NCJ Number
178763
Journal
Youth & Society Volume: 31 Issue: 1 Dated: September 1999 Pages: 100-127
Date Published
1999
Length
28 pages
Annotation
This article assesses the impact of fear of criminal victimization on juvenile firearm possession at school.
Abstract
Responses from a sample of approximately 8,000 Mississippi public high school students disclosed a statistically significant association between adolescents’ fear of criminal victimization and their firearm possession at school. To reduce the number of firearms in school, the circumstances that cause youth to bring firearms to school must be reduced, specifically fear on the school grounds as well as fear of crime in the students’ neighborhoods. Steps that could be implemented include: (1) empowering adolescents to make use of school and police resources to reduce fear and disorder problems at school and at home; (2) ensuring more accurate media coverage of the problem of guns and violence in schools; and (3) implementing effective measures to ensure that adolescents do not carry firearms to school (e.g., metal detectors, banning book bags, increased use of locker searches). Tables, appendix, notes, references