Coming at the issue a little differently is Alan Lizotte, professor of Criminal Justice at the State University of New York at Albany. Lizotte has been tracking 1,000 Rochester, N.Y., youths since 1987 in a project supported by the U.S. Department of Justice. The ongoing study has explored the causes and consequences of adolescent delinquency, including gun use. But for the kids who say they own guns for, quote, 'protection,' and who are socialized on the street, their rates of criminal activity are many times higher. Children learn from what their parents do and what their parents say.
Communication is incredibly important.
To know what they're doing, to know who their friends are. Someday it will be up to them. And hopefully they will have the right values.