Psychological Reports, 1990,66, 122. O Psychological Reports 1990
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT, GUN CONTROL, AND PERSONAL VIOLENCE (SUICIDE AND HOMICIDE)' DAVID LESTER Richard Stockton State College
Laws restricting the sale of guns and for the execution of murderers are both passed by state legislatures to reduce the homicide rate in America. Do they work? Lester (1984) created a Guttman scale of handgun law strictness using data provided by Bakal (1968) and reported that the states with stricter gun control laws had lower suicide rates, but did not differ in their homicide rates. For the present study, a Guttman scale for the breadth of death penalty statutes was created using data provided by Bedau (1967). (The scale used in the following order the death penalty for murder, kidnapping, rape, carnal knowledge, armed robbery, and burglary.) Only one state broke the pattern for a perfect Guttman scale, i.e., one on which all subjects who say yes to item n also say yes to item n + 1, but not vice versa. The strictness of the handgun laws and the breadth of the death penalty laws were correlated with the suicide and homicide rates for the 48 continental states in 1965. Mean scores (and standard deviations) were for suicide rate 11.3 (2.9), for homicide rate 5.1 ( 3 . I), for death penalty breadth 2.4 (1.9), and for gun control strictness 3.6 (1.8). I t was observed that the strictness of the handgun laws was modestly related to the suicide rate (Pearson r = - 0.28, p = .03) but not with the homicide rate (r = 0.05). In contrast, the extent of the death penalty statute was correlated positively with the homicide rate ( r = 0.79, p
CAPITAL PUNISHMENT, GUN CONTROL, AND PERSONAL VIOLENCE (SUICIDE AND HOMICIDE)' DAVID LESTER Richard Stockton State College
Laws restricting the sale of guns and for the execution of murderers are both passed by state legislatures to reduce the homicide rate in America. Do they work? Lester (1984) created a Guttman scale of handgun law strictness using data provided by Bakal (1968) and reported that the states with stricter gun control laws had lower suicide rates, but did not differ in their homicide rates. For the present study, a Guttman scale for the breadth of death penalty statutes was created using data provided by Bedau (1967). (The scale used in the following order the death penalty for murder, kidnapping, rape, carnal knowledge, armed robbery, and burglary.) Only one state broke the pattern for a perfect Guttman scale, i.e., one on which all subjects who say yes to item n also say yes to item n + 1, but not vice versa. The strictness of the handgun laws and the breadth of the death penalty laws were correlated with the suicide and homicide rates for the 48 continental states in 1965. Mean scores (and standard deviations) were for suicide rate 11.3 (2.9), for homicide rate 5.1 ( 3 . I), for death penalty breadth 2.4 (1.9), and for gun control strictness 3.6 (1.8). I t was observed that the strictness of the handgun laws was modestly related to the suicide rate (Pearson r = - 0.28, p = .03) but not with the homicide rate (r = 0.05). In contrast, the extent of the death penalty statute was correlated positively with the homicide rate ( r = 0.79, p
