NCJ Number
173958
Date Published
December 1998
Length
0 pages
Annotation
This seminar presentation describes policing strategies and tactics developed in 10 cities to reduce firearms-related violence committed by youth and the findings of a national evaluation of these programs.
Abstract
The Youth Firearms Violence Initiative began in 1995 with funding from the National Institute of Justice and aimed to develop and evaluate innovative local strategies based on community policing. Each police agency developed its own strategies for reducing gun violence among youth. These strategies included traditional enforcement, prevention, dedicated police unites, a focus on specific targets, and others. Operational problems that emerged included how to define youth and whether to focus only on firearms or also on all crimes. Both process and impact evaluations took place in collaboration with the police agencies. Data collection methods included observation, review of records, interviews, and analyses of incident data. Evaluation measures included qualitative assessments and quantitative enforcement data such as arrests and crime trends. Results revealed variations in effects among the cities. Many methodological issues made it difficult to determine program effects. Overall, findings indicated that counts of arrests and seizures were potentially misleading, that gun crime patterns were inconclusive, and that extraneous influences were difficult to assess. Police agencies that establish programs such as these will experience the same problems. Findings also indicate that the Federal Government's role is crucial in setting and enforcing standards that local police agencies should seek to meet. Questions and answers from the audience and introduction by National Institute of Justice Director Jeremy Travis