Gun Violence: The Statistical Issues

Gun violence is a vexing problem in the US that needs little explanation. Yet adequate information and insight are still lacking about ownership and use of firearms, the causes and consequences of gun violence, and the effects of interventions and technological innovations. The sociological context and the implications for health and law enforcement involve a variety of disciplines; and the spectrum of questions that arise affects policymakers at all levels.

Obtaining adequate information and understanding requires high quality data and analyses that can withstand scrutiny by all concerned.

This book provides an overview of reliable data and informative analyses on several important topics in gun violence research. It exposes the opportunities and needs for cutting-edge statistical efforts and engages new statisticians and data scientists to work across disciplinary lines to help understand and mitigate the effects of gun violence.

Key Features:

• Provides multi-disciplinary perspectives from researchers in criminology, political science, public policy, public health, sociology, and statistics, presenting their latest efforts in gun violence research across disciplinary lines
• Provides an overview of the state-of-the-art statistical and machine learning methods in gun violence research, including network models, synthetic control methods, point processes models, and neural networks
• Provides a comprehensive review of data sources, describes the evolution of data quality, and examines the reasons for biases historical data sources

Charles Loeffler is an Associate Professor of Criminology at the University of Pennsylvania, and his research interests include life-course criminology, the effects of criminal justice institutions, and topics at the intersection of crime and technology. He was a First Place Winner of the 2017 National Institute of Justice (NIJ) Real Time Crime Forecasting Competition and was a National Science Foundation/National Bureau of Economic Research Crime Research Fellow. He was the co-organizer of the 2024 Ingram Olkin Statistics Serving Society Forum on "The Statistics of Gun Violence."

James L. Rosenberger is a Professor Emeritus of Statistics at the Pennsylvania State University and the Director Emeritus of the National Institute of Statistical Sciences (NISS), and his research interests include linear models, design and analysis of experiments, bioinformatics, and genomics. He is a Fellow of the American Statistical Association (ASA) and a Fellow of the American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS). He was the co-organizer of the Inaugural Ingram Olkin Statistics Serving Society Forum on "Gun Violence: The Statistical Issues" in 2019 and the 2024 Ingram Olkin Statistics Serving Society Forum on "The Statistics of Gun Violence."

Lingzhou Xue is a Professor of Statistics at the Pennsylvania State University, and his research interests include high-dimensional statistics, statistical and machine learning, nonparametric statistics, optimization, and statistical applications in biomedical, environmental, and social sciences. He is a Fellow of the Institute of Mathematical Statistics (IMS), a Fellow of the American Statistical Association (ASA), and an Elected Member of the International Statistical Institute (ISI). He was the co-organizer of the Inaugural Ingram Olkin Statistics Serving Society Forum on "Gun Violence: The Statistical Issues" in 2019 and the 2024 Ingram Olkin Statistics Serving Society Forum on "The Statistics of Gun Violence."