Guns and Juveniles

Patterns of Homicides Attributed to Youth Gun Violence

There was a 65 percent increase in juvenile homicides, beginning in 1987 and peaking in 1993. Juvenile homicides have declined since that time to a level just 20 percent above that of 1987 (Snyder and Sickmund, 2000). A number of experts believe that nearly all the growth, and the subsequent decline, in juvenile homicides was directly related to firearm use by nonfamily members. Between 1980 and 1987, firearms were used in just over half (54 percent) of all homicides involving juvenile offenders. Firearm-related homicides began to increase sharply so that by 1994, 82 percent of homicides by juvenile offenders involved the use of firearms. Both the growth and decline involved substantial changes in the number of murders by acquaintances and the number of murders by older youth and African American youth (Snyder and Sickmund, 2000).

When a juvenile kills other juveniles, the victims are usually acquaintances killed by a gun. Of the juveniles killed by other juveniles between 1980 and 1997, 63 percent were age 16 or older. Family members killed only 5 percent of these older juvenile victims, 76 percent were killed by acquaintances, and 19 percent were killed by strangers. During this period, 77 percent of these older juveniles were killed with firearms.

Between 1980 and 1997, the vast majority (93 percent) of known juvenile homicide offenders were male. Slightly more than half (56 percent) were African American, and 88 percent were juveniles aged 15 or older. Murders by the very young have been rare; between 1980 and 1997, fewer than 10 juveniles age 10 or younger were identified as participants in murders. However, firearms were involved in about half of these homicides (Snyder and Sickmund, 2000).

Youth Homicide, Illicit Drug Markets, and the Diffusion of Guns

Blumstein and Cork (1996) have theorized that the increase in juvenile homicides is due to a link between illicit drug markets, recruitment of juveniles for those markets, and the diffusion of guns among juveniles. The crack cocaine epidemic began around the mid-1980s, just before the youth homicide rate began its dramatic ascent. Unlike powdered cocaine, crack was affordable to lower-class individuals. However, because they could not afford large quantities of the drug, they had to purchase frequently. Thus many more consumers were purchasing at a higher rate, resulting in a sharp increase in the need for sellers.

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