60% of re cen tly ac qui red guns had bee n purc has ed fro m an FFL ( Cook and Ludwig, 1996, 2013 ). There have been three large-scale periodic surveys of offenders conducted by the U.S. Department of Justice at various times since 1972. The Survey of Inmates in State Correctional Facilities (SISCF) was

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elded most recently in 2004, as was the Survey of Inmates in Federal Correctional Facilities (SIFCF); the Survey of Inmates in Local Jails (SILJ) was

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eld ed mos t rec ent ly in 200 2. Det ail ed sta tis tic s com put - ed from the most recent version of each survey are presented in an appendix. These computations are limited to respondents sentenced in the previous two years, and are limited to male inmates between the ages of 18 and 40. The results can be brie

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y summarized. The state prisoner survey is largest and is the focus here, although it is reassuring that the results from the other two surveys are similar. First, it is rare for offenders to obtain their guns directly from the formal market: Only 10% of recentl y incarcerated state prison inmates who carried a gun indicate that they purcha sed that gun from a licens ed dealer (gun store or pawnbroker) . Rather, most of the transactions (70%) are with social connections (friends and family) or with

“

street

”

sources. The latter may include fences, drug dealers, brokers who sell guns, and gangs. It should be noted that

“

street

”

sources are not necessarily strangers

—

the survey questionnaire does not ask. Cash purchases and trades constitute about half of all transact ions. About one in six are temporary arrangements involving a gun owned by someone else, and take the form of borrowing, renting, or holding the gun. Perhaps surprisingly, one in ten guns are gifts

—

but gifting of guns is also quite common in the population at large. Finally, the respondent admits to having stolen the gun in only a small fraction of cases, so it appears that theft is of scant importance as an immediate source of guns to gang members

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despite the fact that there are something like 250,000 guns reported stolen each year in the U.S. ( Langton, 2012 ). It should be noted that theft may play a greater role at an earlier stage of moving guns from the licit to the illicit sector. All three periodic surveys of inmates are restricted to adults age 18 and over. There are no nationally representative surveys of juvenile offenders, although several surveys of convenience samples have been conducted ( Sheley and Wright, 1993; Pelucio et al., 2011; Watkins et al., 2008 ). Juveniles must obtain their guns almost entire ly from social connections and other informal sources, possibly including their own household (if adults in the household keep guns). There is suggestive evidence that guns turn over quickly among juvenile offenders ( Cook et al., 1995 ) and that juveniles are likely to obtain their

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rst gun from a family member, but subsequent guns from acquaintances ( Webster et al., 2002 ).

Limits to knowledge

Oneobviou s sho rtc omi ng rev eal ed by the rev iew of nat iona l sur vey s is that they are all out of date. The US Department of Justice has not surveyed prison or jail populations for over a decade, nor has there been a comprehensive survey of gun access and use by the American public. New versions of these surveys are being planned. Yet for now we are faced with a large temporal gap. A sec ond gap is geo gra phi c, and the nee d for sys tem ati c doc ume nta- tion of local gun markets. National patterns may obscure the fact that loca l gun mar ket s are lik elyto dif ferwidel y due to dif fer enc es in reg ula- tion, and differences in the prevalence of guns. Even timely national data provid e an impre cise basis for shapi ng gun policy in any partic ular jurisdiction. Chicago, in particular, is an outlier by national standards with respect to the stringency of state and local regulations, and the traditional focus of the police in taking guns off the street.

The Cook County Jail Pilo t Survey

The CCJ Pilot Survey was administered during fall, 2013, with the cooperation and support of the Cook County Sheriff's Of

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ce, which provided an opportunity to interview a sample of criminally active gun-involved youths in a secure setting.

Participant eligibility and identi

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cation

Allsubje ctswere bet wee n the age s of 18 and 40,males , and det ain ed in Cook County Jail at the time of survey implementation. All eligible individuals had been arrested in Cook County, which encompasses the city of Chicago and immediate suburbs. Individuals charged with

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rearm possession at the time of arrest, or whose criminal history indicated involvement with guns, were prioritized as participants. Inter views were conduc ted face- to-fac e over sever al monthsat Cook County Jail. Interviews were recorded and subsequently transcribed; any inf orm atio n tha t cou ld ide nti fy the m tha t was inc ide ntal ly mentio ned in the course of the intervie w was redact ed. All secur ity procedures were submitted for review and approved by both to the jail authority and the University of Chicago IRB to ensure they comply with jail security and human subject protections. Risks to the inmate respondents were minimal since the interview was as anonymous as possible

—

the interviewer was face to face with the respondent but neither she nor the rest of the research team knew his name or was able to match records to individual interviews. The sole bene

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t to the study participants was a $10 phone card, identical to those that they receive in payment for work undertaken in the jail. All tol d, 138 det ain ee s wer e inv itedto par tic ipa te and 100 gav e the ir (verbal) consent. One woman respondent was included by error, and

Secondary Transfer #2 Secondary Transfer #3 First Retail Sale Recovered Crime Gun Secondary Transfer #4

point of entry to illegal market

Secondary Transfer #1

Fig. 1.

Supply chain of guns to crime.

Table 1

Most serious charge for invited participants.

Source

: Cook County Jail Pilot Survey (2013). C h a r g e s ( l e a d ) N % Unla wful use of weap on (fel ony or misde mean or) or gun posse ssion 59 42.8 A r m e d r o b b e r y , i n c l u d i n g v e h i c u l a r h i j a c k i n g 3 0 2 1 . 7 O t h e r v i o l e n t c r i m e s 3 4 2 4 . 6 O t h e r c r i m e s 1 5 1 0 . 9 T o t a l 1 3 8 1 0 0 . 0 30

P.J. Cook et al. / Preventi ve Medici ne 79 (2015 ) 28

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