Strategies for Disrupting Illegal Firearm Markets
A Case Study of Los Angeles
ResearchPublished Apr 24, 2008
In 2001, with the support of a grant from the National Institute of Justice, RAND initiated a research and program-development effort to understand the nature of illegal gun markets operating in the city of Los Angeles, California. The primary goal of this project was to determine whether a data-driven, problem-solving approach could yield new interventions aimed at disrupting the workings of local, illegal gun markets serving criminals, gang members, and juveniles in Los Angeles. The authors created a new software tool to help law enforcement analyze patterns in crime-gun data and identify and trace illicit pathways by which criminals acquire guns. Second, the findings were incorporated into an interagency working-group process that developed a community-based intervention designed to disrupt the illegal flow of guns to Los Angeles-area criminals; this intervention may had an impact on straw purchasing. Key participants in the working group included the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives; the Los Angeles Police Department; the U.S. Attorney's Office; state and city prosecutors; academics; and other criminal-justice agencies. Finally, they assessed the utility of retail ammunition-purchase records in identifying prohibited firearm possessors, recommending a cost-benefit analysis on this measure.
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Document Details
- Copyright: RAND Corporation
- Availability: Available
- Year: 2008
- Print Format: Paperback
- Paperback Pages: 90
- Paperback Price: $24.00
- Paperback ISBN/EAN: 978-0-8330-4478-5
- Document Number: TR-512-NIJ
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Ridgeway, Greg, Glenn L. Pierce, Anthony A. Braga, George Tita, Garen Wintemute, and Wendell Roberts, Strategies for Disrupting Illegal Firearm Markets: A Case Study of Los Angeles, RAND Corporation, TR-512-NIJ, 2008. As of October 11, 2024: https://www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/TR512.html
Ridgeway, Greg, Glenn L. Pierce, Anthony A. Braga, George Tita, Garen Wintemute, and Wendell Roberts, Strategies for Disrupting Illegal Firearm Markets: A Case Study of Los Angeles. Santa Monica, CA: RAND Corporation, 2008. https://www.rand.org/pubs/technical_reports/TR512.html. Also available in print form.
This research was supported by a grant from the National Institute of Justice and conducted under the auspices of the Safety and Justice Program within RAND Infrastructure, Safety, and Environment (ISE).
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