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NOVEMBER 2006 HOT TOPICSFelons Reload While No One Is Watching
The study is based on information collected from ten ammunition retailers by the Los Angeles Police Department and screened by the federal Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms, and Explosives to see whether the buyers appeared in federal or state criminal databases. The study covers the months of April and May 2004. Over those two months, more than 2,000 people bought ammunition from the ten retailers, and the vast majority had no criminal records. Of the 133 buyers with criminal records, 52 were explicitly prohibited by law from buying ammunition. Those 52 people bought 2.3 percent of the nearly 440,000 rounds of ammunition sold, amounting to more than 10,000 rounds. Past studies have shown that guns and ammunition possessed by felons and others prohibited from owning weapons are more likely to be used in violent crimes than are weapons bought by people with no criminal histories, but many regions have no mechanisms to prevent illegal ammunition purchases. Los Angeles and a few other cities require ammunition sellers to collect information about ammunition buyers, but in the past those records have not been routinely reviewed. If lawmakers want to prohibit the illegal sale of ammunition, they could extend the instant background checks required before guns are sold to also cover the sale of ammunition. But unless such a step is taken at the state or federal level, a felon could simply purchase ammunition in a nearby city to avoid the check. Another alternative is for law enforcement officials to monitor ammunition sales records to gather tips about felons who might illegally possess firearms. L.A.-area law enforcement officials have used ammunition logs to obtain search warrants that have led to the recovery of illegal firearms. Felons might also resort to underground dealers. However, a study conducted in Chicago communities with high levels of gun violence found that stricter enforcement of ammunition policies did not necessarily lead to a black market in the product. Although the study focused on one part of Los Angeles, the researchers point out that the findings have implications for other states and nations that monitor firearm sales but not ammunition purchases. What Role Does Race Play in the Decision to Seek the Death Penalty in Federal Cases?
A number of questions have been raised about this process, including whether the USAO's recommendations and the AG's decisions are racially neutral or are instead affected by the race of the victim, the race of the defendant, or both. A new RAND Corporation study took a unique approach to answering this question. The study constructed a database using 312 cases involving 652 defendants that were submitted by 94 USAOs from January 1, 1995, to July 31, 2000. Three separate teams worked independently with the common database, each designing and conducting their own analyses and drawing their own conclusions. Despite taking different analytic approaches, the three teams arrived at essentially the same conclusions. When researchers looked at the raw data and made no adjustment for case characteristics, they found large race effects—a decision to seek the death penalty was more likely to occur when the victims were white. However, these race effects essentially disappear when researchers accounted for the heinousness of the crime. That is, when equally heinous crimes are considered, there is no evidence that race affects the decision to seek the death penalty. Moreover, the three research teams also found that the characteristics of the crime—not the racial characteristics of either the defendant or the victim—could be used to make very accurate predictions (on the order 85- to 90-percent accurate) about whether federal prosecutors would seek the death penalty. Although these findings support the view that decisions to seek the death penalty were driven by heinousness of crimes rather than by race, the study cautions that these findings are not definitive because of the difficulties in determining causation from statistical modeling of observational data. |
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The RAND Safety and Justice Program conducts research, analysis, and demonstrations that help policymakers, government agencies, and communities improve public safety. To access our research, please visit our website at www.rand.org/ise/safety/. The RAND Corporation is a nonprofit research organization providing objective analysis and effective solutions that address the challenges facing the public and private sectors around the world. Learn More »Copyright © 2006 RAND Corporation. RAND® is a registered trademark. The RAND Safety and Justice Congressional Newsletter is distributed on an opt-in basis only by visiting us at www.rand.org. We respect your privacy. If you do not wish to receive this periodic newsletter, please email ocr@rand.org or call (703) 413-1100 x5320. This newsletter is also available on the RAND Congressional web site » |
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Federal and state laws prohibit certain criminals from possessing ammunition, but that did not stop 52 such criminals from purchasing more than 10,000 rounds of ammunition in a two-month period, according to a new RAND report published in the October 2006 issue of Injury Prevention.
For all federal cases involving a death penalty–eligible crime, the U.S. Attorney's Office (USAO) in the district where the case is prosecuted makes an initial recommendation to seek or not seek the death penalty and forwards that recommendation to the Attorney General's Review Committee on Capital Cases. The Committee, in turn, makes a recommendation and passes that along to the Attorney General (AG), who makes the final decision.
