Influence of Gun Availability on Violent Crime Patterns (From Crime and Justice - An Annual Review of Research, P 49-89, 1983, Michael Tonry and Norval Morris, ed. - See NCJ-89003)

• NCJ Number: 89005
• Author(s): P J Cook
• Date Published: 1983
• Length: 41 pages
• Sale Source: University of Chicago Press
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Americans are currently being murdered, robbed, and raped at historically unprecedented rates. The widespread availability of firearms contributes to this high rate and also influences violent crime patterns in several other aspects.

Abstract

A gun is usually superior to other weapons readily available for use in violent crime. Guns are particularly valuable against relatively invulnerable targets. Hence, gun availability facilitates robbery of commercial places and lethal assaults on people who would ordinarily be able to defend themselves against other weapons. Some of the patterns of gun use in violent crime can be readily interpreted in terms of relative vulnerability of different types of victims. Guns are also more dangerous than other weapons, in the sense that robbery and assault victims are more likely to be killed if the assailant uses a gun. On the other hand, the victim is less likely to be injured in a gun robbery than in other robberies, since the gun robber usually does not feel the need to employ physical force. This analysis suggests a number of predictions concerning the effects of gun availability on the number, distribution, and seriousness of violent crimes. In principle, these predictions could be tested directly by observing the effects of changes in gun availability on statistical characterizations of violent crime patterns, partly because a suitable measure of gun availability is difficult to find. Tabular data, footnotes, and about 65 references are supplied. (Author abstract modified)