David McDowall (criminologist)
| David McDowall | |
|---|---|
| Born | 1949 (age 66–67) |
| Fields | Criminology |
| Institutions | University at Albany, SUNY, University of Maryland, College Park |
| Alma mater | Portland State University, Northwestern University |
| Thesis | Structure and ideology in a university faculty's response to an intramural change (1980) |
| Notable awards | 2011 Criminology Teaching Award from American Society of Criminology |
David McDowall (born 1949)[1] is an American criminologist and distinguished teaching professor in the School of Criminal Justice at University at Albany, SUNY.
Education
McDowall received his B.A. from Portland State University in 1973 and his M.A. and Ph.D. from Northwestern University in 1975 and 1980, respectively. All three of his degrees are in sociology.[2]
Career
McDowall joined the faculty of the University of Maryland, College Park in 1990 as an associate professor, and became a full professor there in 1992. In 1996, he joined the faculty of the University at Albany, where he was appointed a distinguished teaching professor in 2013.[2][3]
Research
Much, but not all, of McDowall's research focuses on "the social distribution of crime and criminal victimization."[4] He has also researched gun violence and the effects of certain gun laws, such as the Firearms Control Regulations Act of 1975, which, in a 1991 study, he and his co-authors found was followed by "a prompt decline in homicides and suicides by firearms in the District of Columbia".[5][6] He has also researched the frequency of defensive gun use, and has criticized the research of Gary Kleck with respect to this issue, saying, "Kleck is a really smart guy. That's why his work is as prominent as it is. . . (But) I think he starts with conclusions, then works backward to support them."[7] He has also criticized Kleck's 1995 study estimating 2.5 million DGU incidents per year for including not just situations in which guns were used by crime victims, but also those when people thought the presence of a gun protected them from threats. In 2012, he said that "Given that half of the U.S. households own a gun, armed self-defense is extremely uncommon."[8] In 1995, McDowall and two of his colleagues published a study evaluating the effect of passing more lenient concealed carry laws on homicide rates in three states, and found that these laws did not reduce homicide rates and, in fact, may have even increased them in two of the states studied.[9][10]
Editorial activities
McDowall was the editor-in-chief of the Journal of Quantitative Criminology from 2001 to 2008.[2]
References
- ↑ "David McDowall". Library of Congress Name Authority File. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
- 1 2 3 "David McDowall CV" (PDF). University at Albany. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
- ↑ "Distinguished Teaching Professors". University at Albany. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
- ↑ "David McDowall". University at Albany. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
- ↑ Loftin, C; McDowall, D; Wiersema, B; Cottey, TJ (5 December 1991). "Effects of restrictive licensing of handguns on homicide and suicide in the District of Columbia.". The New England journal of medicine 325 (23): 1615–20. PMID 1669841.
- ↑ Vedantam, Shankar (7 July 2008). "Packing Protection or Packing Suicide Risk?". Washington Post. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
- ↑ Galloway, Paul (19 June 1994). "Under The Gun". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
- ↑ Rainey, David (20 December 2012). "More or fewer guns? The experts are divided". Los Angeles Times. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
- ↑ McDowall, David; Loftin, Colin; Wiersema, Brian (Autumn 1995). "Easing Concealed Firearms Laws: Effects on Homicide in Three States". The Journal of Criminal Law and Criminology (1973-) 86 (1): 193. doi:10.2307/1144006.
- ↑ Worthington, Rogers (5 February 1996). "Experts Tackle Gun Issues". Chicago Tribune. Retrieved 11 December 2015.
|