Harvard Injury Control Research Center
Our mission is to reduce the societal burden of injury and violence through surveillance, research, intervention, evaluation, outreach, dissemination, and training.
Batterers
We analyzed survey data collected from over 8,000 males enrolled in a certified batterer intervention program in Massachusetts, 1999-2003. Recent gun owners were 8 times more likely to have threatened their partners with a gun than non-gun owners. Four main types of gun threats against partners were (a) threatening to shoot them, (b) threatening to shoot a pet or person the victim cares about, (c) cleaning, holding or loading a gun during an argument, and (d) shooting a gun during an argument.
Rothman, Emily; Hemenway, David; Miller, Matthew; Azrael, Deborah. Batterers’ use of guns to threaten intimate partners. Journal of the American Medical Women’s Association. 2005; 60:62-68.
We analyzed survey data of over 4,500 men in Massachusetts batterers’ intervention programs. Risk factors for having a gun included having gambling problems, having attempted murder, and having threatened a partner with a firearm.
Rothman, Emily F.; Johnson. Renee M.; Hemenway, David. Gun possession among a sample of Massachusetts batterer program enrollees. Evaluation Review. 2006; 30:283-95.