NCJ Number
252673
Journal
Journal of the American Academy of Child and Adolescent Psychiatry Volume: 57 Issue: 4 Dated: April 2018 Pages: 274-279
Date Published
April 2018
Length
6 pages
Annotation
This study used within-individual change models to determine whether juvenile offenders exhibit an increased propensity to carry a firearm after being exposed to gun violence and/or non-gun violence.
Abstract
Although studies have found that youth exposed to violence are more likely to carry guns than non-exposed youth, this association could be due to common causal factors or other pre-existing differences between individuals. The value of the current study's design is that all time-invariant factors are eliminated as potential confounders. The study recruited a sample of 1,170 racially/ethnically diverse male juvenile offenders in Arizona and Pennsylvania (14-19 years old at recruitment). Participants were interviewed every 6 months for 3 years, followed by four annual assessments. The outcome was that gun carrying and the primary predictors were exposure to gun violence and non-gun violence. Time-varying covariates included exposure to peers who carried guns, exposure to peers who engaged in other (non-gun) criminal acts, developmental changes in gun carrying, and changes in gun carrying from incarceration or institutionalization. Adolescent offenders were significantly more likely to carry a gun in recall periods after exposure to gun violence, but not after exposure to non-gun violence. The effect of gun violence on gun carrying was significant throughout adolescence and young adulthood and could not be accounted for by time-varying and time-invariant confounders. The study concludes that interventions to decrease illegal gun carrying should target young men in medical and mental health settings who experience or witness gun violence and those living in communities with high rates of gun violence. (publisher abstract modified)