The National Institute of Justice Research
NIJ is the research, development and evaluation agency of the U.S. Department of Justice dedicated to improving knowledge and understanding of crime and justice issues through science. We provides objective and independent knowledge and tools to inform the decision-making of the criminal justice community to reduce crime and advance justice, particularly at the state and local levels.
The National Institute of Justice is committed to being a transformative force in the criminal justice field by meeting five strategic challenges:
Fostering science-based criminal justice practice — supporting rigorous scientific research to ensure the safety of families, neighborhoods and communities.
Translating knowledge to practice — disseminating rigorous scientific research to criminal justice professionals to advance what works best in preventing and reducing crime.
Advancing technology — building a more effective, fair and efficient criminal justice system through technology.
Working across disciplines — connecting the physical, forensic, and social sciences to reduce crime and promote justice.
Bolstering the research infrastructure — supporting new scholars, encouraging researchers from a broad array of disciplines to apply their work to criminal justice, and increasing the availability of research findings and data.
Adopting a global perspective — understanding crime in its social context within the U.S. and globally.
NIJ supports research, evaluation, and development projects in seven areas:
Causes and correlates of crime.
Crime prevention and control.
Prevention of violence and victimization.
Forensic sciences.
Corrections practice and policy, including community corrections.
Law enforcement effectiveness, legitimacy, accountability and safety.
Courts and adjudication.
Within each of these broad areas, NIJ establishes research goals that are translated into specific research objectives within each program area. The research objectives for each of NIJ’s portfolios are determined by:
Existing research knowledge (because knowledge accumulates).
Input about crime-fighting successes, failures and needs gathered directly from practitioners, policymakers and researchers.
The successes and struggles of programs undertaken by other federal agencies, including other Office of Justice Programs bureaus and offices.
Research on Gn Crimes
According to the National Crime Victimization Survey, 467,321 persons were victims of a crime committed with a firearm in 2011. In the same year, data collected by the FBI show that firearms were used in 68 percent of murders, 41 percent of robbery offenses and 21 percent of aggravated assaults nationwide. Most homicides in the United States are committed with firearms, especially handguns.
Homicides committed with firearms peaked in 1993 at 17,075, after which the figure steadily fell, reaching a low of 10,117 in 1999. Gun-related homicides increased slightly after that, to a high of 11,547 in 2006, before falling again to 10,869 in 2008.
Gangs and Gun-Related Homicide
Gun-related homicide is most prevalent among gangs and during the commission of felony crimes. In 1980, the percentage of homicides caused by firearms during arguments was about the same as from gang involvement (about 70 percent), but by 1993, nearly all gang-related homicides involved guns (95 percent), whereas the percentage of gun homicides related to arguments remained relatively constant. The percentage of gang-related homicides caused by guns fell slightly to 92 percent in 2008, but the percentage of homicides caused by firearms during the commission of a felony rose from about 60 percent to about 74 percent from 1980 to 2005.
Nonfatal Firearm-Related Crime
Nonfatal firearm-related crime has fallen significantly in recent years, from almost 1.3 million incidents in 1994 to a low of 331,618 incidents in 2008. Since then it has risen; in 2011 there were 414,562 incidents.
As a percentage of all violent incidents (i.e., rape, sexual assault, robbery and aggravated assault), between 1993 and 2011, nonfatal gun crime has ranged from a high of 8 percent to a low of 5 percent. In 2011, firearm crimes comprised 8 percent of all violent crimes.
Nonfatal Firearm Violence, 1993-2011 |
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Year |
Firearm incidents |
Firearm victims |
Firearm crime rate |
Firearm crimes as a percent of all violent incidents |
1993 |
1,222,701 |
1,529,742 |
7.3 |
8 |
1994 |
1,287,190 |
1,568,176 |
7.4 |
8 |
1995 |
1,028,933 |
1,193,241 |
5.5 |
7 |
1996 |
939,453 |
1,100,809 |
5.1 |
7 |
1997 |
882,885 |
1,024,088 |
4.7 |
7 |
1998 |
673,304 |
835,423 |
3.8 |
6 |
1999 |
523,613 |
640,919 |
2.9 |
5 |
2000 |
483,695 |
610,219 |
2.7 |
6 |
2001 |
506,954 |
563,109 |
2.5 |
7 |
2002 |
450,776 |
539,973 |
2.3 |
7 |
2003 |
385,037 |
467,345 |
2.0 |
6 |
2004 |
405,774 |
456,512 |
1.9 |
7 |
2005 |
446,365 |
503,534 |
2.1 |
7 |
2006 |
552,035 |
614,406 |
2.5 |
7 |
2007 |
448,414 |
554,780 |
2.2 |
7 |
2008 |
331,618 |
371,289 |
1.5 |
5 |
2009 |
383,390 |
410,108 |
1.6 |
7 |
2010 |
378,801 |
415,003 |
1.6 |
8 |
2011 |
414,562 |
467,321 |
1.8 |
8 |
Source: Bureau of Justice Statistics, National Crime Victimization Survey, 1993-2011. |
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Who Has Guns and How Are They Acquired?
