Criminal Violence: Patterns, Causes, and Prevention Riedel and Welsh, Ch. 12

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Criminal Violence Patterns, Causes, and
PreventionRiedel and Welsh, Ch. 12 The Role
of Firearms in Violence
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OUTLINE

• Patterns and Trends Firearm Violence
• Explanations
• Symbolic Interaction
• Routine Activities
• Cultural Theories
• Interventions
• Disrupting Illegal Markets
• Boston Violence Prevention Project
• Gun Control Legislation
• Right to Carry Laws

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Patterns and Trends
Weapons are more likely to be used in some types
of violent crime than others (in 20 of all
violent crimes overall).
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Patterns (cont.)

• In any given year, firearms are involved in ½ of
  all suicides and 2/3 or more of homicides (NRC,
  2005).
• Age and Race The risk of death is elevated for
  young people (ages 15-34), particularly black
  males.
• Gender 83 of gun crime victims are males.
• Guns Estimated 258,000,000 firearms in U.S.
  (NRC, 2005)

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Trends Number of crimes committed with firearms
declined dramatically after 1993.
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Offenders

• 90 of firearm homicides committed by males.
• Offense rates are highest for ages 18-24.
• The increase in juvenile homicides witnessed in
  the mid-1980s was entirely firearm-related.
• Sheley Wright
• Juveniles report easy access to guns -- only 35
  said it would be difficult.
• 83 of juveniles incarcerated in secure detention
  centers and 22 of urban high school students
  possessed guns.
• The main reason given for carrying a gun was
  self-protection.

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Offenders (cont.)

• FIREARM ACQUISITION AND USE
• Wright Rossi (1985)
• Interviewed 1,874 incarcerated felons. Of these,
  184 reported firing a gun while committing an
  offense.
• The most commonly reported motivations for using
  a gun included to protect myself (48), to
  scare the victim (45), and to kill the victim
  (36). (Categories not mutually exclusive)
• 1991 Survey of State Prison Inmates (Beck, 1993)
  
• Interviewed 14,000 inmates
• The most frequently reported reasons for using a
  gun were to scare the victim (54), for
  protection (30), to kill the victim (14), and
  to get away (12).
• SOURCES OF GUN ACQUISITION
• Inmates most frequent source was family or
  friends (44), followed by illegal gun markets
  (26), retail outlets (21), and other (9).

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Explanations

• Symbolic Interaction Theory
• Luckenbill Disputes become violent through a
  series of interpersonal exchanges.
• A situated transaction refers to an interaction
  between people in a specific setting, time, and
  social context.
• The presence of a weapon during a dispute greatly
  increases the likelihood of its use.
• Homicides typically centered on some conflict
  that escalated over time, and resulted in
  attempts by one or both parties to "save face" at
  the other's expense.

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Routine Activities and Illegal Markets

• Routine activity patterns influence crime rates
  by affecting the convergence in space and time
  of (1) motivated offenders, (2) suitable
  targets, and (3) the absence of capable
  guardians.
• Offenders commit offenses near places where they
  spend most of their time, and major pathways in
  between.
• Victims are victimized near places where they
  spend most of their time, and major pathways in
  between.
• Sherman et al. (1989) Places, like people, have
  their own routine activities.
• Hot spots Over half of all calls to police were
  to only 3.3 of all places.
• Illegal markets in certain places (e.g.,
  prostitution, drug sales) create their own
  routine activities.

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Cultural Theories and Firearm Availability

• Proportion of households owning a gun has
  remained stable at about 50 for three decades.
• Rates of gun ownership are highest in rural areas
  and small towns, higher for whites than blacks,
  highest in the South, and higher for high-income
  households.
• Simple subcultural interpretations are thus not
  easy to support there is considerable diversity
  in the membership of gun owners.
• Research shows little relationship between gun
  availability and the number of nonfatal gun
  crimes, although greater gun availability was
  associated with a higher rate of felony murder.
• Gun availability alone cannot explain high rates
  of violent crime in the U.S.

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Interventions Disrupting Illegal Markets

• KANSAS CITY GUN EXPERIMENT
• Based on the theory that additional, proactive
  police patrols to detect gun violations in
  high-crime areas would increase gun seizures and
  reduce gun crime either by deterring or
  incapacitating gun-using criminals (Sherman,
  1995)
• Results
• Target Beat Gun seizures by police increased
  significantly (by 65), while gun crimes declined
  significantly (by 49).
• Comparison Beat During the same time period,
  there were no significant changes in gun crimes
  or guns seized.
• Several alternative hypotheses were ruled out
  (e.g., only gun crimes were affected by the
  directed patrols there was no measurable
  displacement of gun crimes to beats surrounding
  the target area).

