Survey of Pocket Pistol in Taiwan From 2000 to 2011

• Main Author: 陳虹蓉
• Other Authors: 牟永平
• Format: Others
• Language: zh-TW
• Published: 1020
• Online Access: http://ndltd.ncl.edu.tw/handle/cdb9c7

碩士 === 中央警察大學 === 刑事警察研究所 === 101 === Motivation and problem： Pocket pistols are commonly referred to as being an assassination weapon. It’s small and it can be covered by the palm of an average person. It’s hard to find and easy to carry, and it can be used to kill people at a close range. Pocket pistols, in the wrong hands, are nothing but “hidden killing instruments”. With this in mind, the police need to be extra vigilant in their day-to-day criminal investigation activities, so as to ensure their security. Although the pocket pistol is a lethal weapon, our government doesn’t separate it, or distinguish it, from other firearms and does not / has not assigned this lethal weapon a unique category for it. As a result of Government’s policies, it becomes impossible to trace the origin of these pistols, let alone monitor the level of different crimes associated with them. Objective： By analyzing pocket pistol crime information, we can get the characters of pocket pistol. All the results not only can be used for predicting the trend of pocket pistol, but also provide help for investigation and prevention. Besides, it also can be for academy research and for work. Method： In order to get competent pocket pistol crime information, our research uses court verdicts of pocket pistol crimes, searched by using of Taiwan Judiciary’s data base website. In this research, we collect the court verdicts of pocket pistol crimes from 2000 to 2011. Besides getting the information about these crimes / events, we are also able to get information on these criminals from other Government databases. Once we have compiled all of this information, we can categorize these criminal acts / events into specific categories, so that we may be able to analyze them by SPSS system. These categories would include: 1. The human factor 2. The actual event 3. The time and place Results and Discussions： As a result of our research, we noticed that there was a positive correlation between pocket pistols and all other kinds of firearms. Forty percent（40％）of the population owns who own pocket pistols also own other kinds of firearms that amount is double than pocket pistols and is almost categorized to homemade firearms (non-standard firearms). In accordance to our research, it would appear that the profile of pocket pistols suggests that these owners are men, between the ages of 20 and 30 years, half of these have a (criminal) record of “hooliganism”. Sixty one percent of them have a record of drug abuse. Pocket pistol crime characteristics would therefore suggest the following：One of four events are involved in other criminal events and these are almost always drug deal events, they are usually homemade in Taiwan and are rarely resultant from any smuggling operation. They are almost always hidden in bedrooms rather than being concealed on one person. What’s more, they are found mainly in northern of Taiwan (Taipei city, New Taipei city and Tao Yuan county) and they have been adapted to resemble real firearms. Conculsion： As a result of our research, the following recommendations should be addressed: First, the government should eliminate homemade firearms. Second, people who serve as public security should strengthen the ability of finding the source of firearms and accurately record the positions of the firearms which were found in detail in order to use for further investigations. This can be done by recording in a National Firearm Database. Third, it’s very important to properly document the criminal evidences in order for it to be allowed and accepted as evidence in criminal trials. In doing so, this would also protect people who serve as public security. Finally, and as mentioned above, the improvement of a National Firearm Database would not only be useful, but it would also analyze the pattern of each firearm.