NIJ's earliest firearms studies uncovered who owns guns, legally and illegally, and how illegal gun trafficking is tied to juvenile gun violence and other crimes such as drug dealing and gang crime. Highlights of these studies:
Many juveniles and young adults can easily obtain guns illegally; most claim to carry them for self-defense.
A study of persons arrested for a wide range of crimes showed that a higher percentage of arrestees than regular citizens own firearms. Arrestees are also more likely to be injured or killed by gun violence. Within a community, this amounts to an identifiable group of “career” offenders.
Surveys of offenders have found that they prefer newer, high-quality guns and may steal or borrow them; most, however, acquire guns “off the street” through the illicit gun market.
Federal law prohibits the sale of firearms or ammunition to juveniles and people who have been convicted of felonies and some violent misdemeanors. Federally mandated background checks keep these people from buying firearms at licensed dealers. Prohibited buyers may turn to the largely unregulated secondary market — gun sales between private individuals. The secondary market is a major source of guns used in crimes.
Why do people buy guns illegally? While some may buy them with the intent of using them in a crime, reasons can vary. Boston's Operation Ceasefire, a successful gun violence intervention, found that youths frequently acquire guns because they're afraid of being a target of violence from others.
Trace Data Can Illuminate Illegal Firearms Markets
Records of firearms and ammunition sales can help law enforcement and researchers untangle these illegal firearms markets. If a gun is part of a criminal investigation, the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) can trace it — that is, the ATF can provide information to law enforcement on a gun's movement through the supply chain to its first retail purchase. Some states, such as California, mandate the documentation of secondary-market firearms sales or require dealers to log ammunition sales. This information can help crime investigators develop leads about a gun-related crime.
By analyzing patterns in these data, researchers and law enforcement can identify potential traffickers and begin to understand how firearms move into illegal use. For example, researchers in Los Angeles and those with Boston's Operation Ceasefire both found that there is very little interstate trafficking in firearms that are used in crimes. Instead, most crime guns, especially those that move very quickly from legal sale into criminal use, were originally purchased legally in the local area.
Trace Data Can Help Stop Trafficking
Interventions to stop gun trafficking can use these data in different ways. The Operation Ceasefire Working Group, which first met in January 1995, decided to focus on traffickers of the types of guns used by Boston street gangs. The ATF worked closely with Boston police to flag guns that had recently been purchased illegally and used in a crime. In Los Angeles, a working group that was focused on reducing illegal trafficking created a warning letter campaign aimed at discouraging local citizens from selling their guns illegally.
Using Trace Data to Police Illicitly Obtained Firearms
How do guns get into the wrong hands? One way to answer this question is use trace data — that is, the original sales information for guns that were eventually recovered by law enforcement. In some states, records on subsequent, private sales of firearms are also available.
These data can help investigators answer questions like "Where are illegally obtained guns coming from?", "Who buys guns that later end up seized by police?" and "How long does it take for a gun, once legally purchased, to move into criminal use?" The answers to these sorts of questions help law enforcement take steps to keep guns from getting into the wrong hands. They can also help policymakers understand what types of regulation are and are not helpful in fighting illegal firearms trafficking.
Research Using Trace Data and Secondary Purchases
In an NIJ-supported study, researchers looked at national trace data as well as data on secondary purchases in the state of California, which mandates recordkeeping for secondary firearms sales. For four years of data pulled from these records, they examined the amount of time that elapsed between a firearm's last legal sale and its recovery by law enforcement. (If this time is short, it can indicate illegal trafficking.) Then, they examined their findings in the context of state firearms regulations and enforcement to see whether state laws can have an effect on trafficking.
The researchers' results found that records of secondary sales, as mandated in California, are useful in identifying guns that may have been trafficked. They also found that it took longer for guns to eventually be recovered by police in those states that had laws regulating both firearm purchase and registration compared to states that had only one type of these laws and states that had neither. The researchers argue that this suggests that strong state firearms regulation can make it more difficult for criminals to acquire firearms.
