Misclassification of firearm-related violent crime in criminal legal system records: challenges and opportunities.

ABSTRACT:

Background

Criminal legal system data are one source for measuring some types of firearm-related harms, including those that do not necessarily result in injury or death, but measurement can be hampered by imprecise criminal code statutes. We quantified the degree of misclassification in Washington state criminal codes for measuring firearm-related crime.

Findings

In this study of individuals aged 18 years and older who were convicted of a misdemeanor in Washington Superior Courts from 1/1/2015 through 12/31/2019, we compared firearm-related charges as measured with criminal codes and with manual review of probable cause documents, considered the gold standard. The sample included 5,390 criminal cases. Of these, 77 (1.4%) were firearm-related as measured with criminal codes

SUBMITTER: Schleimer JP 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC10544360 | biostudies-literature | 2023 Oct

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature