Reducing Youth Gun Violence:. An Overview of Programs and Initiatives Program Summary Shay Bilchik, Administrator Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention May 1996 The Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention is a component of the Office of Justice Programs, which also includes the Bureau of Justice Assistance, the Bureau of Justice Statistics, the National Institute of Justice, and the Office for Victims of Crime. ------------------------------ Foreword Gun violence in the United States has become an epidemic. From the Civil War to the present, 567,000 Americans have died in combat; but since 1920, over 1 million American civilians have been killed by firearms (Pacific Center, 1994). Among teenagers 15 to 19 years old, the problem of gun violence is particularly alarming: one of every four deaths is attributable to a firearm injury. What is causing this epidemic of violence, and how can we stop it? To better focus U.S. Attorneys' violence prevention efforts and help States and jurisdictions respond more effectively to this national crisis, the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP) has developed this report. The first of two reports assessing innovative and effective violence prevention programs across the country, Reducing Youth Gun Violence discusses a wide array of strategies -- from school-based prevention to gun market interception. Relevant research, evaluation, and legislation are included to ground these programs and to provide readers a context for their successful implementation. Reducing Youth Gun Violence is divided into four sections: an executive summary, a directory of youth gun violence reduction programs, a directory of youth gun violence prevention organizations, and a bibliography of research, evaluation, and publications on youth and guns. A description of each section follows. I. Executive Summary To encourage communities plagued by youth gun violence to adopt effective and proven prevention strategies and to spur better collaboration between government agencies and community organizations, Section I: o Describes state-of-the-art approaches to youth gun violence prevention and intervention. o Reviews the status of prevention programs across the country and makes recommendations on how they can be more effective. o Suggests Federal and local partnerships to implement youth gun laws and programs. o Summarizes current Federal and State legislation to reduce youth gun violence and references extensive documentation on this subject by the National Criminal Justice Association. o Assesses promising research on the incidence and context of youth gun violence, as well as potential solutions, from the fields of public health, criminology, and sociology. o Discusses important new findings on youth violence from OJJDP and the National Institute of Justice that will expand our understanding of youth violence and its consequences. II. Directory of Youth Gun Violence Reduction Programs Section II lists currently operating programs, contact information, program descriptions, and, when available, program evaluations. Readers are encouraged to use this directory to assess the state of the art in reducing youth gun violence, examine in detail programs being implemented in specific States or local communities of interest, and contact individuals to share information with those in need of support, resources, and program guidance. III. Directory of Youth Gun Violence Prevention Organizations Section III lists organizations working to get guns out of the hands of young people, contact information, and descriptions of current activities. The directory includes names of individuals who can provide advice, resources, or additional contacts to readers interested in establishing or expanding youth gun violence prevention programs in their communities. IV. Bibliography of Research, Evaluation, and Publications on Youth and Guns Section IV summarizes abstracts of research on guns and youth. The research discussed here is an important resource for expanding public policy, developing public information campaigns, and informing other initiatives in the area of youth gun violence. Reducing Youth Gun Violence synthesizes work from a wide range of sources representing law enforcement, public health, academia, and youth service providers. It was compiled by OJJDP staff. Contributors included the National Institute of Justice, United States Attorneys, Partnerships Against Violence: Promising Programs (PAVNET), Center to Prevent Handgun Violence, Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, Developmental Research and Program, Inc., Educational Development Center, Inc., International Association of Chiefs of Police, Joyce Foundation, National Association of State Boards of Education, National Criminal Justice Association, National Governors' Association, National School Boards Association, National School Safety Center, Pacific Center for Violence Prevention, Violence Policy Center, and many others. This report incorporates written documentation (status reports, research, newsletters, and other written materials) from organizations listed in Sections II and III, and, through followup interviews with program directors and staff, researchers, practitioners, and other experts, attempts to present the most current and complete information available in the United States on reducing youth gun violence. It is the first phase of a broader OJJDP project to collect and disseminate descriptions and evaluations of the Nation's most promising youth gun violence reduction programs. Reducing Youth Gun Violence is a broad look at youth gun violence prevention in the United States. Many of the programs it discusses have not been evaluated; others are narrow in scope or just beginning to operate. Yet all of the programs reviewed here clearly point States and jurisdictions in the right direction. The report is designed to give readers the ability to identify programs best suited to the needs of their target areas. OJJDP's second report on youth and guns will present guidance on implementing model youth gun violence reduction programs. It will highlight feedback from U.S. Attorneys and others, site visits to selected programs, and a survey of State youth program coordinators conducted by the International Association of Chiefs of Police. I want to thank the staff of OJJDP, the Offices and Bureaus of the Office of Justice Programs, the U.S. Attorneys, and the significant number of staff from other U.S. Department of Justice components who contributed to the development of this document. A special commendation is extended to Sarah Ingersoll, Special Assistant, OJJDP, and primary author of Reducing Youth Gun Violence, for her outstanding work on this publication. Shay Bilchik Administrator Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention ------------------------------- Table of Contents Foreword I. Executive Summary Youth Gun Legislation Youth Gun Research The Incidence and Prevalence of Youth Gun Violence Youth Gun Violence and Preventive Solutions and Interventions The Context of Youth Gun Violence Analysis of Increased Youth Gun Violence Preventive Solutions Interventions Further Research Technological and Environmental Interventions The Role of Federal Law Enforcement Prevention and Intervention Programs Focus on Prevention Curriculums Trauma Prevention Gun Buy-Back Programs Public Education Campaigns Focus on Intervention Community Law Enforcement Gun Market Disruption and Interception Diversion and Treatment Programs Gun Courts Alternative Schools Comprehensive Initiatives Summary of Comprehensive Initiatives Conclusion II. Directory of Youth Gun Violence Reduction Programs III. Directory of Youth Gun Violence Prevention Organizations IV. Bibliography of Research, Evaluation, and Publications on Youth and Guns ------------------------------ I. Executive Summary The Nation's juvenile justice system is at a crossroads. We face a disturbing increase in violent crimes committed by American juveniles, and an alarming rise in abuse, neglect, and gun violence perpetuated against this country's youth. In light of this emerging crisis and its complexity, we can no longer afford to focus narrowly on individual disciplines. To seriously address the rising levels of juvenile crime across the United States, especially youth gun violence, all members of the community, including specialists in relevant policy and academic areas, must participate. Reducing violence and building healthier and safer communities requires planning that is collaborative and comprehensive. Collectively, we must launch a two-pronged assault on juvenile delinquency and youth gun violence. Both a commitment to prevention and early intervention and a strong focus on law enforcement and a comprehensive system of graduated sanctions are crucial to this battle. A number of programs to reduce young people's access to and dangerous use of guns have been initiated by individuals and organizations across the country that others should support and emulate. These interventions fall into seven categories: (1) legislation, (2) research, (3) technological and environmental changes, (4) Federal law enforcement, (5) prevention programs, (6) intervention programs, and (7) comprehensive initiatives. Youth Gun Legislation Legal measures that limit access to firearms strive to reduce the number and type of people eligible to own or possess firearms, as well as the types of firearms that can be manufactured, owned, and carried. Gun violence reduction legislation addresses both firearm availability and societal norms to reduce crime and violence. Recent Federal legislation makes a strong statement that guns in the hands of young people will not be tolerated and represents a critical step toward making our schools and neighborhoods safer: o The Youth Handgun Safety Act (Title XI, Subtitle B), passed in August 1994 as part of the Omnibus Violent Crime Control and Law Enforcement Act, prohibits the possession of a handgun or ammunition by a juvenile, or the private transfer of a handgun or ammunition to a juvenile. The law includes a number of exceptions, such as possessing a firearm for farming, hunting, and other specified uses. o The Gun-Free Schools Act took effect on March 31, 1994, amending the current Elementary and Secondary Education Act (ESEA) of 1965 (20 USC 2701 et seq.). It stipulates that any local educational agencies (LEA) receiving ESEA assistance must have a policy requiring the expulsion -- for a period of not less than 1 year -- of any student who brings a firearm to school. The LEA's chief administering officer, however, may modify the expulsion requirement on a case-by-case basis. o A second Gun-Free Schools Act, enacted in October 1994, requires LEA's to implement a policy of "referral to the criminal justice or juvenile delinquency system of any student who brings a firearm or weapon to a school served by such agency." Although this legislation is enacted by the Federal Government, it is State and local law enforcement officials who can deal most effectively with juvenile gun violations. The role of the Federal Government is to support State and local efforts in doing so. Indeed, in approximately half of the States, statutes exist that are at least as stringent as the Youth Handgun Safety Act. The National Criminal Justice Association, under a grant from OJJDP and the Bureau of Justice Assistance (BJA), has produced a guide, Compilation of State Firearm Codes That Affect Juveniles, that contains most State firearm code provisions that might be applied to juveniles relating to the ownership, purchase, receipt, handling, carrying, and holding of firearms. The guide reported that all 50 States and the District of Columbia have prohibitions or restrictions on juveniles' possession and use of firearms or handguns. It also reported the percentage of States that have codes affecting juveniles relevant to each of the following areas: possession of a firearm (75 percent), possession of particular types of firearms (90 percent), parental consent (at least 50 percent), safety training (10 percent), special prohibitions relating to adjudicated delinquents (more than 20 percent), juveniles addicted to alcohol or drugs (more than 33 percent) or committed to mental institutions (35 percent), firearms in schools (more than 67 percent), waivers to criminal court (18 percent), and detention (2 percent). It also describes juvenile firearm- related provisions enacted by State legislatures in 1994. Even though reducing youth gun violence is a Federal priority, the battle to stop violence by and against juveniles must be fought at the State and local levels. Federal agencies can be most effective by providing support to States and communities, particularly by disseminating sound information gathered nationally on effective approaches to intervention, rehabilitation, and prevention. Youth Gun Research The extensive research on youth gun violence that has been conducted by criminologists, public health researchers, and sociologists should guide all State or local prevention or intervention initiatives. Research on gun deaths affecting both adult and child populations is extensive. Literature focusing exclusively on guns and youth overlaps with the broader body of gun literature, but is even more extensive in the areas of incidence and prevalence of gun deaths. The Incidence and Prevalence of Youth Gun Violence Most studies of youth and guns focus on homicide, suicide, or accidental death by firearms. Briefly stated, this research shows increasing numbers of homicides and deaths by firearms, especially among the population of young African-American males. Suicides. A total of 1,899 youth ages 15 to 19 committed suicide in 1991, a rate of 11 per 100,000 youth in this age group. Between 1979 and 1991, the rate of suicide among youth this age increased 31 percent and in 1989, among those suicides 6 out of 10 were committed with firearms (Allen-Hagen, Sickmund, and Snyder, 1994). Research has also found that the presence of firearms in the home is associated with increased risk of adolescent suicides (Brent, Perper, and Allman, 1987). Murder rates. Homicide rates for youth 18 and under have more than doubled between 1985 and 1992, while there has been no recent growth in homicide rates for adults 24 and older. Following a period of relative stability from 1970 to 1985, the rate of murder committed by young people (ages 15 to 22) increased sharply. It is estimated that for this age group 18,600 murders were committed from 1986 to 1992, or 12.1 percent of the annual average of 22,000 murders reported in those years. In one year alone (1991), this age group generated an excess of 5,330 murders, or 21.6 percent of the 24,703 murders reported in the Federal Bureau of Investigation's (FBI's) 1991 Uniform Crime Report. The murder rate for 16-year-olds, for example, which, prior to 1985, was consistently about half that of all other age groups, increased 138 percent from 1985 to 1992. Even the murder rate for 13- to 14-year-olds, which is still low enough to not be a significant contributor to the total murder rate, doubled between 1985 and 1992 (Blumstein, 1994). Homicides with guns. The number of homicides juveniles commit each year with guns has more than doubled between 1985 and 1992, while there has been no change in nongun homicides. From 1976 to 1985, the number of homicides committed by juveniles involving a gun remained steady at 59 percent; the other 41 percent involved some other form of weapon. Beginning in 1985, and especially in 1988, there was a steady growth in the use of guns by juveniles, with no corresponding upward trend in nongun homicides (Blumstein, 1994). Homicide victims. For