Youth Violence, Guns, and the Illicit-Drug Industry

Abstract

Al (A New Yor* Times/CBS poll asked respondents to identify "the single biggest problem facing the nation." The leading issue was violent crime, identified by 19% of the respondents, with an additional 2% citing guns. The next issue of greatest concern was health care-a subject of considerable public discussion at the time-cited as such by 15% of the respondents. Only 3% cited drug abuse.). 8 See U. S. BuREAu or THE CENsus, STAnSTICAL ABSrRACr OF THE U.S. 87, table 115 (1994). 9 SeeAlfred Blumstein &Jacqueline Cohen, Characterizing Criminal Careers, 237 SciENCE 985 (1987); ALmFED BLUMSTEIN Er AL, CRIMINAL CAREERS AD "CAREER CRIMINALS" 1-12 (1986) for consideration of the issues involved and estimates of the duration of criminal careers.

How Delinquent Youths Acquire Guns: Initial Versus Most Recent Gun Acquisitions

“…This is not surprising because individuals involved in illicit drug sales commonly have guns. 15 Youths often reported stashing their guns close to where they were selling drugs to avoid enhanced prison sentences for possessing a gun during the commission of a drug crime. 12 Therefore, police searches in and around open-air drug markets, or in other areas where suspects have been pursued by the police, may lead to many gun seizures from high-risk settings.…”

Punishment, Deterrence and Social Control: The Paradox of Punishment in Minority Communities

“…For example, increases in violent crime in the 1960s were attributed to sharp increases in heroin addiction in large U.S. cities, 233 in the 1970s to youth violence, 234 and in the 1980s to youth gangs, guns, and drug traffickers. 235 Each successive iteration of the etiology of rising violence rates lead to the identification culturally, politically and socially of new "dangerous classes" that threatened public safety and whose crimes merited increased doses of punishment. Similar trends were identified in the United Kingdom.…”

Guns, Drugs and Juvenile Crime: Evidence from a Panel of Siblings and Twins

“…Blumstein (1995) suggests that the rise in juvenile homicide rate between mid-1980s and early 1990s is associated with an increased tendency to carry guns among juveniles. Wintemute (2000) argues that the increase in violence in mid-1980s is attributable to gun manufacturers' move to produce cheap medium-and high-caliber pistols, and that the decline in youth violence in the 1990s is attributable to stricter gun control policies adopted during the same period.…”