Effect of Gun Carrying on Perceptions of Risk Among Adolescent Offenders

• NCJ Number: 249993
• Journal: American Journal of Public Health Volume: 106 Issue: 2 Dated: February 2016 Pages: 350-352
• Author(s): T. A. Loughran; J. A. Reid; M. E. Collins; E. P. Mulvey
• Date Published: February 2016
• Length: 3 pages
• Sponsoring Agency: Office of Juvenile Justice and Delinquency Prevention (OJJDP)
• Publication Format: Article; Document (Online)
• Publication Type: Research (Applied/Empirical); Report (Study/Research)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America

Annotation

This study examined how perceptions of risks, costs, crime rewards, and violence exposure change as individual gun-carrying behavior changes among high-risk adolescents.

Abstract

The study found that despite being associated with heightened exposure to violence, gun carrying was linked to lower perceptions of risks and costs and higher perceived rewards of offending. Gun carrying was not time-stable, as certain individuals both started and stopped carrying during the study. Within-person changes in carrying guns were associated with shifting perceptions of risks, costs, and rewards of crime, and changes in exposure to violence in expected directions. The study analyzed a longitudinal study (2000-2010) of serious juvenile offenders in Maricopa County, Arizona, or Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, assessing within-person changes in risk and reward perceptions, and violence exposure as individuals initiated or ceased gun carrying. (Publisher abstract modified)