Evaluating Firearm Violence After New Jersey's Cash Bail Reform.

ABSTRACT:

Importance

Reducing the pretrial detention population has been a cornerstone of movements to end mass incarceration. Across many US cities, there are ongoing public debates on policies that would end pretrial detention due to the inability to afford bail, with some raising concerns that doing so would increase community violence.

Objective

To evaluate changes in firearm violence after New Jersey's 2017 bail reform policy that eliminated financial barriers to avoiding pretrial detention.

Design, setting, and participants

This case-control study used synthetic control methods to examine changes in firearm mortality and combined fatal and nonfatal shootings in New Jersey (2014-2019). New Jersey was chosen because it was one of the first states to systematically implement

SUBMITTER: Jahn JL 

PROVIDER: S-EPMC11112443 | biostudies-literature | 2024 May

REPOSITORIES: biostudies-literature