Concern about the proliferation of handguns among young black men led Judge Willie G. Lipscomb, Jr., of Detroit to launch a program designed to change attitudes and behavior in the hope of preventing gun violence. In the Handgun Intervention Program (HIP), offenders who had been arrested for carrying concealed weapons were required, as a condition of pretrial release, to attend a class in which they would learn the negative consequences of gun use and be challenged to take personal responsibility for reducing those consequences. Begun in 1993, HIP has had upwards of 6,000 participants, more than 90 percent of whom were African-Americans. In an NIJ-sponsored study, researchers from The Urban Institute found that, as a result of HIP, attitudes toward gun use improved significantly in the short run. However, many participants questioned whether their behavior would change because they felt the dangers of the street required them to carry a gun.
Detroit Handgun Intervention Program: A Court-Based Program for Youthful Handgun Offenders
1998
4 pages
Report
No indication
English