victims over age 30, the percentage killed by guns declined a small but statistically significant amount from 1976 to 1991. But for victims 15 to 19 years old, that rate rose from an average of 63 percent from 1976 to 1984, to a level of 85 percent in 1992. For younger victims, the homicide rate has risen even higher, from 49 percent to 72 percent. More than 70 percent of these teenage victims were shot to death (Blumstein, 1994). From 1979 to 1989, firearm homicide rates were highest for black males and lowest for white females in all five urban populations studied (Fingerhut et al. 1992b). Teenage boys in all racial and ethnic groups are more likely to die from gunshot wounds than from all natural causes combined (Jones and Krisberg, 1994). This report, however, does not emphasize the body of literature on the incidence and prevalence of gun death and murder rates among children and youth, but rather highlights the much smaller body of literature on this epidemic's context, analysis, and potential solutions. The research cited here relies less on traditional crime study sources such as police reports; it instead uses sources more relevant to youth, including opinion polls, self- reported surveys, epidemiological analysis, and criminological research. Youth Gun Violence and Preventive Solutions and Interventions Research on the contexts that lead to youth involvement with guns, analysis of the reasons for youth involvement with guns, and preventive solutions and interventions to this problem are much more sparse than the literature on the incidence of gun violence. It is in these areas, however, that researchers have found the most useful information relating to policies and methods for reducing youth gun violence. The Context of Youth Gun Violence Research on the context of youth gun violence provides information beyond the numbers of deaths. It indicates the circumstances and broader significance surrounding the incidence of youth gun violence, including young people's access to and use of guns; the role of drugs and drug dealing; the importance of gun dealers and types of guns; the level of youth gun deaths associated with domestic arguments, suicide, and accidents rather than criminal behavior; and the effect of young people's social maladjustment or lack of training in proper gun handling. In general, the context of youth gun violence explains many interrelated factors that must be addressed in an intelligent approach to this crisis. Access. Increased availability of guns makes youth violence more lethal (American Psychological Association, 1993; Elliott, 1994; Jones and Krisberg, 1994; McDowall, 1991). A trend analysis of juveniles committing homicide shows that since the mid-1970's the number of homicides in which no firearm was involved has remained fairly constant. However, homicides by juveniles involving a firearm have increased nearly threefold. In addition, during this same period the number of juvenile arrests for weapons violations increased 117 percent. o In a 1992 study documenting self-reported handgun access and ownership in Seattle, Washington, 34 percent of students reported easy access to handguns (47 percent of males and 22 percent of females), and 6.4 percent reported owning a handgun (Callahan and Rivera, 1992). o A 1993 national study by the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) revealed that 21 percent of New York City public high school students reported carrying a weapon, such as a gun, knife, or club (7 percent identified a handgun), within a 30-day period. o The ongoing Rochester Youth Development Study found that 10 percent of 9th- and 10th-grade boys in Rochester public schools owned a firearm and that 7.5 percent carried them regularly (Lizotte et al., 1994). o A 1993 national opinion poll of youth in grades 6 to 12 showed that 59 percent of the 2,508 children surveyed said they could "get a handgun if they wanted"; 35 percent maintained that it would take less than an hour to acquire a firearm; and 15 percent reported carrying a handgun in the last month (Louis Harris, 1993). o A 1993 study of seventh-grade males in an inner- city high school found that 48 percent carried knives and 23 percent carried guns. Among eighth- grade males, 45 percent carried knives regularly and 40 percent frequently carried a gun (Webster et al., 1993). Use and lethality. Although guns are more available today, youth also now show an increasing tendency to use them to settle disputes. When youth who are already predisposed to violence have easy access to guns, they may be more likely to become violent (American Psychological Association, 1993). Low prices (Pacific Center, 1994) and technological innovations in firearm and ammunition manufacturing (Jones and Krisberg, 1994) have further increased the lethality of youth gun violence. Despite advances in the medical field, the invention of rapid-fire assault weapons and bullets designed to explode within the human target is always one step ahead, making death a more likely outcome of shootings. Drugs and firearms. Goldstein (in Blumstein, 1994) indicates three ways drugs and crime are connected: (1) pharmacological/psychological consequences, in which drugs are linked directly to violent activity, (2) economic/compulsive crimes, or crimes committed by drug users to support their habit, and (3) systemic crimes, or crimes committed regularly as part of doing business in the drug industry. With respect to the pharmacological effect of drugs, it is estimated that drugs, and most commonly alcohol, are a factor in a significant number of firearm-related deaths (Pacific Center, 1994). However, given the relative decline in the past few years of illegal drug use among young people, particularly African-American youth, the extent of economic and compulsive crimes related to sustaining drug habits within this population is likely to be less significant. With respect to systemic drug crime, on the other hand, it is clear that firearms are more prevalent around illicit drugs (American Psychological Association, 1993) and that this is particularly true for young people. A longitudinal study of 1,500 Pittsburgh male youth showed that the frequency of carrying a concealed weapon increased in the year concurrent with the initiation of drug selling. Among drug sellers, the rates for gun use steadily increased while the rates for other weapons decreased. This relationship was even more significant among drug sellers who sold hard drugs such as heroin, cocaine, and LSD (Van Kammen and Loeber, 1994). Crack cocaine. On the basis of drug arrest rates and other data, Blumstein (1994) hypothesizes that the increase in the recruitment of juveniles, primarily nonwhites, into the drug markets began with the introduction of crack cocaine to the inner cities. In addition to crack cocaine's addictiveness, there are a number of reasons why youth, especially nonwhite youth, may have been brought into the crack drug market. According to police, their recent "war on drugs" has focused on nonwhites much more than whites because black drug sellers tend to sell in the street, whereas white sellers are much more likely to operate indoors. As a result, black drug dealers are more vulnerable to arrest and more inclined to recruit young people, who are less vulnerable to punishments imposed by the adult criminal justice system. In addition, young people work more cheaply than adults, tend to be more daring and willing to take risks, and may see no other comparable satisfactory route to economic sustenance. These factors are undoubtedly enhanced by young people's pessimism as they weigh their opportunities in the legitimate economy, which increasingly demands that workers be highly skilled to gain entry. This economic reality makes youth in low-income neighborhoods particularly amenable to recruitment by drug dealers. It also makes them more likely, as with all participants in the illicit drug industry, to carry guns for self- protection. These hypotheses are consistent with aggregate national data showing that with the introduction of crack cocaine youth gun homicides increased rapidly at different times in different cities, particularly in New York City and Los Angeles, and later in Washington, D.C. (Blumstein, 1994). Criminal behavior, arguments, suicide, accidents, and gun deaths. Though often portrayed as a consequence of criminal activity, firearm deaths occur more often as a result of violent arguments than as a result of robberies, fights, and rapes combined (Pacific Center, 1994). One study in King County, Washington, found that guns kept at home were involved in the death of a household member 18 times more often than in the death of a stranger. These deaths included suicides, homicides, and unintentional fatal shootings (Kellermann, 1993). Obtaining guns from gun dealers. Duker's report on gun dealers (1994) looked at the relationship between gun use among juveniles and State-, county-, and city-licensed gun dealers. Areas of research included: (1) where adolescents who carry and use guns get those guns, (2) the number of gun dealers youth are aware of in their city, county, or State, (3) detailed information on the names and addresses of gun dealers and stores youth may use to obtain firearms in their city, county, or State, and (4) laws, regulations, and preemptions relating to gun dealers. This report also provides State-by-State data on the geographical distribution, concentration, and regulation of gun dealers. Maladjusted youth. Handguns are more likely to be owned by socially maladjusted youth, dropouts, drug dealers, and individuals with a prior record of violent behavior than by more socially adjusted youth, even in those sections of the country in which firearms and hunting are fairly common (American Psychological Association, 1993; Elliott, 1994; Huizinga, 1994; Lizotte et al. 1994). In a study by Webster et al. (1993), gun carrying among seventh and eighth graders at an inner-city school was associated with having been arrested, knowing victims of violence, starting fights, and being willing to justify shooting someone. Illegal guns, in particular, are more likely to be owned by delinquents or drug users. For example, 74 percent of illegal gun owners commit street crimes, 24 percent commit gun crimes, and 41 percent use drugs (Huizinga, 1994). Types of guns. In one study of serious juvenile offenders and students from high-risk areas in four States, the firearms of choice were high-quality, powerful revolvers, followed closely by automatic and semiautomatic handguns, and shotguns (Sheley and Wright, 1993). Gun socialization. According to one researcher, gun ownership by adults and the introduction of their children into recreational gun culture appears to reduce problems associated with teenage violence (Blackman, 1994). Research by Huizinga (1994) and Lizotte et al. (1994) also shows that for legal gun owners, socialization appears to take place in the family. For illegal gun owners, however, socialization comes from peer influences "on the street." Analysis of Increased Youth Gun Violence The following hypotheses and explanations on the increase in youth gun violence have been posited in research literature. They are based on the previous section's examination of the context of youth gun violence. A cycle of fear. To the taxonomy of drug/crime connections described earlier, Blumstein (1994) adds a fourth way in which drugs and gun violence are related: the community disorganization effect of the drug industry. The community disorganization theory explores the influence of the prevalence of guns among drug sellers as a stimulus to others in the community to arm themselves for self-defense, to settle disputes that have nothing to do with drugs, or just to gain respect. Blumstein posits a "diffusion" hypothesis to explain the increase in firearm homicides among youth. He suggests that as juveniles become involved in the drug trade, they acquire guns to protect themselves. In turn, other young people obtain guns to protect themselves from these drug-involved, gun-carrying juveniles. Disputes that previously would have ended in fist fights now have the potential to lead to shootings. Elliott's research on the increased lethality of youth violence (1994), Fagan's forthcoming research on the "ecology of danger," and the Louis Harris poll (1993) showing that 35 percent of children ages 6 to 12 fear their lives will be cut short by gun violence, support Blumstein's hypothesis. Lack of opportunity. Blumstein (1994) and Pacific Center (1994) further hypothesize that high levels of poverty, high rates of single-parent households, educational failures, and a widespread sense of economic hopelessness exacerbate the diffusion phenomenon and increase the use of guns by young people. Culture of machismo and violence. Fagan (forthcoming) suggests that, in addition to the environment of fear in which young people live, youth violence is affected by cultural dynamics related to the illicit gun trade that has popularized guns and made "backing down" from arguments and "losing face" difficult for young people. Elliott's (1994) and Anderson's (1994) work also indicates that an element of showing off and ensuring respect and acquiescence from others is a method of self-defense that contributes to youth gun violence. In addition to the drug trade, criminogenic neighborhoods and media violence are also factors contributing to the use of guns by young people (Pacific Center, 1994). Shapiro et al. (undated) pinpoints grades five and six as a particularly "gun-prone" time and suggests that youth, responding aggressively to shame, finding guns exciting, feeling comfortable with aggression, and believing that guns bring power and safety, are most likely to engage in gun violence. Lack of faith in law enforcement. Elliott (1994) suggests that youth violence may be a response to the perception among many violence-prone youth that public authorities cannot protect them or maintain order in their neighborhoods. Youth perspective. The dramatic increase in murders by the very young raises concerns that a "greater recklessness" may be associated with teenagers than with adults. Guns in the hands of young people can engender fear that young people are less likely to exercise the necessary restraint in handling dangerous weapons, especially rapid-fire assault weapons (Blumstein, 1994). Young people often have an underdeveloped sense of the value of life, their own as well as others. They may not have the ability to understand how one seemingly isolated act can in turn impact an entire community. This developmental issue, when combined with access to guns and the other factors described above, may contribute to youth gun violence (Pacific Center, 1994). Preventive Solutions With a fuller understanding of the factors contributing to youth gun violence, it is possible to identify ways to confront this national crisis. The following types of prevention activities address problem areas early on in the lives of violence-prone children, and must be included in any truly comprehensive strategy to reduce youth gun violence in the United States. Preventive services. Identifying children at risk and referring them to appropriate services are important first steps to reducing youth gun violence (American Academy of Pediatrics, 1992; Blumstein, 1994). These services should include teaching parenting skills and teaching children how to manage their anger nonviolently (Henkoff, 1992). Violence-prone attitudes seem to increase between grades five and six and then stabilize. Prevention programs that identify, address, and change attitudes, motives, and beliefs that contribute to violent behavior should be initiated at such ages (Shapiro et al., 