The persistent educational digital divide and its impact on societal inequality.

Computers and the Internet are widely recognized as fundamental to academic and future success on both the individual and the societal level. Moreover, the academic success of school-age children is now increasingly tied to access to educational technology, a reality that became even more apparent during the pandemic. While academic performance is viewed as the major outcome of using educational technology, this study looks at a crucial early stage in the educational technology value chain, specifically; 1) to what extent do students use computers and the Internet in their homes and at school and 2) what is the extent and nature of disparities in student access to educational technology.

Armed and prohibited: characteristics of unlawful owners of legally purchased firearms.

Background: A substantial proportion of individuals who lawfully purchase firearms later become unlawful owners ('prohibited firearm owners'), usually following events associated with an increased risk for future violence. This high-risk population has not previously been described. We aimed to characterise all individuals in California's Armed and Prohibited Persons System (APPS), a statewide programme for recovering firearms from individuals who legally purchased them and later became prohibited from ownership.

Impact of California firearms sales laws and dealer regulations on the illegal diversion of guns.

Objective: The available evidence suggests that more restrictive state firearm sales laws can reduce criminal access to guns. California has firearm-related laws that are more stringent than many other states and regulates its retail firearms dealers to a unique degree. This research seeks to examine the effect of more restrictive state gun laws and regulations on the illegal diversion of guns to criminals.

Interpreting the empirical evidence on illegal gun market dynamics.

Thousands of Americans are killed by gunfire each year, and hundreds of thousands more are injured or threatened with guns in robberies and assaults. The burden of gun violence in urban areas is particularly high. Critics suggest that the results of firearm trace data and gun trafficking investigation studies cannot be used to understand the illegal supply of guns to criminals and, therefore, that regulatory and enforcement efforts designed to disrupt illegal firearms markets are futile in addressing criminal access to firearms.

Linking crime guns: the impact of ballistics imaging technology on the productivity of the Boston Police Department's Ballistics Unit.

Ballistics imaging technology has received national attention as a potent tool for moving the law enforcement response to violent gun criminals forward by linking multiple crime scenes to one firearm. This study examines the impact of ballistics imaging technology on the productivity of the Boston Police Department's Ballistics Unit. Using negative binomial regression models to analyze times series data on ballistics matches, we find that ballistics imaging technology was associated with a more than sixfold increase in the monthly number of ballistics matches made by the Boston Police Department's Ballistics Unit.