Illegal Gun Markets
Strategies for Disrupting Illegal Firearms Markets A Case Study of Los Angeles: In the city of Los Angeles, 64 percent of homicides between 1999 and 2003 were committed with a handgun. Although federal law prohibits ownership of firearms and ammunition by juveniles and certain people who may be prone to violence, unregulated secondary markets offer opportunities for these people to acquire them.
Many "crime guns" move quickly from legal sale into criminal use. Research has shown that one of every five guns that is used in a crime in Los Angeles moves very quickly from its initial, legal sale into criminal use. This suggests that many legal gun purchases in the city might be what are called "straw purchases" — that is, a gun bought by an adult with a clean record expressly to give or sell it to someone who could not have otherwise gotten one.
Intervening in illegal gun markets could reduce criminals' access to guns. In 2001, an NIJ-funded project took a data-driven approach to understanding and disrupting these illegal gun markets in Los Angeles. The researchers hoped that intervening in these markets could help to reduce gun violence.
In their final report, the researchers argue that disrupting the illegal market in guns could have a real effect on gun violence. Contrary to commonly held belief, they say, high-crime areas are not awash in guns: Studies have shown that most robbers do not use guns and most youths who are in gangs or who commit crimes do not own one. By learning how guns move into the wrong hands, police and policymakers could make guns more difficult to access by those who will use them for harm.
The project first created a data-analysis software tool and workstation for the new Southern California Regional Crime Gun Center, run by the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF). The prototype system was designed to help crime analysts better detect patterns in firearm-trace data that could indicate trafficking. The system integrated different ATF data sources and overlaid an interface through which analysts could manipulate the data to check for indicators of trafficking, illegal sales or other suspicious activity. It also provided analysts with a system to report potential leads for investigation.
Using the prototype system to reconstruct the movement of crime guns in the county, analysts found a surprising result: Although law enforcement officers in Los Angeles believed that most guns being used by local criminals had been brought in from neighboring states with fewer firearms regulations, the data showed that most crime guns were actually purchased originally from in-county, licensed dealers. In fact, there was often only a few miles between the home address of the original purchaser of a gun and that of the gun's possessor at the time it was recovered by police.
In reviewing these data, an interagency working group (composed of ATF officials, criminal justice researchers, law enforcement, prosecutors and other stakeholders) suspected that straw purchases were driving these outcomes. The working group designed an intervention, described in the next section (Intervening in Gun Markets) meant to make these "straw buyers" think twice about illegally transferring their guns.
The interagency working group was also concerned about potential illegal markets for ammunition. Researchers designed a study, described on the page Criminal Purchase of Firearm Ammunition, to determine whether prohibited individuals were buying ammunition from dealers, and if so, where and what they were buying.
Intervening in Gun Markets
In Los Angeles, which has a high rate of gun-related crime, research has shown that many crime guns move relatively quickly — and over relatively short geographic distances - from their original, legal purchase to recovery by law enforcement. (See Strategies for Disrupting Illegal Firearms Markets: A Case Study of Los Angeles. This suggests that many guns used by criminals are given or sold to them by straw buyers. Criminal justice theory suggests that people like these straw buyers — who have little, if any, criminal history — are more easily deterred by risks of arrest and prosecution than are those with criminal histories. A working group composed of law enforcement, academics, and other stakeholders in Los Angeles designed a letter campaign designed to remind potential straw buyers of their legal responsibility to transfer their gun legally and that the state had a record connecting that gun to them.
Two separate areas of Los Angeles, with a total population of 425,000 people, were included in the letter program. The working group chose these areas because they have large numbers of residents who legally buy guns that later are used in crimes by others.
For about a year in 2007 and 2008, researchers sent letters to residents of these areas who initiated gun purchases on odd-numbered days. (People who initiated purchases on even numbered days didn't receive the letter, for comparison purposes.) The letters outlined the problem of gun violence in the city and reminded recipients of their legal responsibilities as gun owners. Specifically, the letters informed recipients that it was a crime to sell or give a gun to someone without completing a dealer record of sale form. They also warned recipients that they could be prosecuted if they did not do so and the gun was later used in a crime.
Each would-be purchaser received their letter during the legally mandated 10-day waiting period before they could return to the dealer and pick up their new gun. For 22 months afterwards, researchers tracked the outcomes of the transactions.
The researchers found one difference between the group that received letters and the group that had not: Those who received the warning letter were much more likely to report that their guns had been stolen than those who hadn't. The researchers suggest that the letter may have caused this outcome in two different ways - by motivating more law-abiding people to report real thefts of their new guns or by inspiring straw buyers to falsely report thefts after an illegal transfer in order to protect themselves.