1993). Programs for at-risk youth should focus on changing individual behavior and decision-making processes, and they should address alternative ways to express cultural pride and strength (Fagan, forthcoming). Working with witnesses to violence. It is important to offer young perpetrators, victims, and witnesses of violence adequate psychological health services (American Psychological Association, 1993; Collison et al., 1987). A survey of 582 Cook County, Illinois, Department of Corrections detainees found that 51 percent had previously entered hospitals for violence-related injuries, and that 26 percent had at one time survived gunshot wounds. Those with prior firearm injuries shared other violence- related factors such as witnessing a shooting at an early age and having easy access to a semiautomatic weapon (1995). Public education. To encourage and support nonviolent attitudes and behavior among youth, long-term public and family education programs and gun safety curriculums in school must be included in violence reduction strategies (American Academy of Pediatrics, 1992; CDC, 1991; Christoffel, 1991; Fingerhut et al.,1991; Sugarmann and Rand, 1994; Treanor and Bijlefeld, 1989). Involving youth (Treanor and Bijlefeld, 1989) and developing community consensus on the use and possession of weapons are particularly important to developing an effective public education process (Fingerhut et al., 1991). Reducing fear. Because the fear of assault is often claimed as the reason for carrying a firearm, programs should be implemented that address the risk of victimization, improve school climate, create safe havens, and foster a safe community environment (CDC, 1991; Fagan, forthcoming; Kennedy, 1994; Sheley and Wright, 1993). According to Sheley and Wright, "the fundamental policy problem involves convincing youths that they can survive in their neighborhoods without being armed" (1993). Accomplishing this public policy goal means reducing both perceived environmental dangers and reducing actual opportunities for weapon-associated violence (Fingerhut et al., 1991). Making guns safer. Safer gun design, regulation, product liability, increased sales tax, firearm registration and licensure, background checks, and ammunition modification are ways to regulate the dangers of guns (American Academy of Pediatrics, 1989; Christoffel, 1991; Sugarmann and Rand, 1994). Reducing availability and stricter regulation. Nationwide, domestic manufacturing and foreign importation of handguns reached an all-time high in 1992 (Pacific Center, 1994). Stricter legislation and bans on assault weapons and handguns are approaches unanimously suggested by the research as ways to limit the accessibility of guns to youth (American Academy of Pediatrics, 1989; American Psychological Association, 1993; Christoffel, 1991; Fingerhut et al., 1991; Henkoff, 1992; Kennedy, 1994; Lawyers Committee, 1994; Pacific Center, 1994; Smith and Lautman, 1990). The National Rifle Association (NRA) favors regulations on access to and misuse of firearms by minors, particularly at the State level, as long as these regulations do not impinge on adults' rights (Blackman, 1994). A review of preliminary evaluations of the effectiveness of local gun laws and policies (Brewer et al., 1994) showed that mandatory sentencing laws for felonies involving firearms show promise in preventing gun-related violent crime. Research indicates that restrictive handgun laws may also be effective (Elliott, 1994; Lofton et al., 1991). Other types of laws have not been evaluated adequately to permit classification as either effective or ineffective. Enforcing laws. The Brewer et al. review of prevention strategies (1994) suggests that enforcement of laws may be a key to reducing violent juvenile acts. The Lawyers Committee on Violence, a consortium of legal advocates, also espouses such a strategy (1994). Drug treatment and prevention. Additional investments in drug treatment and reducing juvenile alcohol and drug use are also effective prevention strategies (American Psychological Association, 1993; Blumstein, 1994). Reducing the illicit drug trade would reduce drug-related violence as well as drug-induced violence. In addition, as Van Kammen and Loeber's (1994) research shows, a reduction in juvenile drug dealing would likely reduce their need to carry concealed weapons, particularly guns. Improving opportunities. Strategies that address structural problems in the family, community, and society should complement any intervention focused on individual perpetrators. The culture of violence and lack of opportunity in inner cities, in particular, should be addressed (Ruttenberg, 1994; Sheley and Wright, 1993). Interventions Whereas preventive approaches seek to minimize factors associated with youth gun violence, interventions are needed for young people already engaged in high-risk activities. Getting guns out of the hands of kids. To reduce the environment of fear in which violence-prone children live, and to achieve the greatest reduction in the number of weapon-carrying youth, research suggests that efforts be directed at youth who frequently carry weapons (Blumstein, 1994; CDC, 1991). This approach must be designed carefully to respect young people's civil liberties (Northrop and Hamrick, 1990). Kennedy (1994) suggests that youth gun reduction and fear reduction should reinforce one another. He advocates a "market disruption" approach such as that used to fight street drug markets. By using community allies to report new dealing sites, making buyers feel vulnerable by publicizing reverse sting operations in which police pose as dealers and arrest buyers, and interfering with business by loitering around dealer sites, police have been successful in reducing drug trafficking in communities. Community support is critical for such an operation to be effective. A recent NIJ-sponsored evaluation of the Kansas City, Missouri, Police Department's "Weed and Seed" initiative found that the program's success in getting guns off the street in one neighborhood reduced gun crimes there by almost 50 percent during a 6-month period. Significantly, the decline in gun use and crime in the target area did not appear to cause a displacement of crime to adjoining neighborhoods. Reducing the supply of guns. The Lawyers Committee on Violence, on the other hand, proposes that legal burdens associated with gun violence fall not only on those who use guns to commit crimes, but also on gun owners, sellers and suppliers, and manufacturers, as well as the parents of the perpetrator if he or she is a minor. Reporting and detection. The National School Safety Center found that one of the most effective interventions encouraged students to report weapon- carrying classmates to teachers or administrators (Butterfield and Turner, 1989). They also suggest the use of metal detectors, unannounced sweeps, and searches of lockers (Butterfield and Turner, 1989; Lawyers Committee, 1994). Using a broad coalition of advocates and experts. In almost every piece of literature addressing youth gun violence, the authors agree that the activities suggested above should be accomplished by a broad coalition of concerned individuals and organizations (Advocacy Institute, 1994; American Academy of Pediatrics, 1989; American Psychological Association, 1993; Becker, Olson, and Vick, 1993; May, 1995; Price et al., 1991; Smith and Lautman, 1990; Sugarman and Rand, 1994; Treanor and Bijlefeld, 1989). Crime control professionals, public health and health professionals, victim's families, educators, lawmakers, criminologists, gun control groups, community-based organizations, community members, the armed services, the Federal Communications Commission, and the U.S. Civil Rights Commission can all advocate and help save our youth from gun violence. Effective strategies include young people and disinvested people and provide legitimate activities and opportunities for them (Blumstein, 1994). Further Research Experts in the field of youth gun violence have posited that further research in the following areas would help ground future youth firearms policy and practice: o The magnitude, characteristics, and cost of morbidity and disability caused by firearms and other weapons (Northrop and Hamrick, 1990; Sugarmann and Rand, 1994; Zimring, 1993). o The number, type, and distribution of firearms and other weapons in the United States (Northrop and Hamrick, 1990). o The reasons young people carry guns (American Psychological Association, 1993). o The role violent gangs play in increased urban violence. It is unclear if the growth in urban violence is due to gangs, other law-violating groups of youth, or nongang youth (Howell, 1994). o Epidemiological studies on the precursors and correlates of firearm deaths and nonfatal firearm assaults (American Academy of Pediatrics, 1992; Northrop and Hamrick, 1990; Pacific Center, 1994). o The effectiveness of gun control policies (Elliott, 1994; Northrop and Hamrick, 1990; Zimring, 1993). NIJ is currently taking steps to address these research gaps. Ongoing and recently funded studies in NIJ's Office of Criminal Justice Research include the following: o A national survey of private firearms ownership and use. o A study of firearms prevalence in and around urban, suburban, and rural high schools. o A study applying the principles of problem- oriented policing to the interruption of illicit youth gun markets in Boston and Washington, D.C., combining prevention strategies with policing strategies used against illegal drug markets. o Research in conjunction with OJJDP and CDC evaluating the effectiveness of a comprehensive strategy to reduce juvenile gun violence in the Atlanta metropolitan region. o A study of youth violence, guns, and links to illicit drug markets. OJJDP is funding ongoing and new research that addresses different aspects of the gun problem, including the following: o An examination of the interrelationship of guns, violence, drugs, and gangs in Rochester, Pittsburgh, and Denver by OJJDP's Program of Research on the Causes and Correlates of Delinquency. o Studies of youth violence trends and characteristics in Los Angeles, Milwaukee, the District of Columbia, and South Carolina. These studies focus specifically on homicides and the use of firearms. o Research on juvenile gang involvement, including information on gang members who are homicide perpetrators. A national assessment of the scope and seriousness of gang violence will also be conducted. Technological and Environmental Interventions Although technological changes are not the subject of this document, it should be noted that they are an important approach to reducing youth gun violence and the extensive use of guns against their owners. Firearm design requirements are both a technological and a legal intervention. Firearm standards that have been proposed include designing guns to be less concealable; producing guns with trigger safeties, fingerprint identification, and loading indicators; and regulating the appearance of toy guns and handguns made of plastic. Ammunition design is also being explored because bullet shape, consistency, and composition determine the severity of a gunshot injury. The U.S. Department of Justice is supporting research and demonstrations in the area of technological and environmental interventions. BJA, for example, has awarded a grant to the Chicago Police Department to work with the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms (ATF) to increase the solution rate of firearm-related violent crime through an innovation called Ceasefire. An automated projectile comparison system that stores the images of unique rifling marks found on bullet surfaces, Ceasefire will allow firearms technicians to work more efficiently and compare cartridge casings. NIJ and the FBI are also involved in the effort to examine technological solutions to youth gun violence. Through an interagency agreement, the two organizations are conducting a study of the penetration effects on human targets of fired handgun bullets of various calibers and types. Analysis will cover different geographical patterns of shootings and identify significant correlations between projectile characteristics and resulting trauma. The Role of Federal Law Enforcement Although it is yet to be determined what the impact of Federal law enforcement will be with respect to prosecuting juvenile handgun violations under the Youth Handgun Safety Act, it is likely to supplement rather than supersede State and local law enforcement efforts. Instead, the Federal Government and the U.S. Department of Justice, in particular, will intensify efforts to support State and local law enforcement activities. In addition to their supportive role, Federal prosecutors and law enforcement will fill voids in law enforcement strategies and provide support when State laws inadequately address the broader impact of youth violence. Through technical assistance, identifying resources, interstate gun tracing, national data collection and surveillance, facilitating information sharing, highlighting law enforcement and prevention strategies to address youth gun violence, and funding demonstration projects, the Federal Government can help States and local jurisdictions implement gun safety legislation. All citizens have a stake in protecting America's communities and providing safe places for businesses to grow and youth to develop into healthy, productive citizens. The following are a few examples of cooperative efforts spearheaded by BJA or the Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS): o BJA is funding the development of a Computerized Information System for the Pittsburgh Police Department Gun Task Force that will connect multiple Federal and local law enforcement agencies via a local area network (LAN) and remote communications lines to gather and exchange firearms and related information, including applications for firearms purchases, carriage, dealership licenses, and police reports on stolen, confiscated, and pawned firearms within the Pittsburgh metropolitan area. o With CDC, BJS is analyzing data relating to intentional injury -- including firearm injury -- through a National Electronic Injury Surveillance System fielded by the Consumer Product Safety Commission. This data collection effort will produce detailed information about the types of injuries that are treated in hospital emergency rooms, and will compile the first national data about nonfatal firearm injuries. o BJA is funding a model Firearms Licensee Compliance demonstration project in New York City. The project is a joint effort by the New York City Police Department (NYPD) and ATF designed to enhance the ability of the NYPD Pistol License Division to conduct thorough background investigations on Federal Firearms License applicants. o BJA is also funding a number of demonstration projects in Virginia, West Virginia, Georgia, Indiana, and California. In Oakland and Berkeley, California, and Richmond, Virginia, BJA is collaborating with State and local police and ATF to identify, target, investigate, and prosecute individuals and illicit organizations engaged in the unlawful use, sale, or acquisition of firearms. o BJA is supporting the North Carolina Violent Career Criminal Task Force, which operates throughout the State and involves ATF and North Carolina's three U.S. Attorneys. The project is designed to target, arrest, and convict violent predatory criminals throughout the State and will develop a model procedure to disrupt the flow of firearms to violent offenders. o BJA will fund, in concert with ATF, a national law enforcement organization to provide training and administrative support to the 14-State Interstate Firearms Trafficking Compact. The