Abstract
Two waves of longitudinal data were used to examine the sequencing between violent victimization, violent behavior, and gun carrying in a high-poverty sample of African American youth. Multivariate logistic regression results indicated that violent victimization T1 and violent behavior T1 increased the likelihood of initiation of gun carrying T2 when examined separately (by 132% and 91%, respectively). However, only violent victimization T1 was a significant predictor of initiation of gun carrying T2 after controlling for violent behavior T1. More nuanced analyses uncovered no significant difference in the likelihood of initiating gun carrying when comparing offensive versus defensive gun carriers. The theoretical and policy implications of these findings are also discussed.
| Original language | English (US) |
|---|---|
| Pages (from-to) | 191-213 |
| Number of pages | 23 |
| Journal | Crime and Delinquency |
| Volume | 59 |
| Issue number | 2 |
| DOIs | |
| State | Published - Mar 2013 |
Funding
The authors received the following financial support for the research and/or authorship of this article: This research was supported by a cooperative agreement administered by the National Institute for Child and Human Development (HD 300060) and by support from the University of Alabama, the cities of Mobile and Prichard, Alabama, the Mobile Housing Board, and the Mobile County Health Department.
Keywords
- gun carrying
- high-poverty sample
- minority youth
- violent behavior
- violent victimization
ASJC Scopus subject areas
- Pathology and Forensic Medicine
- Law
