1. How better policy will trigger fewer gun deaths
  2. Ending violence with an empowering antidote
  3. My son was a Columbine shooter. This is my story.
  4. The frightening frequency of family mass shootings
  5. Embracing elderhood as a stage of life
  6. Why violence clusters in cities - and how to reduce it

In A Nutshell

 April Zeoli studies the role that guns play in homicides related to domestic violence—and, through her work, has analyzed the potential of firearm restrictions for domestic violence offenders to reduce intimate partner homicide.

About April

April Zeoli is a leading expert on the relationship between intimate partner violence and gun violence. Her interdisciplinary research—which aims to bring together the fields of public health, criminology, and criminal justice—is currently focused on understanding the criminal histories of those who commit intimate partner homicide in order to identify potential intervention points. She is also studying the implementation of firearm relinquishment procedures for those intimate partner violence offenders who can no longer legally possess them. An associate professor in the School of Criminal Justice at Michigan State University, April is on the editorial board of the scholarly journal Injury Prevention and serves as the research expert for the National Domestic Violence and Firearms Resource Center.

Learn More

“Analysis of the Strength of Legal Firearms Restrictions for Perpetrators of Domestic Violence and Their Associations With Intimate Partner Homicide.” American Journal of Epidemiology. 2018.

“Removing Firearms From Those Prohibited From Possession by Domestic Violence Restraining Orders.” Trauma, Violence, & Abuse. 2017.

“Risks and Targeted Interventions: Firearms in Intimate Partner Violence.” Epidemiologic Reviews. 2016.

April's Recommended Resources

Webinar: Multiple victim homicides, mass murders, and homicide-suicide as domestic violence events.

Vigdor, E. R., & Mercy, J. A. (2006). Do laws restricting access to firearms by domestic violence offenders prevent intimate partner homicide? Evaluation Review, 30(3), 313-346. https://journals.sagepub.com/doi/pdf/10.1177/0193841X06287307.

Fridel, E. E. (2017). A multivariate comparison of family, felony, and public mass murders in the United States. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, online first. Doi: 10.1177/0886260517739286.

Diez, C., Kurland, R. P., Rothman, E. F., Bair-Merritt, M., Fleegler, E., Xuan, Z., … Siegel, M. (2017). State intimate partner violence-related firearm laws and intimate partner homicide rates in the United States, 1991 to 2015. Annals of Internal Medicine, 167(8), 536-543.

Reducing Gun Violence in America: Informing Policy with Evidence and Analysis edited by Daniel W. Webster and Jon S. Vernick, foreword by Michael R. Bloomberg. 

Talk Resources

1) Fridel, E. E. (2017). A multivariate comparison of family, felony, and public mass murders in the United States. Journal of Interpersonal Violence, online first. Doi: 10.1177/0886260517739286.

2) Taylor, M. A. (2018). A comprehensive study of mass murder precipitants and motivations of offenders. International Journal of Offender Therapy and Comparative Criminology, 62(2), 427-449.

3) Zeoli, A. M., McCourt, A., Buggs, S., Frattaroli, S., Lilley, D., & Webster, D. W. (2018). Analysis of the strength of legal firearms restrictions for perpetrators of domestic violence and their associations with intimate partner homicide. American Journal of Epidemiology, 187(11), 2365-2371.

4) Zeoli, A. M., & Webster, D. W. (2010). Effects of domestic violence policies, alcohol taxes and police staffing levels on intimate partner homicide in large US cities. Injury Prevention, 16(2), 90-95.

5) Vigdor, E. R., & Mercy, J. A. (2003). Disarming batterers: the impact of domestic violence firearm laws. In J. Ludwig & P. J. Cook (Eds.), Evaluating Gun Policy (pp. 157-214). Washington, D.C.: The Brookings Institution.

6) Vigdor, E. R., & Mercy, J. A. (2006). Do laws restricting access to firearms by domestic violence offenders prevent intimate partner homicide? Evaluation Review, 30(3), 313-346.

7) Diez, C., Kurland, R. P., Rothman, E. F., Bair-Merritt, M., Fleegler, E., Xuan, Z., … Siegel, M. (2017). State intimate partner violence-related firearm laws and intimate partner homicide rates in the United States, 1991 to 2015. Annals of Internal Medicine, 167(8), 536-543.

Call to Action

Visit The National Domestic Violence and Firearms Resource Center website at https://www.preventdvgunviolence.org/.
Gun violence and what to do about it
Every day, another shooting is in the news. The outlook is dismal. There is a silver lining: we can change the sad gun violence numbers.