UNH Study Identifies Compelling Link Between Perpetrators and Victims of Gun Violence

By Jenn Jacques

An interesting fact was derived from research conducted by the University of New Haven on just who the perpetrators of gun violence in America are.

Professors Richard Spano and David Lambert used police incident reports from three major Connecticut cities to create a database of individuals who had both been shot and named by police in gun-related offenses from 2011–2016.

“We were specifically interested in seeing what sequence these incidents occurred: Are they a victim first, or are they an offender first?” Lambert says.

Of the 116 people the researchers identified, more than half—57 percent—had been shooting victims before they had been suspected of a gun crime by police. Ninety-nine percent of the subjects were male, 53 percent were younger than 21 years old, and 89 percent were black.

Lambert also admitted the research wasn’t able to account for people who have been shot at or threatened with a gun, since most individuals would not report those incidents, and theorized the percentage of victimized individuals perpetrating gun violence is more than likely much higher than 57 percent.

“The best predictor of violent behavior is previous violent behavior, but the next best predictor is violent victimization,” said David Kennedy, the director of National Network for …Read the Rest

Source:: Bearing Arms