Anatomy of Violence
The increase in juvenile violence began in 1985
as the use of cocaine in inner cities began to reach
epidemic proportions. According to Alfred
Blumstein, the J. Erik Johnson University Professor of
Urban Systems and Operations Research at Carnegie Mellon University (Pennsylvania) and director
of the National Consortium on Violence Research,
the increase was the result of the
interrelationship -- or "deadly nexus" -- of several factors: drugs, guns, and juveniles.
Under Blumstein's theory, the expansion of
the crack cocaine market led to drug traffickers
recruiting children and teenagers as low-level sellers,
carriers, and lookouts. Juveniles were recruited
partly because they worked for less, took greater
chances, and were more likely to escape detection and
punishment.
Juveniles involved in drug trafficking carried
guns because they were unable to rely on police for
protection. As more juveniles were recruited by
drug traffickers, firearms proliferated among
inner-city gangs engaged in turf and drug market battles.
This in turn persuaded other juveniles, who may not
have been involved with the drug industry, to carry
guns for self-protection and also as a status symbol.
Thus, as more guns appeared in the community,
the incentive for individuals to arm themselves
increased, creating what Blumstein refers to as a "local
arms race."9
Data on the number of firearm-related homicides appear to support Blumstein's theory. In 1976,
less than two-thirds of juvenile homicide offenders
used a gun; by 1991, more than three-quarters killed
with a gun;10 in 1994, 82 percent used a
gun.11 Since 1980, the murder arrest rate has declined slightly
for adults and increased markedly for juveniles,
regardless of race. But between 1985 and 1992,
the drug arrest rate for juveniles climbed only for
nonwhites.12 Blumstein offers a simple explanation
for this disparity:
. . . [T]he apparent absence of significant involvement of white juveniles in the drug
markets during this time has not insulated them from the growth of their involvement in
homicide, possibly through the suggested process
of the diffusion of guns from drug sellers into
the larger community. When the arrest trends of young nonwhites for homicide and drug
offenses are compared, it is evident that both rates climbed together from 1985 to 1989,
suggesting the relationship between the two. The drug arrest rate declined somewhat after
1989. There was a flattening out, but no
corresponding decline, in the murder arrest rate. In
other words, the continued high rate of murder arrests seems to demonstrate that, once guns
are diffused into the community, they are much more difficult to purge.
Only by stopping the "diffusion" of
firearms, Blumstein says, will the Nation lower the
incidence of violent crime committed by juveniles.
7. Alfred Blumstein, Violence by Young People: Why the
Deadly Nexus?, U.S. Dep't of Justice National Institute of
Justice Journal, Aug. 1995, at 3.
8. Update, supra note 1, at 18.
9. Blumstein, supra note 7, at 6.
10. Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency
Prevention, U.S. Dep't of Justice, Juvenile Offenders and
Victims: A Focus on Violence iv (1995).
11. Update, supra note 1, at 24.
12. Blumstein, supra note 7, at 7, 8.