Operation Casefire Case Study

History of the Policy

Boston (as well as much of America) was experiencing an epidemic of youth gun-homicide through the late 1980s and 1990s. The violence in Boston was mostly concentrated in the lower income inner city neighborhoods. “Youth homicide (ages 24 and under) in Boston increased 230% - from 22 victims in 1987 to 73 in 1990. Between 1991 and 1995, Boston averaged about 44 youth homicides a year.” (Kennedy). The approach Operation Ceasefire (The name of the Gun Policy) went with was a Problem oriented policing approach focusing on the concentrated areas where crime was more prevalent. Illicit gun trafficking and gang violence were main causes of the gun violence in Boston. These two problems were the main focus of the operation.

This problem oriented approach was sponsored by the National Institute of Justice.

It was also co-directed by David M. Kennedy, Anthony A. Braga, and Anne M. Piehl of Harvard University’s John F. Kennedy School of Government (where most of my information comes from). The operation had assembled techniques with qualitative and quantitative traits, took a look at what was driving youth violence in Boston, used intervention after implementation techniques and ultimately evaluated the interventions impact on the neighboring area. The Boston Gun Project Working Group regularly participated in the operation. There were other agencies that participated as well which included the

Boston Police Department; Massachusetts departments of probation and parole; the Suffolk County district attorney; the office of the United States Attorney; the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, and Firearms; the Massachusetts Department of Youth Services (juvenile corrections); Boston school police; and gang outreach and prevention street workers attached to the Boston Community center program. Other important partners with more intermittent participation include the Ten Points Coalition, the Office of the Massachusetts Attorney General, the Drug Enforcement Administration, and the Massachusetts State Police.

(Kennedy)
In 1995, the initial design process began. It was overseen by the National Network for Safe Communities, based out of John Jay College of Criminal Justice in New York City. The Boston Gun Project launched in the year 1996. It involved a partnership between practitioners and researchers. The groups came together to try and figure out what was wrong with the youth in these crime-filled areas and implement the project.
The programs tactics for suppression include long sentences and numerous warrants for chronic offenders; aggressively enforce probation restrictions, and the deployment of Federal enforcement powers.

Talking to the gang members and community groups in a meeting setting is the main prevention strategy. Everyone in the community is informed that gang violence has a zero tolerance in the city of Boston. Only an end to increasing gang violence will stop new gang activities. These activities should ultimately with other law enforcement and grassroots community strategies (Operation). Operation Ceasefire is based on “pulling levers” deterrence strategies, which focus criminal justice enforcement on small numbers of regular offenders and the youth that are involved gangs (Kennedy). Early evaluations suggested that the ceasefire operation was in fact associated with the significant reduction in “youth homicide victimization, shots fired, calls for service, and gun assaults in Boston.” (Barga). Within two years of starting Operation Ceasefire, “the number of youth homicides dropped to ten, with one handgun-related youth homicide occurring in 1999 and 2000” (Rushefsky). “After a change in supervising personnel within the Boston police department and city government, this first site was abandoned. Youth homicides began to climb again with 37 in 2005 and reaching a peak of 52 in 2010.”

(Crime).
Alternative Solutions
Project Longevity is an approach to battle gun violence taken by the state of Connecticut and is supported by the Office of the US Attorney. Project Longevity combines community involvement, social services, and a focused involvement of law enforcement antiviolence messages aimed to try and help members help. Project Longevity has a partnership with Yale University and the University of New Haven. The community is what makes this approach possible.
A recent Chicago gun control law only allows gun sales in a small percentage of the city and forces gun shop employees to pass background checks on customers and learn how to spot those who would be considered vulnerable, and buyers who by guys for other people. Chicago had passed a law before this banning all gun use but was struck down by the US Supreme Court stating that it was unconstitutional. The law also bans the sale of guns at gun shows within the city limits of Chicago. Chicago has been (for a long time) one of Americas most violent cities. (Queally) This ordinance was argued by many gun rights activists (for obvious reasons).

