NCJ Number
153916
Date Published
1993
Length
37 pages
Annotation
This report presents the methodology and results of a study that determined patterns of gun acquisition and gun-carrying among a sample of young females at particularly high risk of involvement in gun-related activity (inner-city high school students).
Abstract
The analyses derived from responses to self-administered questionnaires completed by 735 female students in 10 inner-city high schools in the spring of 1991. The questionnaire consisted primarily of forced-choice items that dealt with gun ownership, carrying, and acquisition. Participation in the study was voluntary and anonymous. The number of students surveyed per school averaged 165. Approximately one in eight of the respondents reported having possessed a gun at some time, most likely a handgun; however, a substantially smaller proportion reported that they carried guns, with gun carrying at school being particularly infrequent. In all cases, their levels of possession and carrying of firearms were substantially lower than those reported by a similar sample of male respondents. Among those females who carried guns, the preference was for relatively standard types of firearms, primarily revolvers. The respondents who possessed guns reported that, in the main, they did so for self-protection. The majority of the sample assumed that acquiring a gun would pose few problems. Those female respondents involved in the use of illegal drugs or professing membership in gangs were considerably more likely than their counterparts to possess a firearm. Although the prevalence of gun possession among the females in the sample is higher than might be expected among a more diverse sample of high school females, the problem is not so significant that efforts to address gun possession among inner-city youth should target females as intensely as males. 9 tables and 31 references