Youth Violence Interventions

Disrupting Illegal Gun Trafficking to Youth

Experts have recommended that priority be given to disrupting illegal gun markets (Cook 1996, Roth 1994, Kennedy 1994). This may be a particularly useful way to reduce juvenile access to guns (Roth 1994, Cook 1996). In Boston, systematic tracing of guns taken from juveniles and subsequent arrest of adult suppliers has been credited with producing a substantial reduction in gun violence in one high-crime neighborhood (Butterfield 1996). A multi-center effort to replicate this finding is currently being implemented in Baltimore, Richmond and 15 other cities. The National Institute of Justice is expected to fund an evaluation of this effort.

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