“From Punishment to Prevention: A Better Approach to Addressing Youth Gun Possession”

The title of this post is the title of this new publication from The Sentencing Project.  The report runs more than 30 pages and an extensive executive summary comprises the first three substantive pages, and here are ject a few paragraphs from that summary which highlight the report’s themes:

Reducing gun violence should be an urgent priority in the United States.  However, imposing harsh consequences for all adolescent gun possession cases harms urban youth of color disproportionately without benefits for community safety. Other approaches to reducing gun violence are far more equitable and effective….

Rather than keeping us safer, aggressive law enforcement and inflexible and punitive court responses to youth gun possession are likely to worsen gun violence and other crime by youth.  Meanwhile, inflexible punitive responses to adolescent gun possession damage young people’s futures, and they exacerbate the justice system’s already glaring racial disparities.  The most promising approaches to reduce gun violence involve comprehensive initiatives in which courts work with community partners to address the reasons why youth and young adults obtain guns, and whole communities mobilize to engage and intervene with youth and young adults who are at maximum risk for gun violence….

Given the varied reasons why youth carry firearms and the vastly different risks posed by different categories of youth, a one-size-fits-all approach to gun possession cases is ineffective and harmful.  For most youth arrested on gun possession charges, research makes clear that punitive responses are counterproductive.