The impact of firearm-related violence on future prison violence: a brief report

Research aiming to understand the risk of violence among women is scarce, yet women account for 18-21% of all violent crimes. Once incarcerated, women convicted of a violent crime still pose a high risk of prison violence. Research has found that a history of violence is a strong predictor of prison violence. However, little is known about the relation between the mechanism of prior violence (i.e. firearms) and subsequent prison violence. The goal of this study was to assess if women who had committed violent crimes with or without a firearm were at greater risk of prospectively committing prison violence over a 12-month period. A sample of 206 incarcerated women was used to assess the associations between criminal convictions and violent prison misconducts. Logistic regressions showed that women who committed a firearm-related crime were more likely to engage in prison violence when compared to women convicted of general forms of violence and non-violent crime. Due to the lack of research, future studies should explore firearm-related violence in female offenders to inform gender-specific violence.