Some laws aim to protect domestic violence survivors by prohibiting their alleged abusers from possessing firearms. But Alice Ellyson, an assistant professor at the University of Washington, said that doesn’t always happen.
“If you don’t have someone following up on this, you’re basically relying on an honor system,” she said.
Ellyson led a study recently published in the Journal of Criminal Justice. She found that after a unit in King County was created to enforce those firearm rules, there was a drop in overall crimes committed by alleged abusers, such as instances of stalking and stolen or destroyed property. Essentially, the unit’s work reduced crime by about 27%, the researchers found…