Stray Bullets and "Mushrooms": Random Shootings of Bystanders in Four Cities, 1977-1988

• NCJ Number: 121798
• Journal: Journal of Quantitative Criminology Volume: 5 Issue: 4 Dated: (December 1989) Pages: 297-316
• Author(s): L W Sherman; L Steele; D Laufersweiler; N Hoffer; S A Julian
• Date Published: 1989
• Length: 20 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Theoretical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

Although bystanders killed by bullets not intended for them have long been a very small part of the homicide problem, in recent years there has been an increase nationally of press accounts of such killings and woundings.

Abstract

A compilation of all shootings of bystanders hit "at random" and reported in the published indexes of the New York Times, the Los Angeles Times, and the Washington Post for 1977-1988 as well as from a key word computer search of stories in the Boston Globe found a rapid increase since 1985. Total bystander deaths appear to comprise less than one percent of all homicides in these cities. The numbers were large enough to show that most incidents reported in New York and Los Angeles were from random shootings into crowds, rather than single stray bullets striking a lone individual "mushroom." In Boston and Washington, the reverse was true with lower rates of bystanders reported shot. 8 tables, 34 references. (Author abstract modified)