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Since the 1970s, the Canadian Government had introduced three legislations to enhance firearms control and reduce gun homicides. Although some authors claim that these legislations did not reduce homicides involving firearms, the empirical evidence supporting such a claim is weak. Furthermore, studies failed to assess whether their likely effects are achieved by restricting accessibility and availability, introducing harsher punishments, or a combination of both. The goal of this study is to clarify our understanding of the mechanisms linking improved gun control and firearm-related homicides. Results from a pooled cross-section, time series model show that these Canadian legislations have achieved a significant reduction in the firearms-related homicide rate, that this is effect is greater for rifle and shotgun homicides than other firearm homicides (not targeted by these legislations), that there has been no evidence of tactical displacement and finally that the main reason why these legislations have been effective is that they have successful restricted accessibility to firearms by improving screening procedures for new applicants and actual owners and safe storage. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

Several authors claim that the deterrence theory explains poorly the arrest-crime relationship, even when rates of arrest are quite high and odds of arrest are about 30%. In this paper we argue that that the so-called absence of relationship between the probability of being arrested and crime rates fails to take into account the contextual and structural effect of sanctions. Contextual deterrent effects occur when crime levels react to significant and permanents shits in arrests rates. Structural deterrent effects are likely in settings where enforcement practices can be viewed as homogeneous but unlikely in jurisdictions (cities or states) where enforcement strategies vary across police organizations. Using interrupted time series analysis, we estimate the effect of a police strategy designed to reduce traffic violations. Segmented regressions analyses show that the increase in the issuance of traffic tickets by police officers caused a gradual decrease in accidents only in Montreal. No effect was observed on the control series. So, our results support the preservation of this unit and its activities to maintain this downward trend. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]

In this study, we assess the effect of a police program aimed at reducing violence in school settings. Specifically, we estimate the effects of a police prevention program on violence and reporting behaviours by elementary schools students. This program teaches about violence and its effects, and the need for pupils to denunciate violent behaviours to school authorities. Since evaluations of this type of programmes typically suffer from weak internal and external validity, in this study, we used a quasi-experimental design with one pre-test and two post-test measures. The program was implemented at multiple sites. This "multi-center approach" not only increases the statistical power of our model but also allows for an examination of the program's general impact as well as variations among sites. Our results will allow the examination of interaction effects between site characteristics and the police program's effects on one hand, and will examine whether police instructional programs have differential impacts on violence versus substance use. Results will be discussed in relation to previous evaluations which show that instructional police programs such as D.A.R.E are largely ineffective. ..PAT.-Unpublished Manuscript [ABSTRACT FROM AUTHOR]