Conclusion
Research conducted in Baton Rouge, Boston, and other cities suggests that reducing illegal gun carrying and firearm violence is not just a law enforcement problem. Effective efforts are as dependent on community participation as on actions taken by police and other criminal and juvenile justice agencies. Law enforcement agencies can do their job more effectively when community priorities shape their actions. Evidence suggests that the buildup of trust engendered by such an approach enhances the partnership between police and the communities they serve, resulting in greater police-community cooperation and mutual support (Skogan et al., 2000). Research also shows that rates of violent crime are lower in urban communities where police and residents have a higher level of mutual trust than exists in similar communities and where residents in high-crime neighborhoods are willing to intervene on behalf of the common good (Sampson, Raudenbush, and Earls, 1998). Neighborhoods that scored high on “mutual trust” and “willingness to intervene” factors had violent crime rates 40 percent lower than those in other, less cohesive communities. Such findings demonstrate the value of forming community collaboratives to address risk factors associated with gun violence.
Research also consistently finds that illegal firearm use among juveniles is a relatively small and localized problem. For example, as noted recently, “one in four reported murders of juveniles in 1997 occurred in just 5 of the Nation’s more than 3,000 counties” (Snyder and Sickmund, 1999:21). Similarly, research in Boston and other cities suggests that within specific cities or counties, very specific neighborhoods harbor most of the juvenile illegal firearm problem. Furthermore, survey data from the Rochester study show that relatively small percentages of youth within that urban area are responsible for the majority of illegal gun carrying and gun crime. In addition, illegal gun carrying among juveniles tends to be transitory (Lizotte et al., 1997; Cook, Molliconi, and Cole, 1995). Such findings suggest that illegal gun carrying can be deterred. The Rochester study’s finding that boys quickly move out of illegal gun ownership and carrying suggests that their illegal guns get passed along to other boys, and that likelihood in turn suggests that the number of illegal guns used is smaller than the number of boys using them. Taken together, these facts suggest that interventions targeting specific “hot spots” (locales with a high incidence of gun problems) could succeed in deterring illegal gun use among boys, whereas broad policies directed at large populations of young people might be too diffuse to be effective.
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