Controlling New Mexico Juveniles' Possession and Use of Firearms

• DOI: 10.3818/JRP.1.1.1999.25
• Author: Martha Fernández,Gary LaFree,Andrea Bassin,Nora Wilson,Luis Gabaldón,Christopher Birkbeck,Melissa Pacheco
• Published date: 01 June 1999
• Date: 01 June 1999
• Subject Matter: Article

Juveniles’ Possession and Use of Firearms • 25

*CONTROLLING NEW MEXICO JUVENILES’

POSSESSION AND USE OF FIREARMS

Christopher Birkbeck

Gary LaFree

Luis Gabaldón

Andrea Bassin

Nora Wilson

Martha Fernández

Melissa Pacheco

We are grateful to the following agencies for permission to collect data for this

study: New Mexico Department of Children, Youth and Families; Albuquerque,

Belen and Los Lunas Police Departments; Bernalillo County Juvenile Detention

Center; Bernalillo County District Attorney’s Office; Thirteenth Judicial District

Attorneys’ Office; Valencia County Sheriff’s Office. We also thank two anonymous

referees for their comments. This study was supported by the Justice Research and

Statistics Association under a grant from the Bureau of Justice Statistics’ National

Criminal History Improvement Program. Points of view in this article are those of

the authors and do not necessarily represent the official position or policies of the

Justice Research and Statistics Association, or the Bureau of Justice Statistics.

JUSTICE RESEARCH AND POLICY, Vol. 1, No. 1, Spring 1999.

© 1999 Justice Research and Statistics Association

* Abstract

As a first step in identifying potential opportunities for improved control, this

study describes aspects of firearms possession and use among a sample of juve-

nile offenders and examines system responses to incidents involving juveniles

and firearms in two New Mexico counties. The main sources of data are a self-

report questionnaire administered to 380 juvenile offenders in confinement, and

information on 135 incidents involving firearms that led to the arrest of one or

more juveniles. Our results show that firearms are readily accessible to juvenile

offenders and are carried most often for self-defense or aggression rather than as

status symbols. Two thirds of firearms incidents became known to police after

26 • Justice Research and Policy

calls were made by citizens. These calls often concerned violent or property crimes.

One third of the incidents were detected by the police following searches in pub-

lic places. Compared to cases initiated by citizens, those initiated by police inter-

vention were more likely to lead to charges being filed and to subsequent adjudi-

cation, mainly on weapons charges. We conclude by recommending that the po-

lice increase their monitoring of situations in which juveniles are likely to be

carrying firearms illegally.

* Introduction

Within the extensive and ongoing national debate over access to firearms and the

relationship between firearms and violence, juveniles did not—for a long time—

receive much specific attention. However, beginning especially in the mid-1980s,

growing differences between national crime trends and juvenile violent crime

trends have focused increasing attention on juveniles. While overall crime rates

have been declining steadily in recent years (Bureau of Justice Statistics, 1998;

LaFree 1998: chap. 2), juvenile violent crime rates have substantially increased

(Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention, 1995a, p.1; Fox, 1996;

Cook & Laub, 1998). This may explain in part why recent public opinion polls

rank crime and violence as the number one problem facing the nation (Berke,

1994), despite overall declines in crime (see also Zimring, 1996).

At least some part of the juvenile violent crime problem can be attributed to

the increased availability of firearms (Blumstein, 1995; Blumstein & Cork, 1996;

Zimring, 1996), although such a relationship between guns and juvenile violence

would not necessarily have been predicted from research focusing on overall

crime rates. For example, following an extensive review of the available research,

Kleck (1991, p. 203) concluded: “The assumption that general gun availability

positively affects the frequency or average seriousness of violent crimes is not

supported.” However, Kleck also noted that gun ownership among high-risk

subsets of the population may increase rates of violence, and juveniles appear to

be a high-risk subset. Blumstein (1995) noted that young people are more likely

than adults to be reckless and unrestrained when handling deadly weapons, par-

ticularly during disputes. They “transform what once would have been fist fights

with outcomes no more serious than a bloody nose into shootings with much

more lethal consequences because guns are present” (p. 6).

Studies of juvenile firearms possession, ownership, and use suggest that guns

are carried by a small but important minority. For example, Callahan and Rivara

(1992) found that 6.4% of a sample of Seattle high school students reported

owning a handgun and approximately half of those students had carried a hand-