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Kids in the Line of FireChildren, Handguns, and HomicideMissouri
For the five-year period of 1995 through 1999, 97 children aged 1 to 17 years were the victims of handgun homicide in Missouri. Of these children, 29.9 percent were murdered by another child with a handgun, where the ages were known (20 out of 67 incidents).
Child handgun homicide victims whose race was identified (97 victims) included 9 white victims and 88 black victims. Unfortunately, Hispanic ethnicity could not be determined because of the inadequacy of data collection and reporting.
Where the relationship was known, 8.2 percent of child victims were killed by a family member with a handgun (5 out of 61). Of these victims, 20.0 percent were children murdered by a parent. An additional 40.0 percent of the children were murdered by a stepparent. Overall, another 23.0 percent were killed by strangers (14 victims), but none were killed by a friend or romantic partner (boyfriend, girlfriend, or homosexual partner). The largest percentage of child victims, 68.9 percent, were killed by an acquaintance (42 victims).
For homicides in which the weapon could be identified, 68.3 percent of child victims (123 out of 180) were shot and killed with a gun. Of those, 78.9 percent (97 victims) were killed with a handgun. For homicides where both the victim and the shooter were children, 72.2 percent of incidents involved a firearm (26 out of 36), with 76.9 percent of those involving a handgun (20 victims).
From 1995 to 1999, there were 60 incidents in which the circumstance of the handgun homicide of the child victim could be identified. Of these, 85.0 percent were not related to the commission of any other felony. Where the number of victims and offenders was known, 66.2 percent of incidents involved one victim and one offender (45 incidents), 25.0 percent of the homicides involved one victim and multiple offenders (17 incidents), 5.9 percent involved multiple victims and one offender (4 incidents), and 2.9 percent involved multiple victims and multiple offenders (2 incidents). Back to Table of Contents
All contents � 2001 Violence Policy Center
The Violence Policy Center is a national non-profit educational foundation that conducts research on violence in America and works to develop violence-reduction policies and proposals. The Center examines the role of firearms in America, conducts research on firearms violence, and explores new ways to decrease firearm-related death and injury. |