1991) “Effects of Restrictive Licensing of Handguns on Homicide and Suicide in the District of Columbia,” 325 New England J. of Medicine 1615.Google Scholar
Marvell, Thomas B., & Moody, Carlisle E. (1995) “The Impact of Enhanced Prison Terms for Felonies Committed with Guns,” 33 Criminology 247.Google Scholar
McDowall, David, Loftin, Colin, & Wiersma, Brian (1992) “A Comparative Study of the Preventive Effects of Mandatory Sentencing Laws for Gun Crimes,” 83 J. of Criminal Law & Criminology 378.Google Scholar
McDowall, David, Loftin, Colin, & Wiersma, Brian (1996) “Using Quasi-Experiments to Evaluate Firearm Laws: Comment on Britt et al.'s Reassessment of the D.C. Gun Law,” 30 Law & Society Rev. 381.Google Scholar
U.S. National Center for Health Statistics (1983) Public Use Data Tape Documentation: Mortality Detail 1979, 1980, 1981 Data. Hyattsville, MD: U.S. Department of Health and Human Services.Google Scholar