Posted on 05/22/2011 11:32:07 AM PDT by neverdem
Large metropolitan areas suffer about two-thirds of all firearm homicides in the United States, with inner cities most affected, according to a new report from the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention.
"The central cities really bear the burden of firearm homicides," said Linda L. Dahlberg, the associate director for science in CDC's Division of Violence Prevention, noting that the gun murder rate was highest among male children and teens.
These findings "speak to the importance of addressing youth if we really want to do something about the gun violence problem," Dahlberg said.
According to the CDC, 25,423 murders by gunfire took place in the United States in 2006 through 2007 -- the years of the most recent available statistics.
Among these deaths, the rate of firearm homicides was higher in inner cities than in other parts of cities and higher than the murder rate of the country as a whole, Dahlberg said. People living in 50 of the largest cities, in fact, accounted for 67% of all firearm homicides.
In addition, children and teens aged 10 to 19 in these areas -- more than 85% of them male -- accounted for 73 % of all firearm homicides, Dahlberg noted.
In the United States, "gun violence escalated in the late 1980s and 1990s, fueled in part by the crack cocaine epidemic," Dahlberg said. "Even though the rates have declined since 1994, the proportion of youth homicides that are committed with firearms has remained consistently high."
To reduce the carnage, the country needs to teach young people ways to resolve conflicts without violence, according to the CDC.
The findings were published in the May 13 issue of CDC's Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report.
For the study, researchers used data from the National Vital Statistics System and the U.S. Census Bureau to calculate gun murders in the 50 largest U.S. cities for 2006-2007.
The researchers found regional differences in the rates of firearm homicides rates, which tended to be higher in cities in the Midwest and South than in the Northeast and West.
Dahlberg noted that research shows that youth violence is preventable -- with effort. "Programs that build skills in resolving conflicts without resorting to violence have resulted in reductions in youth violence," she said.
Parenting and mentoring programs can also have a strong impact. So can community-wide programs that focus on neighborhoods trying to change the physical and social environment, Dahlberg added. "Neighborhood interventions have resulted in significant reductions in crime and violence," she said.
There are also programs like "Cease Fire" that focus on preventing shooting and try to work with many people in the community, including hospitals and community outreach groups, to help defuse violence and "change the community norms around violence," Dahlberg said.
The report also included information on gun suicides -- which, unlike murders, are least common in cities.
Cities accounted for only 39% of firearm suicides, Dahlberg pointed out. "Gun suicides were lower in urban areas than in the nation overall," she said. "And, the central cities had rates below other metropolitan areas."
Daniel Webster, professor and co-director of the Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research in Baltimore, isn't surprised that most firearm murders occur in inner cities.
"One of the strongest correlates for homicide is 'concentrated disadvantaged,' where everyone living in an area is poor and unemployed," he said. "There are a lot of sociological factors at play here that make some urban communities at high risk for youth and gun violence," he explained.
Webster's strategy for reducing gun murders by teens is making guns harder to get. That means cracking down on people who sell guns, especially those who sell guns to teens.
In addition, police can crack down on people who illegally carry guns, particularly in inner cities. "Special units -- whose principal task is to identify individuals who illegally carry guns and arrest them and get the guns off the streets -- appear to work to reduce gun violence," Webster said.
Also, community programs like "Cease Fire" can have a significant effect in reducing gun violence, he added.
Gary Kleck, the David J. Bordua Professor of Criminology at Florida State University in Tallahassee, has another take on how to reduce inner-city gun violence.
The evidence suggests that better gun control doesn't necessarily reduce violence, but a broad-based approach tends to reduce homicide in general, he said.
For one thing, "locking up more criminals reduces violence; it's not gun specific," he said. There are treatment programs that can help, he added. "They basically teach offenders how to think differently when [they] face a violent situation," Kleck said.
In addition, job training can help in getting people not to commit crimes or violence, Kleck said.
Copyright © 2011 HealthDay. All rights reserved.
