Humanities Express

Documenting the History of Guns and Violence in America

Ever since the publication of Michael Bellesiles's Arming America: The Origins of a National Gun Culture (2000), a debate has raged among historians regarding the accuracy of Bellesiles's data. Professor Randolph Roth (History), recognized by the National Review as "the leading expert on early-American homicide rates" and author of a forthcoming book entitled American Homicide, ranks among the scholars working to set the record straight. As co-founder of The Historical Violence Database, Roth is well-positioned to help settle the debate over Bellesiles's research; he and his collaborators are developing a new standard of proof for historical research into violence as well as an emerging model of collaborative, computer-assisted research in the humanities.

The Historical Violence Database aims "to create a collaborative database on the history of violent crime and violent death from medieval times to the present." The investigators argue that "historians, social scientists, and genealogists must work together if we are to gather enough data to allow researchers to describe accurately the history of violent crime and violent death. No single researcher or group of researchers can examine enough sources in enough jurisdictions to achieve that goal. We are confident, however, that an ongoing, collaborative effort can."

The database includes qualitative data such as contemporary accounts of crimes and researchers’ notes, as well as quantitative data, such as counts of various kinds of violent acts and demographic data about victims and assailants. The breadth and depth of information in the database, gathered from sources as varied as newspapers, probate records, court records, diaries, and local histories, provide a rich interpretive context for researchers. By coordinating and sharing their data, researchers can cross-check various sources, check one another’s findings, and employ statistical analyses to extrapolate local data. Moreover, on its Web site the project posts sample codebooks, text files containing primary data, and even spreadsheets of raw quantifiable data, allowing general readers to gain a detailed sense of the grounds for arguments about the history of violence. More detailed information about The Historical Violence Database is available at http://www.sociology.ohio-state.edu/cjrc/hvd/.