An Ethnographic Assessment of Illegal Gun Markets Among Boston Street Gangs

• In Event: Multi-city, Multi-method Underground Gun Market Study: A Qualitative Understanding of Chicago, Los Angeles, and Boston

Abstract

In 2006, roughly one percent of Boston youth between the ages of 15 and 24 participated in gangs. Yet these gang dynamics generated more than half of all homicides. Gang members were involved in roughly 70 percent of fatal and non-fatal shootings as either a perpetrator and/or a victim. The dynamics of the market by which these individuals acquire weapons is still largely not understood. As part of a multi-method effort in Boston, ethnographic interviews of gun market involved street gang members were collected and analyzed. The findings from this analysis shed light on a variety of supply side market dynamics among those at the deep end of the criminal population in Boston, specifically those individuals most at risk for shooting others or being shot themselves. A better understanding of how and why these individuals obtain, and sometimes distribute, firearms has the potential to inform criminal justice policy targeting some of the most socially harmful behavior.

Author

• David Hureau, Harvard University