project will inform State and local law enforcement officers about existing Federal and State firearms- related statutes and publicize the goals of the Compact to Federal, State, and local criminal justice officials, public officials, and the general public. In a 1994 report to the Attorney General and the President of the United States, the U.S. Attorneys outlined ways they could support State and local efforts to get guns out of the hands of young people. Their plans involved six strategies: o Prosecution and enforcement of the ban on juvenile handgun possession: -- Disruption of the markets that provide guns to youth. -- Taking guns out of the hands of kids through coordination with State and local prosecutors. o Working with State and local officials to enhance enforcement of their laws. o Encouraging and providing financial support for State and local efforts to trace the sources of guns taken from juveniles. o Launching targeted enforcement efforts aimed at places where young people should feel safe (e.g., at home, at school, and in recreation centers). o Actively participating in prevention efforts aimed at juveniles in our communities through mentoring programs, school adoption, and neighborhood watch. o Working to promote increased personal responsibility and safety through public outreach on the consequences of juvenile handgun possession. These approaches endorsed by U.S. Attorneys and supported by the U.S. Department of Justice are critical components of any comprehensive youth gun violence reduction strategy. Prevention and Intervention Programs Thus far, this report has examined the incidence of youth gun violence, its context, an analysis of the causes, and a range of solutions, from technological interventions to Federal law enforcement approaches. It will now address individual programs that seek to incorporate those lessons by broadly summarizing the various violence reduction strategies that have been implemented by organizations across the country. Detailed descriptions of these programs can be found in the Directory of Youth Gun Violence Reduction Programs. (See Section II beginning on page 25.) Although youth can now easily obtain firearms, and see them used frequently in films and on television as a method for solving problems, few violence prevention programs for youth focus specifically on preventing violence with guns (American Psychological Association, 1993). The programs that do exist can be divided into the nine basic categories listed below. Programs in the first four categories are generally preventive in nature while those in the last five categories rely primarily on interventions: o Curriculums o Trauma Prevention o Gun Buy-Back Programs o Public Education Campaigns o Community Law Enforcement o Gun Market Disruption and Interception o Diversion and Treatment Programs o Gun Courts o Alternative Schools In the Directory of Youth Gun Violence Reduction Programs, OJJDP has identified 51 programs that fall into these 9 categories. In addition, 34 institutes and organizations that support these types of programs or that have been instrumental in their development are listed in the Directory of Youth Gun Violence Prevention Organizations. (See Section III beginning on page 45.) The following are summaries of the critical programmatic information provided in these directories. Most of the programs described below can be found in Section II. However, a few are included in Section III. Focus On Prevention Curriculums The majority of youth gun violence reduction programs are curriculums carried out in schools, community-based organizations, and physicians' offices. They emphasize the prevention of weapon misuse, the risks involved with the possession of firearms, and the need for conflict resolution and anger management skills. Educational programs often use videotapes to support their presentation of the tragic results of gun violence. They may also include firearm safety instructions, public information campaigns, counseling programs, or crisis intervention hotlines. Law enforcement-based curriculums. Police and sheriff departments have been instrumental in supporting violence prevention curriculums. As part of drug education, public safety, and violence prevention efforts, police officers and sheriffs across the Nation have worked collaboratively with schools to present critical information on gun violence to young people and, simultaneously, to develop more effective and personable relations with young people. Examples of gun violence reduction curriculums used by law enforcement include the Gun Safety Awareness Program in Dade County, Florida; Guns, Teens, and Consequences in Tulsa, Oklahoma; and the Handgun Violence Reduction Program in Towson, Maryland. In Dade County, the Gun Safety Awareness Program, a districtwide effort for K-12 students and their parents, began in November 1988, featuring a comprehensive curriculum and a Gun Safety Awareness Week in November. The Gun Safety Awareness Program examines causes of handgun violence in the community and educates youth and parents on how to prevent gun-related violence, encourages anonymous reporting of guns, and teaches the consequences of being arrested. Dade County's violence prevention curriculum is supplemented by area Youth Crime Watches, school resource officers, and police officers. A Youth Crime Watch program was mandated for students in 1984 to extend the neighborhood watch concept to schools. Training workshops for parents on handgun safety awareness have been conducted in each school by Parent Education Department staff. Metal detectors are used unannounced at selected schools, and students caught with guns are referred to juvenile or adult court and recommended for expulsion to an alternative school. Awareness levels among youth and parents about the need to prevent handgun violence have increased as a result. School-based curriculums. The Center to Prevent Handgun Violence has developed a school-based curriculum used extensively across the country that has been evaluated with positive results. The Straight Talk About Risks (STAR) program is a comprehensive school-based program designed to reduce gun injuries and deaths with prevention activities for children and their families. Through STAR, students also learn how to make better, safer decisions, and how to resolve conflicts without violence through role playing, goal setting, and developing leadership skills. The NRA program Eddie Eagle; the Firearm Injury Prevention Curriculum in Albuquerque, New Mexico; Solutions Without Guns in Cleveland, Ohio; and WARN (Weapons Are Removed Now) in Reseda, California, are other examples of gun safety curriculums. Physician-based curriculums. A number of curriculums are used by physicians to instruct parents about the dangers of guns in the home. STOP -- Steps To Prevent Firearm Injury -- is a collaborative effort of the Center to Prevent Handgun Violence and the American Academy of Pediatrics. It is the first national educational program designed for pediatricians to use when counseling parents on the risks of keeping a gun in the home as well as the dangers guns pose to the community. Materials include (1) a monograph addressing the scope and circumstances of gun injuries and deaths affecting children and teens, (2) an audiotape that models dialog between pediatricians and parents, (3) a counseling tip sheet for quick reference, (4) a bibliography for further reading, (5) brochures providing facts and prevention steps, and (6) posters for offices and waiting rooms. Posters and brochures are also available in Spanish upon reorder. Other similar physician-based curriculums include the Educational Development Center's Firearm Injuries program and materials produced by the Injury Prevention and Control Unit in Trenton, New Jersey. Trauma Prevention A second category of programming involves peer education for young people injured by gun violence. These programs usually emanate from a public health project or hospital. Youth Alive in San Francisco, California, sends young counselors into a hospital to persuade teenage gunshot victims to avoid further violence by not retaliating. Counselors emphasize that all revenge is going to do is destroy another life and put friends (who are doing the retaliating) at risk of being locked up. Young gunshot victims share their experiences with kids involved in gang behavior. The Shock Mentor program is another trauma prevention initiative. Recently developed by Prince George's County, Maryland, Hospital Center and Concerned Black Men, Inc., a mentoring group of African-American professionals, it brings high school students into the shock trauma and emergency rooms to watch doctors patch together the victims and perpetrators of violence. The program is part of a larger county violence prevention initiative that includes a schoolwide conflict resolution program, peer mediation training program, black male achievement program, and countywide forum on violence prevention. Students visit the trauma center throughout the school year and are accompanied by members of Concerned Black Men. Their role is to provide support and show violence-prone youth that there is an alternative to becoming a statistic in a trauma unit. Other examples of trauma prevention programs include the Hospital-based Youth Violence Prevention Program in Camden, New Jersey, People Opening the World's Eye to Reality (POWER) in New York City, and Southeastern Michigan Spinal Cord Injury System in Detroit, Michigan. Gun Buy-Back Programs Many gun buy-back programs are now operating across the country. These initiatives are precipitated by diverse events and show varying degrees of success. This report does not present all of these programs, only those conducted as part of a wider gun violence prevention effort. The Prevention Partnership in Brooklyn, New York, for example, provides incentives for people to turn in guns for food vouchers, but also involves the Center for Substance Abuse and Prevention Community Partnership and two police precincts. Weapon Watch is another example of a more comprehensive gun turn-in program. Organized by the mental health center of the Memphis School District, the Memphis Police Department, and Crime Stoppers, a group that financially rewards citizens for calling in tips about crimes, Weapon Watch was implemented to get children involved in ridding their schools of weapons. Instead of buying metal detectors, Memphis officials decided to get students involved in weeding out the weapons. A hotline was established for students to call anonymously with information about classmates who bring weapons to school. Students who call in are given a secret code number. Once the call is received, police are dispatched to the school and officers conduct an investigation. Students are rewarded if the information leads to the confiscation of weapons and arrests of weapon- carrying students on campus. Citizens for Safety (CFS), a program in Boston, Massachusetts, has pulled together a community- based coalition to reduce violence in Boston. CFS' membership includes 50 neighborhood and youth organizations as well as over 500 citizens from across the city. In 1993 CFS organized a gun buy- back program that removed 1,302 guns from circulation. Ongoing activities include expanding the buy-back program, conducting "Guns Kill" workshops for teenagers, and sponsoring an annual 24-hour Soccer Marathon for Peace and the Peace League, a summer educational and recreational program for gang members. Public Education Campaigns A number of campaigns to educate communities and families about youth violence are currently being conducted nationally and at the State and local levels. These campaigns tend to be directed at young people or women and address the dangers of guns and the unacceptability of using guns to solve problems. The Children's Defense Fund Cease Fire campaign advocates 10 steps to stop the war against children in America, including removing guns from homes, creating opportunities, providing safe havens, being informed about media violence and real violence, and resolving conflicts peaceably. The campaign features television public service announcements and the Wall of Names, a print presentation of more than 600 children in 39 States killed by gunfire in 1993 and 1994. The Center to Prevent Handgun Violence recently collaborated with Disney Educational Productions to produce a gun violence prevention video, Under the Gun, that challenges the glamorization of guns and the notion that guns make families and youth safer. Disney plans to market the video to schools, recreation centers, police departments, juvenile justice facilities, hospitals, rehabilitation centers, and other educational organizations. Other public education programs include the Hands Without Guns and Words Not Weapons campaigns in Boston, Massachusetts, and the Fresno (California) Youth Violence Prevention Network. The Youth Violence Prevention Network campaign is unique because it uses young people to deliver anti-gun violence messages, and is especially geared to reach Fresno's at-risk, Spanish-speaking residents. Known previously as Radio Bilingue, the network is the result of a collaboration by Chicano Youth Center, House of Hope, Save Our Sons and Daughters, and End Barrio Warfare. The program works to strengthen the programs that serve at-risk youth, thereby empowering young people and communities of color to work together to reduce violence in their neighborhoods. Violence prevention activities include developing gun-free zone programs in city parks and neighborhoods, school emergency response and mediation teams led by directors of organizations that serve high-risk youth, youth conferences, and youth leadership programs. A key participant in the coalition is the Radio Bilingue, a Hispanic-controlled, noncommercial radio station serving the San Joaquin Valley. Radio Bilingue broadcasts anti-violence and anti-drug public service announcements and sponsors Paz, a unique violence prevention radio program targeted to at- risk youth, educating them about the causes of violence and the impact of gun violence. The program features local speakers, including police officers, school officials, and community citizens. By far the most extensive public education campaign against youth gun violence is the California Wellness Foundation's Campaign to Prevent Handgun Violence Against Kids, a $2 million statewide public education effort that has conducted extensive research, surveys, polling, focus groups, and analysis of the target audience; produced multiple 30-second television public service announcements that run on prime time in both English and Spanish; communicated critical information on youth gun violence through its "First Aid" portfolio to more than 8,000 elected officials, key media leaders, and public agencies; received more than 75,000 calls and 11,000 supporters through its 1-800-222-MANY hotline and information service; organized a women's coalition against gun violence; and developed a video teleconference town hall meeting throughout the State to unveil its policies on handguns and firearms. The California Wellness Campaign is linked to a broader $30 million, 5-year, statewide initiative to reduce youth violence in California that includes the Pacific Center for Violence Prevention, the policy branch of the initiative; a leadership program; a community action program that has funded 10 pilot projects to form broad-based violence reduction coalitions of major local public and private entities; and a research program. Focus on Intervention Because intervention programs target a more at- risk, delinquency-involved population, they tend to be more intensive, are implemented after patterns of delinquency