Newsgroups: talk.politics.guns
From: [m j p] at [austin.ibm.com]  (Michael J. Phelps)
Subject: Re: How Many Crimes Per "Average" Criminal? (W
Date: Wed, 21 Jul 1993 12:30:12 GMT

Some more information, all from:

 "Survey of State Prison Inmates, 1991", US Dept of Justice BJS
  March 1993, NCJ-136949

WRT likelyhood of inmates lying to the interviewers:

 Information gained through interviews with prisoners is generally reliable
  
  Independent researchers, studying how truthfully prison inmates respond
  to survey questions, have found that the responses generally agree with
  data from official records.  Also, findings aggregated from the inmate
  surveys do not differ appreciably from information reported by 
  correctional authorities, and information from seperate studies fit
  coherent and consistent patterns.

  [p 2]

WRT question of how many violent criminals use firearms:

 1% - Military style gun
 5% - rifle or shotgun
 5% - other such as club or bottle
 11% - knife
 24% - handgun
 54% - no weapon

 restated as: 54% - no weapon
              30% - firearm
              11% - knife
               5% - other

 Most inmates who carried a weapon while committing the crime used it.
    52% to scare
    14% to injure
    14% to kill

 [pp 18-19]
-- 
Michael Phelps, (external) [m j p] at [vnet.ibm.com] ..
                (internal) [m j p] at [bwa.kgn.ibm.com] .. mjp at kgnvmc         
 (and last but not least a disclaimer)  These opinions are mine..