Gun Violence Summary

According to Fagan (2002), studied the policing of gun and youth violence, within eight cities. The article evaluates the eight cities’ policing innovations against gun violence, while concentrating on the three different approaches: reciprocal control, punitive legal control and “soft” legal control. Reciprocal control refers to making police and community groups mutually reinforcing in regards to crime control. Punitive legal control refers to crime control through vigorous law enforcement and lastly, soft legal control, emphasizing the nonarrest community driven methods to reduce crime. Firstly, policing alone cannot contain youth violence, “but by carefully balancing enforcement with collaboration, police departments can help shift social norms that contribute to youth gun violence.” (p. 133) This article founded that law enforcement agencies that stresses the police-citizen cooperation benefits the officers’ validity within the community which could then reduce crimes. Lastly, approaches that focus on nonarrest and problem solving strategies is unproven to conclusively address youth gun violence. There needs to be a careful balance between the community residents and the police departments
The sample consists of (n=951), with (n=727) being non gun owners and (n=224) represented gun owners from different locations of Southwestern Ohio Ambulatory Research Network. The results showed that fifty-two percent of the sample children have received some gun safety education, observing that there were more non gun owners, this proves that they acknowledge the risks associated with guns in generally and having one within a household. This study is important to note within my research study because parents are in charge of their children, they are the ones that are guiding them throughout life and safety of any kind should be a priority to