The researchers point out that only 13 percent of crime guns uncovered around the time of the study had been bought in the past two years. They suspect that a greater period of monitoring would have revealed a more pronounced effect of the letter on firearms trafficking.
Further Reading:
Report from the Los Angeles case study: 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" (pdf, 92 pages), Santa Monica, Calif.: RAND Corporation, 2008.
Report about the letter-deterrence study: Ridgeway, Greg, Anthony A. Braga, George Tita, and Glenn L. Pierce. "Intervening in gun markets: An experiment to assess the impact of targeted gun-law messaging" (pdf, 8 pages), Journal of Experimental Criminology 7 (2008): 103-109.
Criminal Purchase of Firearm Ammunition
Public efforts to restrict firepower among those most prone to violence generally focus only on guns, not ammunition. For example, firearms dealers run the names of would-be gun buyers through an instant background check system to verify whether the person is legally allowed to own a gun. But although the same restrictions technically apply, ammunition purchasers are not subject to the same background check. This means that people who shouldn't be able to buy ammunition might be doing just that.
Research on illegal gun markets in the streets of Chicago shows that criminals already have a more difficult time buying ammunition than buying guns. If retail sales of ammunition were more tightly controlled to keep ammunition from falling into the wrong hands, would this squeeze the illegal market even further, and, perhaps, reduce gun violence?
To answer questions about ammunition markets, NIJ-funded researchers worked with the Southern California Regional Crime Gun Center, operated by the U.S. Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives. They studied the handwritten logs of two months' worth of ammunition sales in 2004 from federally licensed dealers in the city. (A local ordinance requires these dealers to record ammunition buyers' names, addresses, thumbprints, state-issued ID numbers and other personal data. Police periodically collect the logs, but until 2004, they did not reference them unless they were investigating a specific crime.)
The researchers found that 2.8 percent of the 2,540 ammunition purchases during this period were by people who were not legally allowed to own ammunition. All told, these illegal buyers bought more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition (2.3 percent of the total). Most of the buyers were local. A few, however, lived in the high-crime neighborhoods in the south of the city. The researchers suspected that buyers in these neighborhoods went just over the border to stores in L.A. County.
These data demonstrate that the data-logging requirement is not deterring many restricted people from buying ammunition. The researchers argue that consistent requirements across jurisdictions and a greater use of the log books by investigators could help locate people who own guns illegally and stem the flow of deadly firepower into the hands of people most likely to use it for violence.
Further Reading:
Report from the study: Tita, George E., Anthony Braga, Greg Ridgeway, and Glenn L. Pierce, "The Criminal Purchase of Firearm Ammunition," Injury Prevention 12 (August 2006): 308-311.
Gun Safety Technology Market Survey
Since the mid-1990s, numerous teams have developed firearms with advanced gun safety technology to varying degrees of maturity. These firearms are designed to contain authorization systems that generally combine an authentication mechanism that actuates a blocking mechanism in a seamless process that is designed to take less time than handling and firing a conventional gun.
In June 2013, NIJ published A Review of Gun Safety Technologies, a technology assessment and market survey of existing and emerging gun safety technologies that are of interest to the law enforcement and criminal justice communities and others interested in gun safety. The report is an unbiased summary of existing and emerging technologies and the availability and use of those technologies to inform any future federal research and development strategy and innovation in gun safety technology.
A Review of Gun Safety Technologies does not endorse any particular technology, developer, patent, company or approach. At the time the report was published, personalized firearms were not commercially available in the United States, but at least three products - two handguns and a shotgun - were at a technology maturity level that can at least be described as commercializable or pre-production.
Read the full report https://www.ncjrs.gov/pdffiles1/nij/242500.pdf
Read the press release http://www.ojp.gov/newsroom/pressreleases/2013/ojppr061713_2.pdf
The report responds to an executive action issued by the President on January 26, 2013. He directed the Attorney General to issue a report on the availability and most effective use of new gun safety technologies and challenge the private sector to develop innovative technologies.
Firearms and Examination and Ballistics
NIJ funds research and development to improve how law enforcement gathers and uses evidence. We support the enhancement and creation of tools and techniques to identify, collect, analyze, interpret, and preserve evidence; including firearms and ballistic evidence. (see table below) NIJ also funded an evaluation of law enforcement use of the National Integrated Ballistic Information Network (NIBIN). Learn more about the evaluation.
Award Title |
Awardee |
Award Number |
Amount |
State |
Status |
Fiscal Year |
Physical and Chemical Trace Evidence from 3D-Printed Firearms |
2017-IJ-CX-0001 (0) |
$50,000 |
MS |
Open |
2017 |
|