Abstract
Using data from 140 interviews with individuals detained in the Los Angeles County Jail system, this article examines what gun offenders know about gun and ammunition regulation in California. Though most respondents had a consistent, albeit general, understanding of the regulations limiting gun acquisition and possession, analysis suggests that their understanding of ammunition restrictions was more limited. Our sample’s awareness of firearms law is especially important to consider given that they are the very population targeted by firearms regulations and prohibitions at the local, state, and federal level. By examining what detained offenders know about firearms laws, we can better theorize about individual gaps in legal knowledge and the realistic expectations for how understanding of the law can affect behavior.
- © 2017 Russell Sage Foundation. Barragan, Melissa, Kelsie Y. Chesnut, Jason Gravel, Natalie A. Pifer, Keramet Reiter, Nicole Sherman, and George Tita. 2017. “Prohibited Possessors and the Law: How Inmates in Los Angeles Jails Understand Firearm and Ammunition Regulations.” RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences 3(5): 141–63. DOI: 10.7758/RSF.2017.3.5.07. This research was supported by an award from the California Wellness Foundation (2013-054) and the University of Chicago Crime Lab (FP054392). The opinions, findings, and conclusions presented herein reflect those of the authors and not necessarily those of the foundation or the lab. We would also like to thank our participants and the Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department, without whom this research would not have been possible. Direct correspondence to: Melissa Barragan at barragm1{at}uci.edu, Department of Criminology, Law, and Society, 3304 Social Ecology II, Irvine, CA 92697; Kelsie Y. Chesnut at kchesnut{at}uci.edu; Jason Gravel at jgravel{at}uci.edu; Natalie Pifer at npifer{at}uri.edu; Nicole Sherman at nmsherman{at}csuchico.edu; Keramet Reiter at reiterk{at}uci.edu; and George E. Tita at gtita{at}uc.edu.
Open Access Policy: RSF: The Russell Sage Foundation Journal of the Social Sciences is an open access journal. This article is published under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.