and violence are established, and more actively engage law enforcement and the juvenile justice system. Programs that intervene with young people who use guns or have been caught with guns unfortunately are rare and in dire need of further development. Although a number of informal interventions exist that sheriffs, police officers, probation officers, and others have developed to reach the population actively involved in handgun violence, the majority of these efforts have yet to be formalized into systematic protocols and have not yet been rigorously evaluated. Given new Federal legislation, however, the U.S. Departments of Justice, Education, and Health and Human Services are particularly interested in developing and supporting innovative and effective ways to intervene with young people who have been caught with guns or are at great risk of being involved in gun violence. A widely used intervention that has received some evaluation -- and demonstrated mixed results -- is the use of metal scanners to detect firearms. According to the National School Safety Center, 70 percent of the Nation's 50 largest districts have installed scanners in the schools. The New York City Metal Detector Program is one of the best known of these programs. Because the use of scanners, book bag bans, and locker searches is now so common, these approaches are not covered here. Community Law Enforcement The Illinois State Police School Security Facilitator Program identifies local jurisdictions in which levels of school violence are causing wide concern. Representatives from private, government, and nonprofit programs that play a role in addressing youth violence in their community are invited to attend an intensive 5-day team- building/education program at Illinois State Police training academy. A typical team includes: o Law enforcement personnel o School administrators and teachers o Local State's attorney and public defender o Local prevention and treatment program staff o Court officials o Concerned community members Community teams range in size from 5 to 15. Each member is expected to live at the academy (in trooper dorms) with team members throughout the training program. Courses are divided between youth violence education and violence reduction strategies, including the interdiction of guns brought into schools. Trainers highlight identification of situations in which violence may escalate to use of a weapon, investigative techniques to acquire secondary and tertiary source information on weapons carried at the school, and strategies for weapon removal and cooperation with law enforcement authorities. Additional programs such as locker searches, canine searches, and metal detectors are also discussed. School administrators are cautioned about direct intervention with an armed student. Teams then return to their communities to educate others on youth violence issues and to implement violence reduction strategies. No short- or long-term evaluation of this program has been conducted. Anecdotal information from prior participants would indicate some degree of success. The University of Virginia Youth Violence Project focuses on reducing youth violence through a team approach. Staff bring together a multidisciplinary team of experts on youth aggression and violence in the fields of education, psychology, law enforcement, planning, and crime prevention and present 4- to 45-hour instruction courses in selected Virginia cities. Cities that have participated in the program include Falls Church, Newport News, Roanoke, Richmond, and Virginia Beach. Participants in the Youth Violence Project -- primarily school and law enforcement officials from target jurisdictions -- are exposed to a variety of issues (risk factors for violence, multicultural dynamics, etc.) and are asked to implement a series of actions in their schools, including initiating security assessments and peer mediation. Many of the program's instructors are local police officers with extensive experience in weapon detection and interdiction. The program also emphasizes school collaboration and cooperation because school officials typically are not trained in defensive weapon removal and disarming tactics. In 1994 the project will expand its reach through a televised version of the program, School Safety and Youth Aggression, to be downlinked to 24 sites across Virginia. No short- or long-term evaluation of this program has been implemented. Anecdotal information from prior participants would indicate some degree of success. University of Virginia staff would support any credible outside evaluation effort. Gun Market Disruption and Interception Police weapons searches are another important means of stemming youth gun violence. If civil rights are respected and communities are supportive, these approaches can effectively communicate a message of strong societal opposition to youth involved in gun violence. The Gun Recovery Unit in Washington, D.C., is a specially trained squad of officers assigned to a part of the city with an unusually high rate of firearms crimes. While patrolling the area, the squad identifies and frisks individuals who raise a reasonable suspicion of being armed. Most frisked individuals are under 22 years of age, and about 40 percent are minors. The Howard University Violence Prevention Project offers an afterschool middle school program, a preschool program, and a summer camp that provide social support, tutoring, esteem building, and cultural enrichment for children who have been exposed to serious incidents of violence, including gun violence. The program's services give children an opportunity to reduce the probability of their continuing the cycle of violence they are struggling to escape. The Kansas City Weed and Seed program is a joint effort of the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Attorney, and the Kansas City Police Department. They have pulled together a working group consisting of law enforcement, human service agencies, and community organizations, including the regional office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Small Business Administration, the Kansas City Neighborhood Alliance, and the Ad Hoc Group Against Crime. The program has focused its policing strategy in high-crime neighborhoods on using every opportunity, including traffic and curfew violations and other infractions, to get guns off the street. During these routine stops, police look for infractions that give them the legal authority to search a car or pedestrian for illegal weapons. Special gun-intercept teams have also been used in these neighborhoods, and studies indicate that they are 10 times more cost-effective than regular police patrols. In an 80-block neighborhood with a homicide rate 20 times the national average, the program reduced crime by at least 50 percent during a 6-month period. These initiatives did not displace crime to other locales -- gun crimes did not increase significantly in any of the patrol beats surrounding the area. Despite the fact that previous police campaigns in Kansas City have drawn protests of discrimination from members of the community, residents have supported the gun- intercept program. Police have involved community and religious leaders in initial planning, and neighborhoods have made requests for greater police activity. Diversion and Treatment Programs Diversion and treatment programs provide some of the most promising examples of violence prevention techniques that work with youth involved in gun violence. In Pima County, Arizona, the Juvenile Diversion Program has set up a firearms prevention course for youth who are not hardcore delinquents but who have been referred to juvenile court for firing or carrying a gun. The program also serves young people at risk of becoming involved with guns. At least one parent is required to attend monthly sessions, during which the assistant prosecutor informs juveniles and their parents about gun laws. In addition, parents are instructed on safe gun storage. By agreeing to take the course, juveniles avoid having their case adjudicated and are not placed on probation. They do, however, acquire a juvenile record. Project LIFE (Lasting Intense Firearms Education), operated by the Indiana Juvenile Court, is a diversion program for juveniles arrested on gun charges. As in the Juvenile Diversion Program in Pima County, Arizona, parental participation is required. Project LIFE is designed to help youth and their parents learn about the effects of gun violence and accidents through an experiential exercise. Children and their parents first prepare papers on the effect of guns. A discussion based on these papers opens the education session, and after the discussion footage of an actual accidental shooting is shown. Participants and their parents then discuss how they would have felt had they been victims of gun violence or accidents. They imagine and discuss, for example, getting a call from a morgue rather than from a jail. The majority of families participating in Project LIFE do not return to juvenile court on gun charges. Cermak Health Services of Cook County works with Cook County, Illinois, jail inmates, the majority of whom have been involved in gun violence, using a culturally sensitive curriculum that addresses the inmates' risk factors for continued involvement in gun violence. Although these inmates do not technically represent a juvenile population, they tend to be young. The program is therefore being considered for broader use by juvenile offenders. Barron Assessment and Counseling Center is a Boston public school system project for elementary, middle, and high school students found carrying weapons on school property. Under the program, students are charged according to the school district's disciplinary code and given a hearing with the community superintendent. If the weapons charges are substantiated, parents are notified and the students are referred to the counseling center. At the center, students receive academic, psychological, and social assessments, as well as crisis intervention counseling. They also continue to receive assignments from school. Working with the juvenile court, probation officers, and the Departments of Youth Services, Social Services, and Mental Health, staff prepare service delivery plans for each client, including aftercare services. Special workshops on alternatives to violence are provided by staff of Northeastern University School of Law, Office of Emergency Medical Services, and by staff of Vietnam Veterans Against Violence. Gun Courts A special court was recently established in Providence, Rhode Island, to focus on gun crimes. In this system, all gun crimes are referred to a single judge who processes cases on a fast track that has cut the life span of gun crime cases in half. Of the 18 cases heard to date, 15 defendants have been sent to jail. Many defendants, instead of taking their cases to trial, are now pleading guilty in exchange for a reduction of up to 2 years in the State's mandatory 10-year sentence. The gun court model has received support both from gun control advocates and the NRA. Legislators in Texas and court administrators in Louisiana and Illinois are proposing that their States implement programs modeled after the Providence court. Dade County is also looking at the model, but administrators there are concerned about the county's capacity to handle potential caseloads. In addition to expediting the handling of cases, these programs have the potential to address special treatment issues related to gun violence. Alternative Schools Zero tolerance school programs make a strong statement about keeping guns off school grounds, but they often do not provide violence-prone youth opportunities for alternative placement or education. More effective are programs that attend to youth through swift and strict sanctions as well as treatment and viable academic and employment opportunities. At Hazelwood Center High School in Florissant, Missouri, students suspended for assaults, weapons, or drugs are referred to a 4-week Student Intervention Program at a location away from their home school. In the program, students are required to complete 4 hours of individualized course work each day and participate in group counseling sessions. They also attend weekly individual counseling sessions that focus on issues such as conflict mediation, habits and addictions, and communication. Parental participation is mandated for the three sessions that examine family history, parenting skills, and school-related family issues. After completing the program, students are evaluated by school administrators to determine if the remainder of their 90-day suspension can be served through in-school probation. Second Chance School in Topeka, Kansas, is a similar program, with half-day instruction for voluntary students who have been expelled for possession of weapons or assaulting a staff member. Students study math, social sciences, and language skills; participate in recreational activities; and are required to perform community service. Depending on the seriousness of their offense, participants attend the program for 1 semester or 1 year. Students who finish the program and meet its requirements are readmitted to their home schools. To date, 90 percent of students enrolled in the Second Chance School have successfully completed the program. Second Chance has been operating for 3 years and has a maximum capacity of eight students. The program has developed partnerships with the juvenile court, public schools, the police department, and the city's recreational department. Comprehensive Initiatives Programs in the Directory of Youth Gun Violence Reduction Programs (Section II) are listed alphabetically, and all programs, even those that have not been evaluated, have been listed to give the reader a sense of the types of approaches possible. Research outcomes are indicated for those programs that have been evaluated. Organizing the program directory in this way allows the reader to choose the type of programming best suited to the needs of their community or State. It is the belief of OJJDP, however, that any program in and of itself will not adequately address the myriad problems associated with youth gun violence. For example, ridding a public school of weapons cannot be achieved by simply installing a metal detector or conducting gun safety awareness programs. An effective response to youth gun violence that is sustainable must also include critical related issues: Time and again students say the primary reason they bring weapons to school is for self-protection traveling to and from school. Violence is a problem at schools, but principally it is a community problem. Many schools are surrounded by a 360- degree perimeter of community crime. Consequently, the strategies developed in response to school safety needs must go beyond the schools. The presence of weapons at schools cannot be separated from other community safety concerns. Each concern must be addressed in developing a comprehensive response (National School Safety Center, 1993). A comprehensive approach should be based on what we now know about increased access to and use of guns by juveniles since 1985. Through research we are beginning to understand young people's attraction to particular types of guns; the impact of cultural influences, particularly media violence and notions of manliness, on young people's behavior; the impact of drugs and the illicit drug market on youth gun violence; the effect of deviant behavior, gun socialization, and attitudes toward law enforcement on youth gun violence; the age when boys are most prone to the lure of guns; and the detrimental effect of the cycle of fear and lack of viable