Examination of Firearms and Forensics in Europe and Across Territories
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Examination of Firearms and Forensics in Europe and aCross Territories Final Report Professor Erica Bowen Dr Helen Poole 1 Acknowledgements We would like to thank all of the stakeholders who agreed to participate in this research project, and who gave their time to be interviewed, and who provided data regarding the processing of ballistics information in their country. We would also like to thank the organisations that provided recorded crime data reported in Section 2 of this report, and members of the United Nations Development Programme for their assistance throughout the project. Finally we would like to thank Dr Nils Duquet of the Flemish Peace Institute for his critical review of this report. 2 Contents Contents .................................................................................................................................................. 3 1. INTRODUCTION TO THE PROJECT ................................................................................................... 6 1.1 The European context concerning the illegal use of firearms ...................................................... 6 1.2 Objectives and scope of the project ............................................................................................. 7 1.3 Methods ........................................................................................................................................ 8 1.3.1 Selection of countries and participants ................................................................................. 9 2. THE NATURE, PREVALENCE, AND IMPACT OF GUN CRIME .............................................................. 11 2.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 11 2.1.1 Official definitions and associated terminology .................................................................. 11 2.2 The prevalence of gun crime ...................................................................................................... 16 2.2.1 Available data sources ......................................................................................................... 16 2.3 Method of data collection .......................................................................................................... 19 2.4 Results ......................................................................................................................................... 20 2.4.1 Gun crime defined by police data ........................................................................................ 20 2.4.2 Criminal justice data ............................................................................................................ 22 2.4.3 Morbidity data ..................................................................................................................... 26 2.4.4 Emergency room data .......................................................................................................... 27 2.4.5 Crime victimisation surveys ................................................................................................. 28 2.4.6 Participant perspectives on the nature of gun enabled crime ............................................ 29 2.4.7 Participant perspectives on gun crime data ........................................................................ 31 2.5 Impact of gun crime .................................................................................................................... 32 2.6 Summary ..................................................................................................................................... 34 3. LEGISLATION AND GUN CRIME ......................................................................................................... 35 3.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 35 3.2 Policy context .............................................................................................................................. 35 3.3 Study rationale and aims ............................................................................................................ 38 3.4 Method ....................................................................................................................................... 38 3.5 Findings ....................................................................................................................................... 38 3.5.1 What influences the development and implementation of changes to legislation? .......... 38 3.5.2 How adequate is current legislation? .................................................................................. 41 3.5.3 What is the impact of legislation? ....................................................................................... 45 3.5.4 What are the challenges to implementing legislation? ....................................................... 46 3.5.5 Required improvements to legislation................................................................................. 48 3 3.6 Summary ..................................................................................................................................... 49 4. POLICING GUN CRIME ....................................................................................................................... 51 4.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 51 4.2 Causes of gun crime .................................................................................................................... 51 4.3 Policy context .............................................................................................................................. 51 4.4 Policing gun crime ....................................................................................................................... 53 4.5 Method ....................................................................................................................................... 55 4.6 Results ......................................................................................................................................... 55 4.6.1 Disparity in Priorities ............................................................................................................ 55 4.6.2 Disparity in resources and investigations ............................................................................ 56 4.6.3 Interventions ........................................................................................................................ 58 4.7 Summary ..................................................................................................................................... 59 5. THE ROLE OF BALLISTICS INTELLIGENCE IN PREVENTING THE ILLEGAL USE OF FIREARMS .............. 61 5.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 61 5.2 Nature of ballistics intelligence processing................................................................................. 61 5.3 Method ....................................................................................................................................... 62 5.4 Results ......................................................................................................................................... 62 5.4.1 Ballistics Comparison Services: structure, training, staffing and accreditation ................... 63 5.4.2 Choice of automated ballistics comparison systems ........................................................... 66 5.4.3 Processes and methods of ballistic comparison .................................................................. 69 5.4.4 Service Level Agreements and timeliness ............................................................................ 75 5.4.5 International Comparisons................................................................................................... 76 5.4.6 Knowledge exchange and networks .................................................................................... 79 5.5 Summary ..................................................................................................................................... 79 6. AN EXPERIMENTAL INVESTIGATION OF CROSS BORDER BALLISTICS INTELLIGENCE SHARING ........ 80 6.1 Introduction ................................................................................................................................ 80 6.2 The Western Balkan Context ...................................................................................................... 80 6.3 Intelligence Sharing ..................................................................................................................... 81 6.4 Methodology ............................................................................................................................... 81 6.4.1 Data Protection .................................................................................................................... 81 6.4.2 Acquisition and correlation of ballistic material .................................................................. 82 6.5 Findings ......................................................................................................................................