ABSTRACT
Beginning in the late 1980s and continuing through the early 1990s, the United States experienced a dramatic increase in firearms violence (Blumstein, 1995). The gun violence epidemic was highly concentrated among young minority males, who were often gang involved and well known to the criminal justice system, residing in disadvantaged inner-city neighborhoods (Braga, 2003; Cook & Laub, 2002). The peak year for gun homicide was 1993, with 17,075 homicides committed with firearms (U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2007). The increase was followed by a puzzling decrease. By 2000, gun homicide had decreased by almost 41% to 10,113 homicides with firearms and has remained relatively low, with 10,654 gun homicides in 2004 (U.S. Bureau of Justice Statistics, 2007). Criminologists and public policy analysts examined a wide range of factors-innovative policing strategies, a strong economy, higher imprisonment rates, stronger gun control, and stabilizing street-level drug markets-that may have been associated with the drop (Blumstein & Wallman, 2000; Zimring, 2006).