opportunities in many communities on youth gun violence. An approach to youth gun violence reduction that incorporates this research base, includes a combination of proven strategies, gains the support of a diverse group of youth-serving organizations, and involves the community and its youth is likely to be the most successful. An effective weapons reduction strategy will be multidisciplinary, comprehensive, politically sensitive, and practically relevant. An effective gun violence prevention program will be age-appropriate, target the age groups most likely to commit gun violence, and make the support and participation of parents and all sectors of the community a priority. Curriculums approaches are effective at delivering messages to young people, but they are limited unless they involve the development of consistent standards across the areas of children's lives, particularly family, media, recreation, and community. Curriculums approaches are also ineffectual if they fail to include real experiences with positive alternatives. Only a communitywide investment in all of the activities described above will begin to address the cycle of fear in which the victims and perpetrators of violence live and build a safe environment for all children. NIJ is supporting such comprehensive activities through its interagency project to reduce youth gun violence. In Atlanta, the Center for Injury Control at Emory University is working with the community, State and local governments, and Project PACT (Pulling America's Communities Together) to analyze youth firearms violence and to develop a broad- based strategy to address the problem. The program's intervention will use a three-part strategy: (1) reducing demand for firearms through a comprehensive community education program, (2) reducing supply by promoting safe storage of firearms and by law enforcement efforts to interdict the illegal gun market, and (3) prompting aggressive rehabilitation of juvenile gun offenders to decrease recidivism. The St. Louis Police Department has developed a similar comprehensive approach to reducing violence within these high-risk populations: African- American males between the ages of 15 and 29, younger males at risk of direct and indirect violence, and adolescent females at risk of family violence, sexual assault, and co-victimization. The project will employ two strategies: changing behavior to reduce gun-related fatalities, reduce the carrying of weapons, and lessen juveniles' risk of assault; and improving the criminal justice system in St. Louis to expand and refine local surveillance of violence, expand screening and treatment for violence within medical facilities, and establish assault crisis teams (ACT's). ACT's will operate in an emergency medical treatment center serving high-risk populations, in a juvenile detention facility, in an adult medium-security institution, and in neighborhoods with high levels of violence. At these locations, the crisis teams will monitor levels and patterns of violence, create mentoring and education programs for high- risk youth in nonviolent conflict resolution techniques, and mediate disputes with a high potential for violent outcomes. Other comprehensive initiatives also exist in communities across the Nation that involve more grassroots and youth participation and offer intervention services through public health services rather than through law enforcement. Some were inspired by legislative changes and social service system reform (e.g., Virginia); others emanated from university centers (e.g., The Harvard School of Public Health). Samples of such city and statewide youth gun violence reduction initiatives and their programmatic components follow. They are presented in a checklist format, organized by the types of strategies described above: legislation, research, intervention, prevention, hospital-based prevention, and public education. "Community involvement" and "collaborative governance and service delivery" have been added because they are essential to ensuring the success and long-term sustainability of any initiative. The checklist format is designed to help readers consider the strategy components they could implement or coordinate in their State or community. Detailed program descriptions can be found in the Directory of Youth Gun Violence Reduction Programs. (See Section II beginning on page 25.) Boston, Massachusetts Legislation: Not applicable. Research: Harvard Project on Guns, Violence and Public Health. Intervention: Boston Gun Reduction Program and Barron Assessment and Counseling Center. Prevention: Violence Prevention Curriculum and Conflict Resolution. Hospital-Based Prevention: Identification and Prevention of Youth Violence: A Protocol Package for Health Care Providers, and Firearm Injuries. Public Education Campaign: Hands Without Guns and Words Not Weapons. Community Involvement: Citizens for Safety. Collaborative Governance and Service Delivery: Boston Violence Prevention Project. CALIFORNIA Legislation: A minor may not possess a pistol, revolver, or other firearm capable of being concealed upon the person. It is unlawful to possess a firearm in a school zone without the written permission of school authorities. Research: Pacific Policy Center. Intervention: Not applicable. Prevention: WARN curriculum. Hospital-Based Prevention: Teens on Target and Youth Alive. Public Education Campaign: Campaign to Prevent Handgun Violence Against Kids and The Fresno Youth Violence Prevention Network. Community Involvement: Fresno Youth Violence Prevention Network. Collaborative Governance and Service Delivery: The Oakland Corridor; California Wellness Violence Prevention Grants; Policy, Action, Collaboration, and Training (PACT); Violent Injury Prevention Program; and Contra Costa Continuum of Care. Chicago, Illinois Legislation: The handgun ammunition law makes it illegal to sell, offer for sale, barter, or give away the kinds of ammunition most commonly used in gang warfare. Research: Not applicable. Intervention: The Chicago Ordinance, State Police Security Facilitator Program, and Cermak Health Services of Cook County. Prevention: UHLICH Center. Hospital-Based Prevention: STOP. Public Education Campaign: Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence. Community Involvement: Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence. Collaborative Governance and Service Delivery: Chicago Partnership for the Prevention of Violence. New Jersey Legislation: Proposed State legislation includes the following bills: o a2557 -- Increases penalties for unlawful possession of firearms in schools. o a1082 -- Mandates waivers to adult court for any cases involving juveniles 14 years old or older who commit serious offenses with a firearm. o s732 -- Strengthens current laws regarding access to loaded firearms by minors. o P.L. 1990, Chapter 31 -- Bans the sale and severely restricts possession of assault weapons; a model assault firearms law. Research: Not applicable. Intervention: Not applicable. Prevention: Camden County Prosecutor's Office. Hospital-Based Prevention: Injury Prevention and Control Unit and Hospital-Based Youth Violence Prevention Program. Public Education Campaign: Injury Prevention and Control Unit. Community Involvement: Not applicable. Collaborative Governance and Service Delivery: State Attorney General's Law Enforcement and Educational Task Force, and School Based Youth Service Program -- Students Against Violence and Victimization of Youth. Virginia Legislation: The juvenile possession of handguns law prohibits the possession of handguns by juveniles except within their homes, while engaged in lawful hunting or supervised target shooting, or when serving in the military. The Firearms Dealers: Record Keeping/Penalty Enhancement bill requires gun dealers to submit to State police the type and number of firearms sold to each client, allowing State police to track gunrunners. The bill also increases the time police are required to keep this record from 30 days to 12 months. Gun dealers who illegally sell, rent, or transfer firearms would be charged with a felony instead of a misdemeanor if they violate this law. Research: The Department of Criminal Justice Services' Criminal Justice Research Center, in collaboration with the Virginia Commonwealth University Survey Research Laboratory, conducted a statewide survey of 815 residents in which 83 percent of respondents agreed that there should be a limit on the number of handgun purchases per month; and 63 percent thought strict gun control laws would reduce violent crime. Intervention: University of Virginia Youth Violence Project and Juvenile Criminal History Records. Virginia is one of the first States to have a computerized system operated by the State police, the Central Criminal Records Exchanger, that informs gun dealers if a prospective buyer has a criminal record. Prevention: Not applicable. Hospital-Based Prevention: Not applicable. Community Involvement: Enough is Enough, Inc. Collaborative Governance and Service Delivery: In June 1992 the Governor's multi-disciplinary Commission on Violent Crime was convened to study the problem and propose solutions. The Comprehensive Services Act also provides for better coordinated delivery of social services to at-risk youth and their families. Summary of Comprehensive Initiatives Even a cursory review of these initiatives reveals that multiple efforts are often under way in the same cities, but that they are uncoordinated. The next steps in any youth violence reduction strategy should be to facilitate interagency coordination at the State and community levels and to evaluate the need for Federal support. In particular, most youth violence reduction initiatives could benefit greatly by including a public housing component. The Department of Housing and Urban Development's Operation Safe Home program is an obvious link. Another program, Keep Our Kids Alive, targets public housing youth in New York City who carry and use guns. The program trains housing youth officers to identify kids who fit a gun carrier profile and then work as mediators, and trains resident youth to implement an antigun violence education program for other young residents. This program would complement school-based strategies and public education campaigns. Initiatives also need to focus on building economic opportunities for low-income youth and linking job training, neighborhood restoration, and economic development to youth gun violence reduction programs. Young people need to be involved in positive practical experiences that develop their ability to contribute to society and improve their ability to recognize the sanctity of life and the great risks associated with delinquent behavior. Conclusion This report has discussed the body of research on juvenile violence with which we can now begin to understand the epidemic of youth gun violence confronting our Nation. It has also presented a range of violence prevention and reduction strategies being implemented in cities across this country that can serve as models for other communities. An examination of these preliminary efforts, however, clearly indicates that comprehensive violence reduction initiatives need to provide youth a continuum of care and sanctions to consistently attend to the safety of children and families throughout their lives. Because many city and statewide initiatives have developed out of diverse sectors of the community and are often synthesized from isolated projects, gaps that can cripple their overall effectiveness are not uncommon in the delivery of services or the development of sanctions. With all comprehensive efforts, a combination of strategies must be employed. For initiatives attempting to reduce youth gun violence to be successful, an approach incorporating the strategies laid out in this document will likely be most effective. From legislative mandates to further research, from intervention to prevention and alternative treatment programs, from hospital- based prevention programs to grassroots and youth- based collaborative efforts, each holds the key to making our homes, streets, and neighborhoods safe for our children. ------------------------------ II. Directory of youth Gun Violence Reduction Programs This directory summarizes promising programs across the country that seek to reduce youth gun violence. Programs noted with an asterisk are part of a citywide violence reduction strategy -- in some cases delivery of these programs' services is coordinated at the State and community level; in other cases, they simply exist in the same city or State and need to be coordinated. Adolescent Wellness Program 1010 Massachusetts Avenue Boston, MA 02118 tel: 617/534-5196 fax: 617/534-5358 Nia Sue Mitchum, Director The Adolescent Wellness Program is a multi- institutional, community-based initiative designed to reduce the incidence of interpersonal violence among adolescents, as well as the social and medical hazards associated with that violence. The major intervention used to conduct this project is a violence prevention curriculum designed for adolescents that focuses on conflict resolution. The program has also developed, in collaboration with the Educational Development Center, a resource called Identification and Prevention of Youth Violence: A Protocol Package for Health Care Providers. Published in 1992, the protocol guides providers in addressing and responding to young patients at high risk of engaging in violent behavior. It is currently used in several Boston neighborhood health care centers. Assault Crisis Teams St. Louis Metropolitan Police Department 1200 Clark Street St. Louis, MO 63103 tel: 314/444-5620 fax: 314/444-5958 Colonel Clarence Harmon, Chief of Police The National Institute of Justice has recently funded the St. Louis Police Department to reduce violence within the following at-risk populations: African-American males between the ages of 15 and 29, younger males at risk of direct and indirect violence, and adolescent females at risk of family violence, sexual assault, and co-victimization. The project will employ two strategies: changing behavior to reduce gun-related fatalities, reduce the carrying of weapons, and lessen juvenile's risk of assault; and improving the criminal justice system in St. Louis to expand and refine local surveillance of violence, expand screening and treatment for violence within medical facilities, and establish assault crisis teams (ACT's). ACT's will operate in an emergency medical treatment center serving high-risk populations, in a juvenile detention facility, in an adult medium-security institution, and in neighborhoods with high levels of violence. At these locations, the crisis teams will monitor levels and patterns of violence, create mentoring and education programs for high- risk youth in nonviolent conflict resolution techniques, and mediate disputes with a high potential for violent outcomes. *Barron Assessment and Counseling Center Boston Public Schools 25 Walk Hill Street Jamaica Plain, MA 02130 tel: 617/635-8123 fax: 617/635-8117 Raffael DeGruttola, Acting Director Begun in 1987 by Frank Barron in response to a dramatic increase in student violence at Boston's public schools, the Barron Assessment and Counseling Center is an intervention service for elementary, middle, and high school students found carrying weapons on school property. Under the program, students are charged according to the school district's disciplinary code and given a hearing with the community superintendent. If the weapons charges are substantiated, parents are notified and the students are referred to the counseling center. At the center, students receive academic, psychological, and social assessments, as well as crisis intervention