Other Research on Reducing Illegal Gun Carrying and Gun Violence
Boston Gun Initiative
Research conducted in Boston, MA, and other cities demonstrates the value of problem-solving planning to reduce gun carrying and use by juveniles. In Boston, an analysis of the city’s gun crime problem found that approximately 1,300 gang members, representing less than 1 percent of the city’s youth, were responsible for at least 60 percent of juvenile homicides (Kennedy, Piehl, and Braga, 1996). Youth who were victims or suspects in these homicides had long histories of involvement in the justice system. Researchers concluded that youth homicide was concentrated among a small number of serially offending, gang-involved youth. In response to this analysis, Boston police, working with other criminal justice agencies and with city social service agencies, used a mix of strategies to discourage juveniles—especially gang members and probationers—from carrying guns in public places.
The strategies developed in Boston included gun use reduction tactics employing new gun-tracing technologies to interrupt the flow of illegal firearms to youth and a deterrence approach to inform juveniles of the severe criminal consequences they would face if caught with an illegal firearm (Kennedy, 1998). As a result of these and other strategies initiated by the city, youth firearm-related homicides dropped 75 percent during 1990–98.
Youth Firearms Violence Initiative
In 1995, the U.S. Department of Justice’s Office of Community Oriented Policing Services (COPS) began its Youth Firearms Violence Initiative (YFVI). This program provided funding to several cities for the development of interventions to combat recent increases in youth firearm violence. The initiative encouraged demonstration sites to implement community policing strategies that would decrease violent firearm crimes and reduce youth gun-related gang and drug offenses. Five of the sites were selected for intensive evaluation—Baltimore, MD; Cleveland, OH; Inglewood, CA; Salinas, CA; and San Antonio, TX. Most of these sites developed new police operations for suppressing firearm violence or expanded existing ones. Enforcement strategies generally were based on analyses of local crime data that enabled police to identify specific locales and populations that were prone to youth gun violence. The demonstration sites used a variety of enforcement tactics. In addition to traditional approaches such as surveillance and intelligence gathering, these tactics included less traditional approaches such as police and probation officers’ joint monitoring of gang members on probation and school-based prevention efforts for juveniles at risk of gun violence (Dunworth, 2000).
Each of the intensive evaluation sites reported that youth gun crimes declined following implementation of the YFVI program (Dunworth, 2000). For example, the program had a measurable effect in reducing youth gun crimes in Inglewood and Salinas. In Inglewood (where the program included use of police-probation teams), gun crimes returned to prior levels once the program’s operational period ended. In Salinas, however, the initial reductions in gun crimes were sustained by the city’s commitment to continue program operations even after YFVI funding ended.
Implications
Results from the Boston gun initiative and the YFVI evaluation suggest that the sustainability of these efforts to reduce illegal gun carrying by youth depends on a community’s commitment to engage in a problem-solving planning process. This commitment includes participation of Federal and local law enforcement agencies and key community stakeholders who are willing to commit resources for the development of a comprehensive plan. The planning process should include a thorough needs assessment that identifies specific youth populations at risk for illegal gun carrying and use. It should also include development of both suppression strategies to take illegal guns off the streets and intervention and prevention strategies to reduce the need and demand for those weapons.
| Previous | Contents | Next |
 |
|
| Gun Use by Male Juveniles: Research and Prevention | |