Role of Firearms in Violence "Scripts": The Dynamics of Gun Events Among Adolescent Males

• NCJ Number: 169546
• Journal: Law and Contemporary Problems Volume: 59 Issue: 1 Dated: (Winter 1996) Pages: 55-89
• Author(s): D L Wilkinson; J a Fagan
• Date Published: 1996
• Length: 35 pages
• Publication Format: Article
• Publication Type: Research (Theoretical)
• Language: English
• Country: United States of America
• Note: *This document is currently unavailable from NCJRS.

Annotation

This paper examines the role of firearms in violent events among adolescent males.

Abstract

First, using an event-based approach, the authors suggest a framework for explaining interactions that involve adolescents and firearms. Events are analyzed as "situated transactions," including rules that develop within specific contexts, the situations where weapons are used, the motivations for carrying and using weapons, and the personality "sets" of groups where weapons are used. There are "rules" that govern how disputes are settled, when and where firearms are used, and the significance of firearms within a broader adolescent culture. This approach does not deny the importance of the individual attributes that bring people to situations, but it recognizes that once in the situation, other processes shape the outcomes of these events. The paper then describes how violence "scripts" are invoked, how scripts may limit the behavioral and strategic options for resolving disputes, and how the presence of firearms may influence which scripts are invoked. Because violence generally is a highly contextualized event, this paper also focuses on how specific contexts shape decisions by adolescents to carry or use weapons and how violence "scripts" are developed and shaped through diffusion within closed social groups. The authors then review the patterns of firearm use among adolescents over time and in specific eras and identify factors that seem to have contributed to the recent escalation and the current crises. It then analyzes recent, influential surveys. The paper next analyzes the research, applying an event-based approach to provide a conceptual framework. The preliminary results of the research show the role weapons have in adolescent violence and how the presence of firearms contributes to increasingly alarming homicide rates among inner-city adolescents. The analysis is followed by a discussion of ideas for preventing and intervening to curb gun-related violence among inner-city males. 170 footnotes