counseling. They also continue to receive assignments from school. Working with the juvenile court, probation officers, and the Departments of Youth Services, Social Services, and Mental Health, staff prepare service delivery plans for each client, including aftercare services. Special workshops on alternatives to violence are provided by staff of Northeastern University School of Law, Office of Emergency Medical Services, and by staff of Vietnam Veterans Against Violence. Although outside evaluation has not yet been completed, internal evaluation indicates a recidivism rate of 5 percent for first-time offenders from 1987 to 1993. Second- time offenders are now also being served. Build the Missing Peace (formerly Enough is Enough, Inc.) 708 Cloverly Street Suite 202 Cloverly, MD 20905 tel: 301/879-0561 fax: 301/879-0562 Julie A. Elseroad, Founder Build the Missing Peace, founded in 1991 as the Enough is Enough, Inc., program, is a community- based effort to combat violence. It currently functions with eight volunteers and a five-member board of directors. The program, which is based in suburban Maryland, has sponsored 4 successful gun turn-in campaigns, which removed more than 600 guns from the streets, and a White Ribbon Campaign. Campaign to Prevent Handgun Violence Against Kids California Wellness Foundation 454 Las Gallinas Avenue, Suite 177 San Rafael, CA 94903-3618 tel: 415/331-3337 fax: 415/331-2969 Yvette Martinez, Project Director By far the most extensive public education campaign against youth gun violence is the California Wellness Campaign to Prevent Handgun Violence Against Kids, a statewide effort that has conducted extensive research, surveys, polling, focus groups, and analysis of target audiences; produced multiple 30-second television public service announcements that run on prime time in both English and Spanish; communicated critical information on youth gun violence through its "First Aid" portfolio to more than 8,000 elected officials, key media leaders, and public agencies; received more than 75,000 calls and 11,000 supporters through its 1-800-222- MANY hotline and information service; organized a women's coalition against gun violence; and developed a video teleconference town hall meeting throughout the State to unveil its policies on handguns and firearms. The California Wellness Campaign is linked to a broader $35 million, 5-year, statewide initiative to reduce youth violence in California that includes the Pacific Center for Violence Prevention, the policy branch of the initiative; a leadership program; a community action program that has funded 10 pilot projects to form broad-based violence reduction coalitions of major local public and private entities; and a research program. *Cermak Health Services of Cook County 2800 South California Avenue Chicago, IL 60608 tel: 312/890-7488 fax: 312/890-7792 Michael Puisis, Director According to a 1993 survey of 582 inmates at Cook County Jail in Chicago, Illinois, one in every four men in the facility had been shot at least once in his life. Involvement in the criminal justice system may be the single best predictor of a person becoming injured through violence. Presently, nearly 20 million people move in and out of jails in the United States each year. Many have past violence-related injuries and are at high risk of violent injuries or death in the future. Health care service providers in jails such as Cook County have opportunities and obligations to intervene in both health risk situations and medical problems that might otherwise impact the community. Multidisciplinary strategies are needed to reduce risks of violence in this population. These strategies include treating the emotional trauma of a witnessed or experienced violent event, removing gang tattoos, providing hope for a future, reducing criminal recidivism through carefully evaluated reintegration programs, and reducing the accessibility of firearms. *Citizens for Safety 100 Massachusetts Avenue, Fourth Floor Boston, MA 02115 tel: 617/542-7712 Diedre Butler-Henderson, Director Citizens for Safety (CFS) is a community-based coalition working to reduce violence in Boston. CFS' membership includes 50 neighborhood and youth organizations as well as over 500 citizens from across the city. In 1993 CFS organized a gun buy- back program that removed 1,302 guns from circulation. Ongoing activities include expanding the buy-back program, conducting "Guns Kill" workshops for teenagers, and sponsoring recreation programs for at-risk youth, including an annual 24- hour Soccer Marathon for Peace and the Peace League. Eddie Eagle Elementary Gun Safety Education Program National Rifle Association of America 11250 Waples Mill Road Fairfax, VA 22030 tel: 703/267-1000 Melinda Bridges, Program Manager The National Rifle Association's Eddie Eagle program is designed to make children in grades K-5 aware that guns are not toys and teaches children proper safety steps if they see a gun. The program's message is: "Stop, Don't Touch; Leave the Area, and Tell an Adult." Program materials and activities may be covered in either a single class period or in two or more class periods and are geared for two age levels. Each child receives a copy of the NRA's gun safety guide for parents to reinforce the program's message at home. Firearm Injuries Educational Development Center, Inc. 55 Chapel Street Newton, MA 02158-1060 tel: 617/969-7100, ext. 2331 fax: 617/244-3436 Christine Bennett A program developed by the Educational Development Center is one of the Educating Professionals in Injury Control (EPIC) resources. It describes the public health approach to firearm injury prevention, the magnitude and cost of the problem, the epidemiology of intentional and unintentional firearm injury and death, the ballistics of firearm injury, and strategies for prevention. Firearm Injury Prevention Curriculum New Mexico Emergency Medical Services for Children (EMS-C) Project University of Mexico School of Medicine Emergency Medical Department 2211 Lomas NE. Ambulatory Care Center 4 West Albuquerque, NM 87131 tel: 505/272-5062 fax: 505/272-6503 Lenora Olsen, Program Manager Firearm Injury Prevention is a recently published K-8 curriculum created by the EMS-C Firearm Injury Prevention Taskforce. It is one of several Taskforce injury prevention activities developed as part of a 3-year grant from the Maternal and Child Health Bureau. Other activities include development of posters, public service announcements, and tags on guns for sale warning parents about the risk of unsecured loaded weapons. The 110-page curriculum began as a pilot program in the Albuquerque Public Schools during the 1992- 93 academic year. It includes a discussion of the importance of involving youth in the project's formative stage; accounts of firearm fatalities involving children in New Mexico; lesson plans on problem solving, peer refusal skills, and strong self-esteem; creative exercises emphasizing hands-on application of interdisciplinary lessons; and drawings, stories, and comments of youth who participated in the program's pilot project. *Firearms and Violence: Juveniles, Illicit Markets, and Fear Harvard University, John F. Kennedy School of Government Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management 79 John F. Kennedy Street Cambridge, MA 02138 tel: 617/495-5188 fax: 617/496-9053 Susan Michaelson, Assistant Director In Boston, the city's police department has teamed up with the Kennedy School of Government at Harvard University to implement a gun market disruption and youth gun violence prevention project based on David Kennedy's research. Called the Program in Criminal Justice Policy and Management, it assists the Boston Police Department in analyzing its juvenile gun problem and designing an intervention. Particular attention in the problem-solving process is given to strategies to disrupt the local black market in firearms and to reduce fear that drives juveniles to acquire and carry firearms. *Fresno Youth Violence Prevention Network Radio Bilingue, Inc. 1111 Fulton Mall, Suite 700 Fresno, CA 93721 tel: 209/498-6965 fax: 209/498-6968 Nora Benavides, Project Director Fresno Youth Violence Prevention Network, previously known as Radio Bilingue, is the result of a collaboration by Chicano Youth Center, House of Hope, Save Our Sons and Daughters, and End Barrio Warfare. The Network campaign is unique because it uses young people to deliver anti-gun violence messages to Fresno's at-risk, Spanish- speaking residents. The program works to strengthen the programs that serve at-risk youth, thereby empowering young people and communities of color to work together to reduce violence in their neighborhoods. Violence prevention activities include developing gun-free zone programs in city parks and neighborhoods, school emergency response and mediation teams led by directors of organizations that serve high-risk youths, youth conferences, and youth leadership programs. A key participant in the coalition is Radio Bilingue, a Hispanic-controlled, noncommercial radio station serving the San Joaquin Valley. Radio Bilingue broadcasts anti-violence and anti-drug public service announcements and sponsors Paz, a unique violence prevention radio program targeted to at- risk youth, educating them about the causes of violence and the impact of gun violence. The program features local speakers, including police officers, school officials, and community citizens. Gun Court 250 Benefit Street Providence, RI 02903 tel: 401/277-3250 Judge Robert Krause A special court was recently established in Providence, Rhode Island, to focus on gun crimes. In this system, all gun crimes are referred to a single judge who processes cases on a fast track that has cut the life span of gun crime cases in half. Of the 18 cases heard to date, 15 defendants have been sent to jail. Many defendants, instead of taking their cases to trial, are now pleading guilty in exchange for a reduction of up to 2 years in the State's mandatory 10-year sentence. The Gun Court model has received support both from gun control advocates and the NRA. Legislators in Texas and court administrators in Louisiana and Illinois are proposing that their States implement programs modeled after the Providence court. Dade County is also looking at the model, but administrators there are concerned about Dade County's capacity to handle potential caseloads. In addition to expediting the handling of cases, these programs have the potential to address special treatment issues related to gun violence. Gun Recovery Unit 1624 V Street NW. Washington, DC 20009 tel: 202/673-3506 fax: 202/673-2154 Lieutenant Richard Hobson Washington, D.C.'s Gun Recovery Unit is a specially trained squad of officers assigned to a part of the city with an unusually high rate of firearms crimes. While patrolling the area, the squad identifies and frisks individuals who raise a reasonable suspicion of being armed. The large majority of individuals who are frisked are under 22 years of age, and about 40 percent are minors. Gun Safety Awareness Program Safety and Driver Education Dade County Public Schools 6100 Northwest Second Avenue Miami, FL 33127 tel: 305/757-0514 fax: 305/757-7626 Stephanie Harrington, Division of School Police In Dade County, a Youth Crime Watch program was mandated for students in 1984 to extend the neighborhood watch concept to schools. The Gun Safety Awareness Program, a districtwide effort for K-12 students and their parents, began in November 1988, featuring a comprehensive curriculum and a Gun Safety Awareness Week in November. The Gun Safety Awareness Program examines causes of handgun violence in the community, educates youth and parents on how to prevent gun-related violence, encourages anonymous reporting of guns, and teaches the consequences of being arrested. Dade County's violence prevention curriculum is supplemented by area Youth Crime Watches, school resource officers, and police officers. Training workshops for parents on handgun safety awareness have been conducted in each school by Parent Education Department Staff. Metal detectors are used unannounced at selected schools, and students caught with guns are referred to juvenile or adult court and recommended for expulsion to an alternative school. Awareness levels among youth and parents about the need to prevent handgun violence have increased as a result. Guns, Teens, and Consequences Tulsa Public Schools 3027 South New Haven, P.O. Box 470208 Tulsa, OK 74147-0208 tel: 918/746-6450 fax: 918/746-6521 Jack Arnold To keep all schools in the Tulsa public school district free of weapons, the district mailed a summary of relevant State laws to families with students enrolled in its schools. One of the city's police officers, who is also a Drug Awareness Resistance Education (D.A.R.E.) officer, produced a video, Guns, Teens, and Consequences, that has been shown to more than 6,000 middle and high school students. Handgun Intervention Program 36th District Court Madison Center 421 Madison Avenue Detroit, MI 48226 tel: 313/965-3724 Terrence Evelyn, Program Coordinator Gun violence, especially involving youth and young adults, is increasingly recognized as both a serious crime problem and a threat to the Nation's public health. Traditional criminal justice responses, while an important component of the national response, have proven insufficient for solving the problem. In turn, the stubbornness of gun violence in the face of increasingly severe punishment has drawn attention to the possibility of preventing incidents of gun violence before they occur. The lack of success in preventing gun violence is in part a matter of insufficient knowledge. Perhaps even more problematic is a policy dilemma that quickly confronts the promoters of most preventive measures. Focusing on some "high-risk" population raises concerns about stigmatizing an entire group because of the behavior of a few. The Handgun Intervention Program (HIP), a Detroit- based intervention program operated by volunteers in the State of Michigan's 36th District Court, seeks to avoid these problems. HIP educates and confronts defendants charged with carrying a concealed weapon (CCW) with the consequences of gun violence, the personal risks of gun carrying, the importance of nonviolence and personal responsibility in African-American heritage, the realities of prison life, and alternatives to violence. In this way, the HIP intervention program treats CCW violations as both an occasion for arrest and an opportunity for prevention of future violent events. Handgun Violence Reduction Program Baltimore County Police Department 700 East Joppa Road Towson, MD 21286-5501 tel: 410/887-5846 fax: 410/887-5955 Sergeant Karen Sciascia The Handgun Violence Reduction Program is a project of the Baltimore County Police Department that emphasizes public education and handgun safety. The program's public information campaign consists of a hotline, public service announcements, and presentations in the community that provide information on safe storage of guns, the legal issues and liabilities of gun ownership, and the limitations of guns as personal protection. Baltimore County police also collaborated with the Baltimore public school system to design gun safety curriculums for the third, seventh, and ninth grades that teach children the dangers of handgun misuse. Uniformed police officers make presentations in schools about gun safety and violence prevention. These curriculums seek to deglamorize handguns and to provide children information on how they should respond when threatened by or coming into contact with a gun. A 3-year evaluation that studied student response to scenarios involving guns indicated that the program improved students' attitudes, knowledge, and