Guns and Youth - Deadly Assaults

Youthful Offenders

Figure 7.2 shows homicide and gun-related homicide trends according to the age of the perpetrator. In the 1980s, a decline began in the number of adults aged twenty-five and over who were committing murder, while the number of young people committing murder showed a dramatic rise that continued into the mid-1990s. Suddenly, there were more young killers, and they were using guns. (See Figure 7.1.) Possible explanations for the surge of youth violence are cited in Youth Violence (Mark H. Moore and Michael Tonry, National Institute of Justice, 1999):

• a rise in the size and share of the youth population;
• the "increased adversity of the conditions under which the children were raised";

FIGURE 7.1

FIGURE 7.2

• a culture that celebrates violence in sports and encourages violence in disciplining people and resolving disputes;
• the introduction of crack cocaine into inner-city America; and
• an increase in the supply of guns to youth.

The phenomenon of violent youth crime brought on zero-tolerance policies for youthful misbehavior. The justice system moved toward trying children in adult courts and punishing them in adult prisons. According to the group Building Blocks for Youth, an alliance of children's advocates, researchers, law enforcement professionals, and community organizers, in the 1990s, nearly every state changed its laws to make it easier to prosecute juveniles as adults (Youth Crime/Adult Time: Is Justice Served? http://www.buildingblocksforyouth.org/ycat, October 26, 2000 [accessed January 22, 2005]). Furthermore, according to Amnesty International, as of 2003, twenty-two states have laws permitting the execution of juveniles. Amnesty International, which opposes the death penalty, summarized in "Death Penalty: Facts and Figures on the Death Penalty," "Eight countries since 1990 are known to have executed prisoners who were under eighteen at the time of the crime—China, Congo (Democratic Republic), Iran, Nigeria, Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, USA and Yemen. China, Pakistan, and Yemen have raised the minimum age to eighteen in law, and Iran is in the process of doing so" (http://www.amnestyusa.org [accessed January 30, 2005]). Pakistan had abolished the death penalty for juvenile offenders from 2000 to 2004 but reinstated it with a decision by its high court in December 2004.

Peter T. Elikann and Marc Klaas analyzed youth crime data for their book Superpredators: The Demonization of Our Children by the Law (New York: Insight Books, 1999). They contended that at the height of the youth crime wave, young people were not committing more acts of violence than they had in the past, but the acts they committed were more lethal. Then came a 60% drop in arrests of young people for homicide between 1992 and 2001. In fact, the steepest drop in violent crimes occurred among the youngest offenders. A report from the Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention ("Juvenile Arrests 1993–2002," U.S. Department of Justice, September 2004) confirmed this significant decline in all juvenile crime, particularly firearm offenses. Table 7.2 shows that there was a drop of 47% in the category of juvenile weapons offenses from the years 1993 to 2002, and a decline of 5% from 2001 to 2002.

Were the "superpredator" predictions alarmist? How did the violent crime decline come about, and can it be sustained? The Urban Institute presented possible explanations for the decline in the report Reflections on the Crime Decline: Lessons for the Future? (Proceedings from the Urban Institute Crime Decline Forum, August 2002):

• new police strategies
• the build-up of prisons
• the strong economy of the late 1990s

TABLE 7.1

Rates of homicide, suicide, and firearm-related death among children 0–14 years old: United States and 25 other industrialized countries*, 1996
			Firearm-related deaths
Age group (yrs)	Total homicide	Total suicide	Homicide	Suicide	Unintentional	Intention undetermined	Total
*All countries classified in the high-income group with populations $1 million that provided complete data (Australia, Austria, Belgium, Canada, Denmark, England and Wales, Finland, France, Germany, Hong Kong, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Japan, Kuwait, Netherlands, New Zealand, Northern Ireland, Norway, Scotland, Singapore, Sweden, Spain, Switzerland, and Taiwan). In this analysis, Hong Kong, Northern Ireland, and Taiwan are considered as countries.
SOURCE: "Rates of Homicide, Suicide, and Firearms-Related Death among Children—26 Industrialized Countries," in Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report, vol. 46, no. 5, February 7, 1997, http://www.cdc.gov/mmwr/preview/mmwrhtml/00046149.htm (accessed October 9, 2004)
0–4
U.S.	4.10	0	0.43	0	0.15	0.01	0.59
Non-U.S.	0.95	0	0.05	0	0.01	0.01	0.07
Ratio U.S.: Non-U.S.	4.3:1		8.6:1		15.0:1	1.0:1	8.4:1
5–14
U.S.	1.75	0.84	1.22	0.49	0.46	0.06	2.23
Non-U.S.	0.30	0.40	0.07	0.05	0.05	0.01	0.18
Ratio U.S.: Non-U.S.	5.8:1	2.1:1	17.4:1	9.8:1	9.2:1	6.0:1	12.4:1
0–14
U.S.	2.57	0.55	0.94	0.32	0.36	0.04	1.66
Non-U.S.	0.51	0.27	0.06	0.03	0.04	0.01	0.14
Ratio U.S.: Non-U.S.	5.0:1	2.0:1	15.7:1	10.7:1	9.0:1	4.0:1	11.9:1

