This article from the American Prosecutors Research Institute examines the use of specialized gun courts in criminal justice systems throughout the country.
This article examines the use of specialized gun courts in five criminal justice systems throughout the country. The use of gun courts has been expanding throughout the country since their inception in the mid-1990s. The primary purpose of gun courts is to move gun-related offenses through the criminal justice system quickly and efficiently. This process has resulted in a two-fold benefit to communities: potential offenders are deterred from committing firearm offenses when they observe serious action being taken against current offenders, and current offenders are not put back out on the streets for months, or even years at a time. The efforts of five criminal justice systems that have successfully implemented the use of gun courts are discussed in this article. These five systems are Providence, RI; Birmingham, AL; New York, NY; Philadelphia, PA; and Boston, MA.