behavior. Hands Without Guns Educational Fund to End Handgun Violence 100 Maryland Avenue NE., Suite 1102 Washington, DC 20002 tel: 202/544-7227 fax: 202/544-7213 Josh Horowitz, Executive Director Hands Without Guns is a collaborative project of six organizations -- Educational Fund to End Handgun Violence, National Institute for Violence Prevention, Harvard Injury Control Center, Citizens for Safety, New England Medical Center, and 2 PM -- to reduce gun violence in Boston through public health education. The effort will develop a model public education campaign with the following elements: o A unique partnership among health care providers, community advocates and leaders, public health experts, victims, and a CDC-funded research center. o A clearly defined public health focus and innovative multimedia techniques. o Grassroots community organization focused on empowering youth, families, and neighborhoods. o National visibility through the networking leadership of the Educational Fund. o Evaluation by the multidisciplinary research center based at the Harvard School of Public Health. o A program capable of replication in cities throughout the United States. Hazelwood Center High School Student Intervention Program 15955 New Halls Ferry Florissant, MO 63031 tel: 314/839-9500 fax: 314/839-9524 Nancy Snow or Mike Adam, Counselors At Hazelwood Center High School in Florissant, Missouri, students suspended for assaults, weapons, or drugs are referred to a 4-week Student Intervention Program at a location away from their home school. In the program, students are required to complete 4 hours of individualized course work each day and participate in group counseling sessions. They also attend weekly individual counseling sessions that focus on issues such as conflict mediation, habits and addictions, and communication. Parents' participation is mandated for the three sessions that examine family history, parenting skills, and school-related family issues. After completing the program, students are evaluated by school administrators to determine if the remainder of their 90-day suspension can be served through inschool probation. *Hospital-based Youth Violence Prevention Program (Trauma Unit Tour) Camden County Prosecutor's Office 25 North Fifth Street Camden, NJ 08102 tel: 609/225-8400 fax: 609/963-0083 Michael Olsefski The Hospital-based Youth Violence Prevention Program is based at Cooper Hospital/University Medical Center (Trauma Center) in Camden, New Jersey, and targets children who have been charged or convicted of crimes and referred to the Intensive In-House Supervised Detention Program. The program's objectives are to present a realistic portrayal of the trauma resuscitation process; to discuss the emotional, social, and physical impacts of violent crime injury; and to discuss alternative solutions to avoid or minimize violent behavior. Program activities include tours of the resuscitation area, audiovisual aids, graphic depictions of the physical effects of violence, closeups of bullet and stab wounds, and tours of the hospital morgue and trauma intensive-care unit. In the intensive-care unit, patients' conditions, life support equipment, pain, and prognoses are discussed. Howard University Violence Prevention Project 525 Bryant Street NW. Washington, DC 20059 tel: 202/797-0723 Hope Hill, Director The Howard University Violence Prevention Project offers an afterschool middle school program, a preschool program, and a summer camp that provides social support, tutoring, esteem building, and cultural enrichment for children who have been exposed to serious incidents of violence, including gun violence. The program's services give children an opportunity to reduce the probability of their continuing the cycle of violence they are struggling to escape. *Illinois Council Against Handgun Violence 202 South State Street, Suite 1100 Chicago, IL 60604 tel: 312/341-0939 fax: 312/341-9770 Dan Kotowski, Project Coordinator The Council has helped law enforcement officials ban "Cop Killer" bullets in Illinois, raised public awareness of the proliferation of handguns in the streets, monitored judicial action regarding firearm offenders, and formed ONTARGET, a 200- member coalition of law enforcement and elected officials, health care professionals, community groups, and professional organizations working to reduce gun violence in Illinois. The Council has a membership base of 5,000. Coalition members are also fighting for a tax on firearms and ammunition to pay for trauma care, seeking to hold manufacturers legally responsible for death and injuries caused by "Saturday Night Specials" and assault weapons, urging stricter regulation of the 10,000 federally licensed gun dealers in Illinois, and developing public education campaigns. *Illinois State Police School Security Facilitator Program Illinois State Police Training Academy Springfield, IL 62707 tel: 217/786-6902 fax: 217/786-7208 Linda Lange The Illinois State Police School Security Facilitator Program identifies local jurisdictions in which levels of school violence are causing wide concern. Representatives from private, government, and nonprofit programs that play a role in addressing youth violence in their community are invited to attend an intensive 5-day team building/education program at the Illinois State Police training academy. A typical team includes: o Law enforcement personnel. o School administrators and teachers. o Local State's attorney and public defender. o Local prevention and treatment program staff. o Court officials. o Concerned community members. Community teams range in size from 5 to 15. Each member is expected to live at the academy (in trooper dorms) with team members throughout the training program. Courses are divided between youth violence education and violence reduction strategies, including the interdiction of guns brought into schools. Trainers highlight identification of situations in which violence may escalate to use of a weapon, investigative techniques to acquire secondary and tertiary source information on weapons carried at the school, and strategies for weapon removal and cooperation with law enforcement authorities. Additional programs such as locker searches, canine searches, and metal detectors are also discussed. School administrators are cautioned about direct intervention with an armed student. Teams then return to their communities to educate others on youth violence issues and to implement violence reduction strategies. No short- or long-term evaluation of this program has been conducted. Anecdotal information from prior participants would indicate some degree of success. *Injury Prevention and Control Unit Health Promotion and Disease Prevention New Jersey Department of Health 50 East State Street, CN-364 Trenton, NJ 08625-0364 tel: 609/984-6137 fax: 609/292-3580 Liz Congdon, Program Manager The Injury Prevention and Control Unit supports youth violence prevention initiatives in Camden, Newark, and Paterson -- urban areas with the highest rates of gunshot wound deaths in New Jersey. The New Jersey Department of Health (NJDOH), an active participant on the Medical Society of New Jersey's Subcommittee on Violence -- which represents 9,500 New Jersey physicians -- has identified preventing violence and helping victims of violence as major public health priorities. The subcommittee has developed and distributed model medical policies for use by physicians in identifying and properly handling or referring cases of violence. Other activities have included national lobbying for restrictive gun legislation, educating the medical community on gunshot injuries and prevention, and involving youth in making videos on guns. NJDOH is also involved in a number of interagency efforts. It is represented, for example, on the Violence and Vandalism Task Force, a U.S. Department of Education working group developing recommendations to reduce school violence and vandalism. Juvenile Diversion Program Pima County Attorney's Office and Juvenile Court 2225 East Ajo Way Tucson, AZ 85713 tel: 602/740-5089 fax: 602/770-9212 Clint Stinson, Assistant County Attorney In Pima County, Arizona, the Juvenile Diversion Program has set up a firearms prevention course for youth who are not hardcore delinquents but who have been referred to juvenile court for firing or carrying a gun. The program also serves young people at risk of becoming involved with guns. At least one parent is required to attend monthly sessions, during which the assistant prosecutor informs juveniles and their parents about gun laws. In addition, parents are instructed on safe gun storage. By agreeing to take the course, juveniles avoid having their cases adjudicated and are not placed on probation. They do, however, acquire juvenile records. Kansas City Weed and Seed Program 1201 Walnut Street, Suite 2300 Kansas City, MO 64106 tel: 816/426-3122 fax: 816/426-4176 Steven Hill, United States Attorney The Kansas City Weed and Seed Program is a joint effort of the U.S. Department of Justice, the U.S. Attorney, and the Kansas City Police Department. They have pulled together a working group consisting of law enforcement, human service agencies, and community organizations including the regional office of the U.S. Department of Housing and Urban Development, the Small Business Administration, the Kansas City Neighborhood Alliance, and the Ad Hoc Group Against Crime. The program has focused its policing strategy in high-crime neighborhoods on using every opportunity, including traffic and curfew violations and other infractions, to get guns off the street. During these routine stops, police look for infractions that give them the legal authority to search a car or pedestrian for illegal weapons. Special gun-intercept teams have also been used in these neighborhoods, and studies indicate that they are 10 times more cost-effective than regular police patrols. In an 80-block neighborhood with a homicide rate 20 times the national average, the program reduced crime by at least 50 percent during a 6-month period. These initiatives did not displace crime to other locales -- gun crimes did not increase significantly in any of the patrol beats surrounding the area. Despite the fact that previous police campaigns in Kansas City have drawn protests of discrimination from members of the community, residents have supported the gun intercept program. Police have involved community and religious leaders in initial planning, and neighborhoods have made requests for greater police activity. Keep Our Kids Alive 216 East 99th Street New York, NY 10029 tel: 212/410-8505 fax: 212/996-0137 Detective Frank Agayo The Keep Our Kids Alive program targets public housing youth who carry and use guns. The program trains housing youth officers to identify kids who fit a gun carrier profile and then work as mediators. The program also trains resident youngsters to implement anti-gun violence education programs for other young residents. MAD DADS (Men Against Destruction -- Defending Against Drugs and Social Disorder) 221 North 24th Street Omaha, NE 68110 tel: 402/451-3366 fax: 402/451-3500 Edward Staton, President The Omaha, Nebraska-based MAD DADS program is a member of the nationwide coalition of community fathers who offer violence prevention through community service. Using community policing strategies, MAD DADS assists law enforcement agencies by providing weekend street patrols in troubled areas; reporting and videotaping crime, drug sales, and other destructive activities to authorities; painting over gang graffiti; and challenging drug dealers and gang members to leave the area. Community activities offered for youths include chaperoning community events and providing counseling services. Members also make quarterly visits to local jails and prisons to counsel and encourage youth and adults to join the program. MAD DADS also has conducted successful gun buy-back programs with city police departments and sponsored gun safety classes with local law enforcement officials and the Omaha office of the FBI. The program sponsors an annual citywide Drug Treatment Awareness Week with the Omaha Community Partnership and a citywide youth Anti-Violence Task Force with the University of Nebraska Medical Center and Pizza Hut Restaurants of Omaha. MAD DADS operates in communities in Lincoln and Omaha, Nebraska; Houston, Texas; Denver, Colorado; 23 cities in Florida; Greenville, Mississippi; New York City; Baltimore, Maryland; Columbus, Ohio; and Council Bluffs, Iowa. The gun buy-back programs have resulted in the collection of more than 2,500 guns since 1991. New York City Metal Detector Program New York City Public Schools Director of School Safety 600 East Sixth Street New York, NY 10009 tel: 212/979-3311 fax: 212/979-3283 Lt. Dario Negron In 1988, as part of a broader violence prevention program that included curriculums, peer mediation, and crisis intervention teams, the New York City school system instituted a metal detector program. The 16 schools chosen to participate (out of a total of 125 schools in the system) were schools in which the highest numbers of weapons were being found. School security staff began using hand-held metal detectors to conduct unannounced lobby searches of students at the start of the day. The program required a mobile staff of 120 and cost $300,000 per year per school. According to school system personnel, aside from removing more than 2,000 weapons, weapon-related incidents of all types decreased in 13 of 15 schools. Attendance also improved as a result of the program, and many students expressed an increased sense of security. Since that time, the number of New York City schools with metal detectors has risen to 41. *PACT (Policy, Action, Collaboration, and Training) Violence Prevention Project Contra Costa County Health Services Department 75 Santa Barbara Road Pleasant Hill, CA 94523 tel: 510/646-6511 Larry Cohen, Project Director PACT is a collaboration among the Contra Costa County Health Services Department Prevention Program, West Contra Costa County organizations, and the California Department of Health Services. A coalition of 10 local agencies guide implementation of activities to identify causes of violence, study strategies for reducing violence, and advocate for solutions. The cornerstone of PACT is violence prevention leadership training for African- American, Laotian, and Latino youths. Training and followup activities help youth focus on issues of violence and develop their own strategies for violence prevention. Youth outreach is supported and enhanced by neighborhood partnerships involving business, schools, government, neighborhood residents, and community organizations. PACT's multicultural collaboration promotes awareness and respect for West Contra County's diversity through activities such as community forums, parent councils, and cultural festivals. PACT staff have also compiled a set of resources for a public health policy response to gun violence in local communities for use by policymakers, media representatives, and other health department personnel working to prevent gun injuries and deaths. Most recently, the project developed an action plan for preventing violence in Contra Costa County. The plan was placed on the November 1994 ballot by the Contra Costa County Board of Supervisors. The plan is supported by a "Framework for Action" that enumerates many of the specific activities local communities and governmental bodies can undertake to reduce and prevent violence. The project has an evaluation component to assess the degree of involvement by community organizations, the relationship between county government and community organizations, and changes in youth attitudes about violence. People Opening the W