Pros and Cons of Boston Gun Control Project
There have been many pros to Operation Ceasefire in the city of Boston. I’d say more pros than cons based on the research that is presented. A comparison of before and after the project was enacted was conducted by Braga and his colleagues in 2001 and found a statistically significant decrease in the number of monthly homicides committed by youth. “There was a 63 percent reduction in the average monthly number of youth homicide victims, going from a pretest mean of 3.5 youth homicides per month to a posttest mean of 1.3 youth homicides per month.” (Operation).
Youth Homicides in Boston, 1976-2009

Note: Graph taken from Harvard Kennedy School website (See References)
Control variables were added to the data models to see if other factors had influenced or caused the reductions but the decrease in youth homicides that were associated with the Ceasefire Project weren’t affected by the control variables. “Ceasefire was associated with a 25 percent decrease in the monthly number of citywide gun assaults, and with a 44 percent decrease in the monthly number of youth gun assaults in district D–2.” (Operation). In 2005, Braga and Pierce found that the Ceasefire project had made a huge impact on the yearly percentage of traceable weapons that were found at a crime soon after being purchased at a gun shop.
Simple pre/post comparisons showed that the percentage of traced handguns with a fast time-to-crime increased steadily between 1991 and 1996, reaching a peak of 53.8 percent of traced handguns in 1996. Then between 1997 and 1999, the percentage of traced handguns with a fast time-to-crime decreased dramatically to 15.6 percent and remained at this lower level through 2003. Counting 1997 as the first full year of gun market intervention, there was a 47 percent reduction in the percentage of new traced handguns in Boston, from an average of 40.4 percent between 1991 and 1996 to an average of 21.4 percent between 1997 and 2003. Multivariate analysis (which controlled for other predictor variables) of new handguns recovered in Boston found that Operation Ceasefire was associated with a statistically significant reduction in the percentage of recovered handguns that had a fast time-to-crime. Ceasefire was associated with a 22.7 percent reduction in the average monthly percentage of all recovered handguns that were new and a 24.3 percent reduction in the average monthly percentage of all recovered youth handguns that were new, as well as with a 29.7 percent reduction in the average monthly percentage of illegal possession handguns that were new and a 17.4 percent reduction in the average monthly percentage of all recovered substantive crime handguns that were new (all reductions were statistically significant).(Operation)
There aren’t many cons in the Boston gun control project, the only disadvantages go in favor of the gangs and those who benefit from youth homicide. Losing gang members weakens the gang and might extinguish the gang entirely.
My Opinion
Personally I think that the Boston gun control project has worked out great (when it is implemented). 27 other states have followed suit with Massachusetts because of the data and facts that support the success rate of Operation Ceasefire. I favor this project. But this project needs to be used at all times because as I stated earlier, after the first site was abandoned, “Youth homicides began to climb again with 37 in 2005 and reaching a peak of 52 in 2010.” (Crime). Ultimately gun control isn’t the only way to control gun deaths. We can look at Canada, they have very little shootings. They leave their doors unlocked. A big part in why Canada is such a safe place compared to the USA is because the Canadian media doesn’t try to scare its viewers into thinking that everyone is going to try and kill you. The American media over blows almost every major event in an attempt to scare us Americans. For example, the Ebola virus has only killed two people so far in America while there are many other things that kill many other people that the media isn’t talking about. Even though only two people have been killed by the Ebola virus the media tries to make people think that many more people have died from Ebola in America. Canada doesn’t talk about all of the negative things going on in the world. They don’t talk about the latest murder to try and scare people. That makes people feel save about where they live. If you don’t talk about how dangerous a place is and instead talk about how nice and caring everyone is you will get less crime. People buy guns because they are scared about getting killed by someone who might have a gun.
People forget to realize that the man who kills all of those people then kills himself is mentally unstable in some way. Liberals automatically think that every normal person might kill someone at sometime and want to get rid of guns altogether. No critical thinking goes into their opinions and Conservatives think that they should have guns no matter what. “It’s a constitutional right!” they say. They disregard the facts of gun violence and do not think critically. People can kill other people with a lot of other things besides a gun. People need to realize that.
In conclusion, The Boston Gun Control Project is an effective way of diminishing youth homicide rates in Boston and throughout America based on the data that was presented in this paper. As humans we must search in ourselves and find the light when it comes to gun violence and how to control it. It is our moral obligation to keep each other safe and be aware of those around us. Making sure that those who could cause harm to themselves or others don’t get their hands on dangerous things and that they instead get help from a therapist. Just remember one thing, Guns don’t kill people, people kill people.