Understanding Underground Gun Markets in Boston

• In Event: Policy Panel: Policing Underground Gun Markets in "Gang" Cities

Abstract

This presentation will describe an ongoing research enterprise that seeks to examine and document the means by which members of Boston gangs and criminally-active groups engage brokers and traders of firearms in order to acquire guns. Contacts with illegal gun market participants arise from broader fieldwork into the organization of criminal gang economies, of which gun trading forms one significant part. This research draws on these ties with gang members, gun brokers, and other local stakeholders to conduct field interviews and systematically acquire basic information on the overall means by which guns are accessed and circulate within populations at elevated risk for gun violence. These qualitative data are well positioned to identify those places where street-level gun markets may be most vulnerable to enforcement. Moreover, these data provide unique insights on the dispersion and/or concentration of firearm sources within these neighborhoods that can supplement the knowledge generated about underground gun markets through administrative data, ATF trace data, social network analyses, and the jail survey work.

Authors

• David Hureau, Harvard University

• Anthony A. Braga, Rutgers University / Harvard University