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Interventions The Boston Violence Prevention
Project

• Step 1 Officials analyzed the supply and demand
  for guns.
• Both victims and offenders typically had
  histories of gang membership and high rates of
  offending.
• Youth homicides were concentrated in
  neighborhoods that hosted an estimated 61 gangs
  involving about 1,300 juveniles.
• Step 2 A stern message was delivered to gang
  members.
• Continued violence would lead to severe personal
  restrictions for those on probation and parole
  (bed-checks, room searches, and enforcement of
  warrants), intensive police presence in
  neighborhoods, search and seizure of unregistered
  cars, vigorous arrest and prosecution for
  disorder offenses (drinking in public), and
  strict enforcement of curfew laws.
• Step 3 City, state, and federal representatives
  helped establish a large network of
  community-based job, recreation, and prevention
  programs for juveniles.
• RESULTS
• 63 decrease in monthly youth homicides
• 32 decrease in of shots-fired calls to
  police
• 25 decrease in monthly firearm-related assaults
  (Braga et al., 2001) (but no real control group
  many strategies)

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Interventions Gun Control Legislation

• Three broad strategies are possible
• Altering Gun Uses or Storage (regulations
  affecting the legal carrying, storage, and use of
  a firearm)
• Reducing Lethality of Guns (e.g., technology such
  as user identification mechanisms and trigger
  locks)
• Market-Based Strategies (i.e., restrictions on
  availability)

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• 1. ALTERING GUN USES OR STORAGE (regulations
  affecting the legal carrying, storage, and use of
  a firearm)
• Bartley-Fox Laws in MA expanded gun licensing
  procedures, and mandated a 1-year sentence for
  unlicensed carrying of a firearm.
• During a 2-year evaluation period, the law
  decreased gun use in assaults and robberies, and
  decreased gun homicides (Pierce Bowers, 1979).
• Sentencing enhancements for the use of a gun
  during a felony
• Study of six jurisdictions showed a decrease in
  gun homicides, but no change in non-gun
  homicides, and no consistent effect on gun
  robberies or assaults.

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• 2. Reducing Lethality of Guns (e.g., technology
  such as user identification mechanisms and
  trigger locks)
• Includes measures that designate certain firearms
  (e.g., assault rifles) dangerous because of
  concealability, firepower, or other risk
• Also includes measures that restrict access to
  certain types of weapons or ammunition by law, or
  makes weapons less dangerous by requiring
  specific types of safety technology (e.g.,
  trigger locks)
• Little evaluation evidence of these strategies
  exists at this time.

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• 3. Market-Based Strategies
• Examples
• Tougher regulation of federal firearm licensees
• Limits on of guns that can be purchased in a
  given time period
• Gun bans
• Gun buy-backs
• Enforcement of existing laws against illegal gun
  buyers or sellers

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• Firearms can be diverted to criminals and
  juveniles at any stage of legitimate business.
• Examples
• Stolen guns
• Straw purchases
• Lying and buying
• Gun dealer ignores regulations

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Screening Gun Buyers

• Federal Gun Control Act of 1968 prohibited gun
  dealers from selling to dangerous categories of
  persons (juveniles, convicted felons, drug users,
  and former mental patients).
• No significant effects on firearms injuries or
  deaths were found in an evaluation study
  (Zimring, 1975), although weak enforcement of the
  laws is partially responsible for weak effects.
• The Brady Act (1994) mandated presale background
  checks and prohibited retail sales of guns to
  persons in high-risk categories specified by
  federal law.
• Only about 2 of all applicants are rejected
  annually. Most rejections (58) were for a prior
  felony conviction or a current felony indictment.
  
• Few evaluations exist (but see Ludwig Cook,
  2000), but given the small percentage of
  rejections relative to applicants, the cost
  effectiveness of this strategy is questionable.

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District of Columbia Handgun Ban (1975)

• Prohibited ownership of handguns by virtually
  anyone except police officers, security guards,
  and previous gun owners.
• During periods of vigorous enforcement in the 3
  years following implementation, the law reduced
  rates of gun robbery, assault, and homicide.
• However, gun homicides increased in 1988 when
  crack markets exploded.

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Right-to-Carry Laws

• Some researchers (e.g., Lott) have claimed that
  increased handgun availability among the
  population provides a deterrent to would-be
  criminals.
• NRC (2005) It is impossible to draw strong
  conclusions from the existing literature on the
  causal impact of these laws.
• Limitations of Research
• Inadequate controls for cross-jurisdictional
  variations in poverty rates, gang and drug
  activity, and local and state governmental gun
  laws and anticrime programs
• Short time series
• Small number of jurisdictions
• Questionable measurement of key variables
• A lack of individual-level data of actual gun
  attitudes or use

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Conclusions

• Because felons most frequently obtain their
  firearms through unregulated sales, the benefits
  of further federal regulation of guns may be
  small.
• While a diverse array of legislation has been
  attempted in recent years, much more rigorous,
  controlled evaluations of different interventions
  are needed.
• Strategies aimed at disrupting illegal markets
  and targeting high-risk individuals appear most
  promising.