TABLE 7.2

Juvenile arrests, 1993–2002
		Percent of total juvenile arrests		Percent change
Most serious offense	2002 Estimated number of juvenile arrests	Female	Under age 15	1993–2002	1998–2002	2001–2002
Note: Detail may not add to totals because of rounding.
SOURCE: "Juvenile Arrests 1993–2002", in Juvenile Justice Bulletin, Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, U.S. Department of Justice, September 2004, http://www.ncjrs.org/html/ojjdp/204608/page1.html (accessed October 9, 2004)
Total	2,261,000	29%	31%	−11%	−19%	−3%
Violent crime index	92,160	18	32	−29	−17	−3
Murder and nonnegligent manslaughter	1,360	10	10	−64	−36	2
Forcible rape	4,720	3	37	−27	−14	−1
Robbery	24,470	9	24	−38	−21	−1
Aggravated assault	61,610	24	36	−23	−15	−4
Property crime index	481,600	32	37	−34	−23	−4
Burglary	86,500	11	36	−39	−26	−4
Larceny-theft	341,700	39	38	−30	−23	−3
Motor vehicle theft	45,200	17	25	−50	−15	−6
Arson	8,200	11	64	−23	−11	−10
Nonindex
Other assaults	236,300	32	42	14	−2	1
Forgery and counterfeiting	5,100	36	13	−43	−31	−17
Fraud	9,300	33	18	−18	−20	−7
Embezzlement	1,400	41	9	73	−18	−25
Stolen property (buying, receiving, possessing)	26,100	16	27	−45	−26	−5
Vandalism	105,900	14	43	−33	−22	−2
Weapons (carrying, possessing, etc.)	35,100	11	34	−47	−24	−5
Prostitution and commercialized vice	1,500	67	15	27	−6	4
Sex offense (except forcible rape and prostitution)	19,400	9	52	−9	9	1
Drug abuse violations	186,600	16	16	59	−11	−7
Gambling	1,600	3	15	−39	−8	16
Offenses against the family and children	9,400	39	37	48	−12	−6
Driving under the influence	21,800	19	2	46	−6	4
Liquor law violations	149,400	34	10	17	−22	−3
Drunkenness	18,700	22	12	−2	−26	−7
Disorderly conduct	192,900	30	40	9	−15	3
Vagrancy	2,100	24	26	−40	−37	−15
All other offenses (except traffic)	396,300	27	27	8	−20	−3
Suspicion (not included in totals)	1,400	29	25	−43	−9	49
Curfew and loitering	141,300	31	28	35	−33	−5
Runaways	125,700	60	37	−37	−27	−8

FIGURE 7.3

• new gun control policies and more effective enforcement of laws
• demographic shifts, especially in the number of young people
• stabilization of crack markets
• community crime-fighting efforts

Another insight into youth violent crime comes from Youth Violence: A Report of the Surgeon General (U.S. Department of Health and Human Services, 2001). The report credits the designation of youth violence as a public health concern—not just a criminal justice concern—as an important step in learning how to treat and prevent violence. One of the preventive measures identified in the report is finding a way to "accelerate the decline in gun use by youths in violent encounters."

Both the surgeon general and the authors of the Urban Institute report believe the nation has not seen the end of youth violence. According to the Urban Institute, there are troubling signs in the big cities (where violent crime is concentrated) that the crime decline may be reversing. The surgeon general reported that in national surveys in which young people are asked about their own violent behavior, there has been no change since 1993 in the proportion of young people who report having committed physically harmful, potentially lethal acts.

Figure 7.3 shows homicide trends from 1976 to 2002 by age, gender, and race of the perpetrator per one hundred thousand population. Note that the scales on the left are different for each group. Of note from 1976 to 2002:

• Homicide offending rates for adults aged twenty-five and over generally declined for all racial and gender groups.
• Young adults eighteen to twenty-four had the highest rate of homicide offenders.

