Motivations for gun possession and carrying among serious juvenile offenders

Abstract

Medical Association, 267,3038-3042. Prevent Handgun Violence. delinquency research. Journal ojcriminal Law and Criminology, 76,705-732. American Socw,bgicalReuiew, 31,516-523. victims of crime.

The Effect of Childhood Physical and Sexual Abuse on Adolescent Weapon Carrying

“…Adolescents may not report CM due to memory or social desirability biases, and some studies indicate that females are more likely to self-report sexual victimization than males [38]. Additionally, adolescents may underreport WC behaviors due to legal/social consequences, or may overreport WC to appear strong or powerful [37]. However, evidence indicates that self-report validity is increased when data are collected anonymously, as ours were [39].…”

“…Research also suggests these feelings may be associated with WC for self-defense [5,35,36]. Much of this research, however, focuses on incarcerated youth or WC on school grounds, and the most commonly reported reason for WC in these studies is self-defense [5,37]. In one of the few studies examining female adolescents' motives for WC, Kodjo and colleagues suggested that girls carry weapons for protection in response to perceived vulnerability to victimization [36].…”

Is the Nexus of Gang Membership, Exposure to Violence, and Violent Behavior a Key Determinant of First Time Gun Carrying for Urban Minority Youth?

“…A third body of research conducted over the past several decades has established that gang members are more likely to carry guns (e.g., Sheley & Wright, 1993). Huff (1998) found that gang members were about four times more likely to carry guns in school and over three times more likely to carry a concealed weapon in his matched sample of at-risk Cleveland youth.…”

Prospective psychosocial, interpersonal, and behavioral predictors of handgun carrying among adolescents.

“…The current literature on the correlates of weapon carrying is limited to cross-sectional data, and the majority of studies focus on the association between weapon carrying and participation in other problem behaviors such as selling and using drugs, gang membership, aggressive behavior, and school suspensions.9" [3][4][5][6][7][8][9][10][11][12][13][14][15] This study attempted to expand the understanding of handgun carrying among adolescents by (1) examining the predictive utility of several psychosocial/ interpersonal variables that are suggestive of problem proneness but have not been studied in relation to handgun carrying, (2) examining the strength of these associations by gender over a 3-year period, and (3) assessing students' exposure to neighborhood crime as an indication of the self-protection motivation for handgun carrying.…”