Violence, guns and blaming the parents

April 16, 2024

The "What about Chicago?" was strong on the internet last week after a judge sentenced James and Jennifer Crumbley to 10-15 years in prison for manslaughter.

Earlier this year, a jury convicted the Crumbleys for negligence in failing to prevent their son's 2021 shooting rampage that killed four high-school students.

"If Ethan Crumbley’s parents can go to jail for his crimes, why aren’t parents in Chicago going to jail for their children’s crimes?," posted one social media account.

"Are we also going to do this in places like Southside Chicago?," posited another.

Technically, overall crime is trending down in the Chi, as is the rate of violent crime, although Chicago is not seeing its violent crime rates fall as fast as nationwide averages.

But stories about mass shootings, gun violence, guns, and public policy are tricky because they're a Rorschach inkblot test, with people tending to latch on to their favorite trope: For some, it's crime. For others, it's mental health. Others see culture (which is often code for race and ethnicity). And, of course, many just see the gun.

But if everything is to blame, can anyone be held accountable?

Let's talk about it.

— R.L.

Blame the parents!

The Crumbleys' conviction and sentencing marked the first time parents have been held criminally liable for their child's actions in carrying out a school shooting.

But it's not that rare to punish the people who don't pull the trigger, especially parents.

Last year in Virginia, Deja Taylor was sentenced to 21 months in prison on charges of federal child neglect. In January 2023, Taylor's 6-year-old son took his mother's gun to school and intentionally shot a teacher. After searching Taylor's home, federal agents said there was no lockbox or trigger lock for the gun.

In 2022, in Highland Park, Ill., in the Chicago suburbs, a man named Robert Crimo Jr. pleaded guilty to reckless conduct — a misdemeanor — for signing a Firearm Owner's Identification (FOID) card for his son, who shot and killed seven people at a July 4th parade. Prosecutors said Crimo Jr. sponsored his son's application despite his history of violence.

Connecting the wrongs of children and parents has existed throughout the world for centuries. Over time, the U.S. developed a juvenile-justice system and lawmakers increasingly expanded so-called parental responsibility laws, which cover everything from truancy to breaking a neighbor's car window during a game of street baseball. Depending on the state, these can carry fines into the tens of thousands of dollars.

Researchers at the University of Nebraska found no clear evidence that such laws reduced juvenile crime, writing in a 2012 paper: "The question remains whether such vicarious blame that accompanies parental involvement laws is an empirically and legally valid response to juvenile delinquency."

Still, most legal experts do not expect cases like the one involving the Crumbleys to become commonplace. University of Michigan law professor Eve Primus told Reckon's Vanessa Arredondo in February that the facts of the case demonstrated gross negligence and indifference in preventing the tragedy on the Crumbleys' part, including seeing their son with the gun the night before the shooting and his parents refusing to take him home from school after exhibiting violent behavior.

Recently, the Biden White House announced a new rule requiring private dealers selling guns online and at gun shows to conduct background checks.

The Bipartisan Safer Communities Act, signed into law in 2022, implements the first “significant” expansion in 30 years of the background check requirement by revising and broadening the definition of being “engaged in the business” of dealing firearms.

White House officials said the rules will reduce the number of illegally acquired guns by domestic abusers, school shooters, violent criminals, and gun traffickers, and hold accountable those who supply arms used in crimes.

Data points were made

Language plays an insidious role in how we talk about crime and guns in this country.

For example, I recently came across a Fox News article about crime in Chicago that claimed, "According to FBI data, Black individuals committed 46.8% of violent crimes and 36% of drug crimes in the U.S. in 2022, despite making up only 14.4% of the population."

Here's the thing: The FBI doesn't report the "commission" of crimes; just arrests. With homicide being an exception, it's impossible to know what crimes are committed, as many crimes go unreported. If you failed to file your taxes or request an extension before last night's midnight deadline, for example, you committed a crime — but we'll probably never know.

That brings me back to Chicago and guns: Homicides and shootings are down in the Windy City, although the homicide rate is among the highest for large cities. And whereas homicides are dropping nationwide, they're not falling as fast in the Chi.

In short, it's complicated.

The Trace, a nonprofit newsroom that covers gun violence in America published a remarkable piece in March under the headline "You’re More Likely to Be Shot in Selma Than in Chicago." Their reporting showed:

— Between 2014 and 2023, more than 167,000 people were fatally shot — nearly twice the number of American service members who have died in battle during all foreign wars since World War II.

—During that period, gun deaths increased more than 50 percent and injuries increased 66 percent

—Big cities had the most gun-related fatalities, but small, rural towns in the South have more shootings per capita. In 2023, more people were shot in Clarksdale, Mississippi; Selma, Alabama; and Laurinburg, North Carolina than Chicago, Philadelphia, and Washington, D.C.

Also, gun violence isn't unique to Democratic-led cities and states.

—Louisiana, Illinois, Mississippi, and Alabama have the highest rates of shooting fatalities and injuries per 100,000 residents. During 2023, Illinois and Louisiana had Democratic governors; the others are Republican-led.

—In Peoria, Ill., rates of gun death and injury more than doubled from 14.5 in 2014 to 37.2 in 2023 per 100,000 people. Peoria had a Republican mayor during that period.

— In Wichita, Kansas, the number of people killed and injured per capita each year increased by 60 percent between 2014 and 2023, from 14.3 to 22.7. During that time, Wichita had both Republican and Democratic mayors.

—The Pew Research Center found in 2017 that Democrats and Dem-leaning independents are more than twice as likely to say limitations on legal access to guns would result in fewer mass shootings (64%) than Republicans and Republican-leaning independents, 27%.

As always, never hesitate to inbox me with thoughts, to chat or to rant.

Peace,

R.L.

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