TABLE 7.3

Weapons used in violent crime, by age of victims, 1993–2001
				Type of weapon
Age of victim	All crime	No weapon	Any weapon	Firearm	Sharp object	Blunt object/other1	Do not know2
1"Other" includes ropes, chains, poison, and unspecified objects used as weapons.
2Victim did not know whether the offender possessed a weapon.
SOURCE: "Table 5. Weapon Use and Violent Crime," in National Crime Victimization Survey, 1993–2001, U.S. Department of Justice, September 2003, http://www.ojp.usdoj.gov/bjs/pub/pdf/wuvc01.pdf (accessed October 9, 2004)
Percent
12 to 14	100%	77.2%	17.9%	2.6%	6.3%	9.0%	4.9%
15 to 17	100	67.3	25.1	8.9	6.5	9.7	7.6
18 to 20	100	62.6	30.1	12.6	7.1	10.5	7.3
21 to 24	100	63.7	28.8	11.9	7.6	9.3	7.5
25 to 34	100	64.5	27.4	10.3	6.4	10.7	8.1
35 to 49	100	64.9	25.5	9.8	5.7	9.9	9.6
50 to 64	100	63.4	24.9	9.1	5.5	10.2	11.7
65 or older	100	54.4	30.4	13.1	6.1	11.2	15.2
Rates per 1,000 persons
12 to 14	91.7	70.8	16.4	2.4	5.8	8.2	4.5
15 to 17	90.3	60.7	22.7	8.1	5.9	8.7	6.9
18 to 20	94.3	59.0	28.4	11.8	6.7	9.9	6.9
21 to 24	71.3	45.4	20.5	8.4	5.4	6.7	5.3
25 to 34	48.6	31.4	13.3	5.0	3.1	5.2	4.0
35 to 49	32.6	21.2	8.3	3.2	1.9	3.2	3.1
50 to 64	15.1	9.6	3.8	1.4	0.8	1.5	1.8
65 or older	4.5	2.4	1.4	0.6	0.3	0.5	0.7

• Homicide offending rates for African-American and white males under age twenty-five increased in the late 1980s.
• African-American female teens followed a pattern similar to those of African-American male teens and white male teens but without the dramatic increases.

Youthful Victims

In a 2004 study, "Age Fourteen Starts a Child's Increased Risk of Major Knife or Gun Injury in Washington, D.C.," by Howard Freed and colleagues (Journal of the National Medical Association, vol. 96, no. 2, February 2004), an analysis of eight years of trauma registry data at an inner-city trauma center showed that the risk of a youth becoming a victim of a major gunshot wound or stabbing rose dramatically at age fourteen. The risk continued to rise sharply through the age of eighteen.

Table 7.3 categorizes the type of weapon used in violent crime compared to the age of the victim for the years 1993 to 2001. For youths twelve to fourteen years, firearms were used 2.6% of the time. However, for older adolescents (fifteen to seventeen years old), the percentage jumps to 8.9% during that same period. Figure 7.4 exhibits the trend in homicides involving guns—the percentage is far higher for younger victims. Figure 7.5 shows that nonfatal firearm violence against all ages and groups declined from 1993 to 2001.

Figure 7.6 and Figure 7.7 show that young males, especially young African-American males, are involved in

FIGURE 7.4

homicides as both victims and offenders out of proportion to their numbers. While the young African-American male share of the population has remained at about 1% since 1976, the proportions of homicide victims and offenders who were young African-American males increased dramatically until 1994. African-American males aged fourteen to twenty-four were 17.3% of all homicide offenders in 1976, compared with one-third

FIGURE 7.5

(32.8%) of the total in 1994. Young African-American males made up 9.2% of all homicide victims in 1976 and 17.5% in 1994. Between 1994 and 2000, the proportions of young African-American males who were homicide offenders and victims declined.

The percentage of the population represented by white males eighteen to twenty-four years of age has declined since 1976, while the proportions of homicide victims and offenders of that same group has risen. White males aged fourteen to twenty-four represented 8.7% of

homicide victims in 1976, compared with 10% in 2000. (See Figure 7.7.)

Young children are also victims of gun violence. Figure 7.8 shows that the use of firearms against murder victims under the age of twelve decreased from 1993 to 2001. During that period, about two in five murders of children under twelve years of age involved a weapon, and one in six involved a firearm. In 2001, 15% of the murders of children under twelve years of age involved a firearm. Among victims aged twelve or older from 1993 to 2001, 70% of all murders were committed through the use of a firearm (National Crime Victimization Survey, U.S. Department of Justice, September 2003).