Gun crime: the market in and use of illegal firearms

Crimes involving the use of firearms comprise around 0.4 per cent of all recorded offences in England and Wales and have doubled since the mid to late-1990s (Povey and Kaiza, 2006: 81). This increase has occurred against a background of increasingly restrictive legislation and ever more sophisticated public policy responses. At the same time, a small number of high-profile and shocking firearm homicides have raised considerably public concerns about the problem of illegal firearms. Police, politicians and media reports have described the emergence of a criminal ‘gun culture’, particularly in some inner-city areas in England. Relatively little is known, however, about criminal attitudes towards and the market in illegal firearms, limiting the development of policy, policing practice and an understanding of the impact of firearms legislation.