Weapon use
In one-quarter of the incidents of violent crime, offenders used or threatened to use a weapon. NCVS defines assaults
involving weapons as aggravated; thus almost all aggravated assaults (95%) involved a weapon. (Assaults without weapons
are classified as aggravated if the victim suffers a serious injury.)
Offenders had or used a weapon in slightly less than half of all robberies, compared with 5% of all rapes/sexual assaults in
1999.
Homicides are most often committed with guns, especially handguns. In 1998, 52% of homicides were committed with
handguns, 13% with other guns, 13% with knives, 5% with blunt objects, and 17% with other weapons.
In each of 12 cities surveyed in 1998, victims said that less than half of the violent crimes involved a weapon.
And this is interesting about alcohol:
The role of alcohol in crime victimization
About 3 million violent crimes occur each year in which victims perceive the offender to have been drinking at the time of
the offense. Among those victims who provided information about the offender's use of alcohol, about 35% of the
victimizations involved an offender who had been drinking.
Two-thirds of victims who suffered violence by an intimate (a current or former spouse, boyfriend, or girlfriend) reported that
alcohol had been a factor. Among spouse victims, 3 out of 4 incidents were reported to have involved an offender who had
been drinking. By contrast, an estimated 31% of stranger victimizations where the victim could determine the absence or
presence of alcohol were perceived to be alcohol-related.
For about 1 in 5 violent victimizations involving perceived alcohol use by the offender, victims also reported they believed
the offender to have been using drugs as well.
these stats were from here:
ojp.usdoj.gov
You know I read a fascinating study which looked at abortions impact on the decreases in crime we are seeing generally. The author hypothesized that many future criminals had been aborted, because women who did not want children, and who would have been more statistically likely to bear children who would grow up to be criminals, did not bear those children.
HA!!! I found data on defense- 1% of victims. And we don't know how many of them defend themselves succesfully. But at least I found it. But oh dear- check out how many law abiding citizens have their guns stolen- 340,000 thefts (and I suppose some of those are of multiple weapons). I wonder how many of THOSE guns kill people? But there are those 62,000 people who had the ability to defend themselves with a gun. It's not a pretty picture.
U.S. Department of Justice
ADVANCE FOR RELEASE AT 5 P.M. EST
BJS SUNDAY, MAY 15,
1994 202-307-0784
RECORD NUMBER OF HANDGUN CRIMES--NEARS ONE MILLION A YEAR
WASHINGTON, D.C. -- The number of non-fatal crimes committed
with a handgun rose to a record level during 1992, the
Department of Justice's Bureau of Justice Statistics (BJS)
announced today. Handguns were used in an estimated 917,500
non-fatal crimes, almost 50 percent more than the average for
the previous five years. The Federal Bureau of Investigation
reported an additional 13,200 handgun homicides during the
same year, a 24 percent increase over the five-year average.
Offenders armed with handguns committed one in every eight
violent crimes--rape, robbery and assault--measured by BJS's
National Crime Victimization Survey. The other violent crime
victims were attacked or threatened by offenders who were
either unarmed or were armed with such weapons as rocks,
sticks, knives or other types of firearms. The most common
violent crime, simple assault, by definition does not involve
the use of a weapon.
In contrast to the record high handgun crime rate (4.5 per
1,000 inhabitants 12 years old or older), the 1992 rate for
all non-fatal violent crime (35 per 1,000) was below the 1981
peak for the past two decades (39 per 1,000 residents), which
means that a growing percentage of violent crimes involves handguns.
Young black males are the most vulnerable to handgun crime.
Among 16-to-19-year-olds, the most victimized age group, the
rate for black males was four times higher than the rate for
white males.
The average annual rates of non-fatal crimes committed with
handguns per 1,000 persons during the years 1987 through 1992
by race and age were as follows:
Males Females
Victim's age White Black White Black
12-15 3.1 14.1 2.1 4.7
16-19 9.5 39.7 3.6 13.4
20-24 9.2 29.4 3.5 9.1
25-34 4.9 12.3 2.1 9.0
35-49 2.7 8.7 1.4 3.3
50-64 1.2 3.5 0.7 1.6
65 or older 0.6 3.7 0.2 2.3
The data are from the federal government's second largest
household survey, which interviews people 12 years old and
older throughout the country about their experiences with
crime and criminal offenders. Because it includes only
information obtained from victims' responses to questions, it
obtains no homicide data.
During the 1987-1992 period, offenders fired their weapons in
17 percent of all non-fatal handgun crimes, missing the victim
four out of five times. In 3 percent of the non-fatal crimes
committed with handguns, about 21,000 annually, the victim was
wounded. In addition, an average 11,100 were killed each
year.
During the same period an estimated annual average of 62,000
violent crime victims (approximately 1 percent of all violent
crime victims) used a firearm in an effort to defend
themselves. In addition, an annual average of about 20,000
victims of theft, household burglary or motor vehicle theft
attempted to defend their property with guns.
In most cases victims defending themselves with firearms
were confronted by unarmed offenders or those armed with
weapons other than firearms. During the six-year period,
about one in three armed victims faced an armed offender.
BJS estimated that more than 340,000 crimes annually
involved firearm thefts. During the period almost two-thirds
of such losses occurred during household burglaries and almost
one- third in larcenies. The survey does not report on thefts
or burglaries from stores or other businesses. |
