Examination of Crime Guns and Homicide in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania, 1987-1998

2001 ◽  
Author(s):  
Jacqueline Cohen ◽  
Wilpen Gorr
Keyword(s):  
1999 ◽  
Vol 5 (4) ◽  
pp. 259-263 ◽  
Author(s):  
J. S Vernick ◽  
D. W Webster ◽  
L. M Hepburn
Keyword(s):  

2020 ◽  
pp. 174889582097131
Author(s):  
Andrew Goldsmith ◽  
Mark Halsey ◽  
David Bright

This article argues that guns, as objects used in and for crime, have received insufficient criminological attention. It proposes a socio-material perspective for taking crime guns seriously as material agents in the ways many serious crimes are planned and executed. Drawing in part upon affordance theory, the perspective links the ‘objective’ physical properties of guns to their allure and take up for the purposes of carrying out crime. Guns are powerful organising objects in the commission of crime, it is argued, capable of provoking as well as enabling a range of threatening and harmful activities. The perspective is developed drawing upon interview data from a large qualitative study of convicted gun criminals. These data enable the notion of materiality to be considered at different stages of criminal career, particularly prior to first criminal gun use through to enforced or voluntary desistance. The article concludes with a consideration of policy options suggested by the socio-material perspective. In a post-Covid 19 world in which guns have gained greater salience in many countries, it is argued that the need to ‘dematerialise’ gun attraction and use has never been greater.


2004 ◽  
Vol 43 (6) ◽  
pp. 733-742 ◽  
Author(s):  
Garen J. Wintemute ◽  
Michael P. Romero ◽  
Mona A. Wright ◽  
Kevin M. Grassel
Keyword(s):  

2000 ◽  
Vol 11 (1) ◽  
pp. 44-62 ◽  
Author(s):  
David B. Kopel ◽  
Paul H. Blackman

The Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms (BATF) sometimes traces the history of firearms used in crime. Typically, the trace reveals the gun's history from its manufacture to its sale by a licensed retail firearms dealer. BATF traces occasionally have been a useful tool for investigating individual crimes. In recent years, however, some persons have attempted to use BATF trace data to study gun violence and evaluate firearms policies. There are severe limitations on the utility of the BATF data for criminological analysis. These limits include the relatively small number of crime guns that BATF traces, BATF's rules about what guns it will not even attempt to trace, and the limited information supplied by gun traces. The authors suggest that BATF trace figures are not a sound foundation for criminological research.


2009 ◽  
Vol 9 (3) ◽  
pp. 265-286 ◽  
Author(s):  
Philip J. Cook ◽  
Wendy Cukier ◽  
Keith Krause

Gun violence in North American is the subject of much speculation and debate, often based on limited or incomplete empirical evidence. We summarize the regulatory frameworks in Mexico, the United States and Canada, and provide statistics on gun misuse in these countries. Based on our analysis of publicly available information on sources of crime guns, we conclude that while the United States is a major supplier of illegal handguns to Canada and illegal firearms of all types to Mexico, quantifying the extent of its role, particularly in Mexico, is difficult because of data limitations. Still more difficult is to project the consequences of an effective crackdown by US authorities. If the illicit supply from the USA dried up, the criminal gangs could turn to a variety of other sources that already appear to be playing some role. A complete analysis of these issues must await more complete disclosure by the authorities of data on gun sources and trafficking investigations.


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