SOURCES: Linda L. Dahlberg, Ph.D., associate director for science, violence prevention division, U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention; Daniel Webster, Sc.D., M.P.H., professor and co-director, Johns Hopkins Center for Gun Policy and Research, Baltimore; Gary Kleck, Ph.D., David J. Bordua Professor of Criminology, Florida State University, Tallahassee, Fla.; May 13, 2011, Morbidity and Mortality Weekly Report
New York City has one of the finest police forces in the world.
D.C. and Phila. have thugs with guns.
D.C. has a 10% suspect identification rate. That is identification, not capture, trial and sentence.
The area joke is if you want to kill someone do it and drop the body in D.C. You will never get caught.
First, Cherry Picked Propaganda. Perhaps the study should be looking more at those committing violent acts rather than firearms as a solution. Firearms are only one tool and not necessarily the most common. Second, they need to look at what is wrong in our Human Services (Parental Unit Replacement) System to perpetuate generations of self justifying predators.
Finally, why must they admit: “One of the strongest correlates for homicide is concentrated disadvantaged.” (Is this is code speak for liberal entitlement offspring?) and then try to make a peripheral argument, more stringent gun control, the centerpiece of their solution?
Eddie Eagle is the answer to start kids learning about firearm saftey, but the libs raise hell about the nra in schools!
Makes me wonder how many of these cities joined “Project Exile”.
Within the first year (1997-1998) Project Exile resulted in:
372 persons indicted for Federal gun violations.
440 illegally possessed guns seized.
300 persons arrested or held in State custody.
222 arrestees (more than 74 percent) held without bond.
247 persons convicted.
196 persons sentenced to an average of 55 months of imprisonment.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Project_Exile
Big cities in the U.S. are the most heavily armed venues in the U.S., by both the good and bad. Without it, crime would be many times worse.
And that right there is your Moron of the Day. I was reading this article with baited breath, waiting for the line that discussed gun control and how gun control is the most strict exactly in these cities where violence and murder are the worst. To any intelligent being, that right there shows NO CORRELATION WHATSOEVER between laws and violence. Good people will be peaceful with or without either laws or guns. Evil people will violate all laws and kill with guns.
Thankfully, the liberal idiots did not disappoint me with their thinking, sticking to the irrational, nonsensical, completely failed answer when the real answer is staring them in the face. Legalize drugs, or start to kill or permanently jail all gang members. There is your answer. I don't advocate killing them all and I don't want to pay to lock them all up, so leagalize ALL drugs and make it a healthcare issue. Poof, presto, violence gets cut in half overnight with the remaining half still being the same Orcs who prey on their fellow inner city residents.
Part of the issue is the sociological background where the gun deaths occur.
But, if they did a full work up I don't think they would like the result - more gun deaths occur in areas dominated by the Democratic party than the Republican Party. How would that advance the liberal/progressive/socialist/dimocrat narrative?
Oops, I stated solutions to the problem and I flat missed the most obvious solution after legalizing drugs.
Allow shall issue carry in ALL of these commie bedwetting liberal cities and the crime problem would begin to clean itself up instantly. Not just the problem of murders by guns, but all crimes - rape, assault, burglary, robbery, auto theft.
The modern mentally-retarded liberal is willfully blind to the obvious real solutions.
Show homicide for each race. See a pattern?
What in God’s name does the CDC have to do with gun violence? Shouldn’t the CDC concern themselves with diseases, infections and plagues?!
No, just ban minority Democratic control of them.
Blue Melanoma......
Thanks for bringing up “demographics” I think we have a winner.
Ban the populations that can not live within the law.
These high paid government leeches are wasting the money we pay them to search out real diseases and develop cures. The only reason this is happening is because CDC has too many employees and absolutely too much money. Their budget should be cut by half and their rolls reduced the same. That would stop this silly shit.
Aren't all these large cities "Sanctuary Cities"
where they don't arrest Illegal Aliens ?
Exactly. Blacks and Mexicans commit the vast majority of these crimes yet they are so politically correct that they cannot speak truth.
Amazing.
Thomas Jefferson
"The mobs of great cities add just so much to the support of pure government, as sores do to the strength of the human body."
Thomas Jefferson
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