ABSTRACT
Many private citizens claim to own guns for protection against crime, a finding that has been confirmed in a number of national surveys. One potent and oft-exploited image of the armed victim is that of the hard-bitten, law-abiding home owner valiantly defending self and family from the incursions of the predatory criminal class. A criminal poised at the edge of a decision to commit a crime faces a range of possible risks and benefits. The benefits consist of the potential economic or other gains from the contemplated crime; the costs include the possibility of being caught and imprisoned, of being shot at in the course of the crime, and the likelihood of social disapproval. The potential costs of encountering an armed victim vary all the way from being forced to abandon the intended crime and running away through being captured and turned over to the criminal justice system to being shot and physically harmed or killed.
