About | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline Law Journal Library | HeinOnline
LOG IN
LOG IN

1 Michael R. Rand, Handgun Crime Victims 1 (1990)

handle is hein.death/hgcv0001 and id is 1 raw text is: U.S. Department of Justice Office of Justice Programs Bureau of Justice Statistics Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report Handgun Crime Victims By Michael R. Rand BJS Statistician Offenders armed with handguns committed an average of 639,000 violent crimes each year between 1979 and 1987. These crim- inals used handguns to kill an average of 9,200 people each year and to wound 15,000; they injured approximately 76,000 victims a year in ways other than by shoot- ing them. In 87% of the nonfatal crimes involving handguns, the offender did not fire the weapon but used it to intimidate - accord- ing to victims' reports gathered through the National Crime Survey (NCS), an ongoing survey conducted in a nationwide sample of households. Victims reported that the offender fired the gun but missed in 10% of the crimes involving handguns and wounded the victim in 2%. Other major findings on the role of hand- guns in crime include the following: * Young black urban males were the group most vulnerable to victimization by an offender armed with a handgun. Urban black men age 16 to 24 were victimized at a rate more than twice as high as the rate of urban white men and of urban black women of similar ages. e Handgun crimes represented 10% of all violent crimes and 27% of all violent crimes by armed offenders that occurred during the period 1979-87. Offenders with hand- guns committed about 7% of all rapes, 18% of all robberies, and 8% of all assaults (22% of aggravated assaults) during this period. Approximately 4 in every 10 vic- tims of murder or nonnegligent manslaugh- ter were killed by offenders with handguns. July 1990 Each year an estimated 639,000 residents of the United States face an offender armed with a handgun. This Bureau of Justice Statistics Special Report describes key findings from an analysis of handgun crimes reported in the National Crime Survey for 1979-87. It describes the victims of hand-gun crime, how the handgun was used during the crime, and the nature and extent of handgun crime injury. It also provides information on handgun offenders, the location of handgun crimes, and whether the crime was reported to the police. BJS thanks the victims of handgun crimes for describing their experi- ences to survey interviewers and thereby providing the data necessary for reports such as this one. Joseph M. Bessette Acting Director * For violent crimes committed with a handgun, white offenders were responsible for 43% of the rapes, 22% of the robberies, and 58% of the aggravated assaults; blacks were responsible for 51% of the rapes, 67% of the robberies, and 35% of the assaults. e A higher percentage of crimes by stran- gers involved handguns than did crimes by acquaintances or relatives of victims. While 12% of all violent crimes by stran- gers were committed by offenders Handguns and crime, 1979-87 Average annual number Handgun crimes 638,900 Murder 9,200 Rape 12,100 Robbery 210,000 Assault 407,600 Nonfatal handgun crimes 629,700 Victims injured 91.500 Shot 15,000 Other injury 76,400 Note: Detail may not add to total because of rounding. wielding handguns, 5% of violent crimes by acquaintances and 6% of violent crimes by relatives were committed with a handgun. e Of victims injured but not killed by gun- shot injuries, 28% were treated in emer- gency rooms and released, and 68% were hospitalized overnight or longer. About 21% of all victims of nonfatal gunshots were hospitalized for 3 weeks or more. * Victims of handgun robberies were more apt than other robbery victims to lose prop- erty in the robbery. Eighty percent of handgun robberies were completed versus 61% of robberies not involving handguns. * Victims of handgun crimes were much less likely to take self-protective measures such as fighting back, running away, or try- ing to dissuade the offender than were vic- tims of other violent crimes. Fifty-five percent of handgun crime victims took self- protective measures, compared to 76% of victims of violent crimes with no handgun present. 0

What Is HeinOnline?

HeinOnline is a subscription-based resource containing thousands of academic and legal journals from inception; complete coverage of government documents such as U.S. Statutes at Large, U.S. Code, Federal Register, Code of Federal Regulations, U.S. Reports, and much more. Documents are image-based, fully searchable PDFs with the authority of print combined with the accessibility of a user-friendly and powerful database. For more information, request a quote or trial for your organization below.



Contact us for annual subscription options:

Contact Us

Already a HeinOnline Subscriber?

Log In

profiles profiles most