Anna Harvey

New York University Website

Anna Harvey is Professor of Politics and Director of the Public Safety Lab at New York University. She holds a Ph.D. in Politics from Princeton University. Professor Harvey is the Co-Director of the Criminal Justice Expert Panel.

Voting History

Mass violence

Red flag laws, allowing police or family members to petition a court to temporarily remove firearms from a person who presents a danger to themselves or others, would reduce the frequency or severity of mass violence.

Vote Confidence
Disagree 1
Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Agree 7
Comments

Courts to date have set a high bar for the "dangerousness" standard; only about 9/1000 individuals with serious mental illness are committed annually under this standard (SAHMSA 2019). Applying this standard to firearms possession is unlikely to make a large difference to mass violence, but we don't have clear evidence either way.

Universal background checks, which would require almost all firearm sales in the US to go through the National Instant Criminal Background Check System, would reduce the frequency or severity of mass violence.

Vote Confidence
Disagree 1
Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Agree 5
Comments

From news reports, many individuals who commit mass violence do not have criminal records that would prevent them from purchasing firearms. Extending criminal records checks is unlikely to have a large impact on mass violence, but we don't have clear evidence either way.

Increasing the presence of armed security at schools and other public venues would reduce the frequency or severity of mass violence.

Vote Confidence
Strongly Disagree 3
Median Survey Vote Median Survey Confidence
Neutral/No Opinion 5
Comments

Heavily guarded schools would likely displace mass violence to other public locations. It would be impossible to sufficiently guard every public location so as to meaningfully reduce the frequency or severity of mass violence.