Weapon carrying among inner-city junior high school students: defensive behavior vs aggressive delinquency.

OBJECTIVES. The purpose of this study was to estimate associations between beliefs and experiences hypothesized to be related to weapon carrying among youths. METHODS. Students in two inner-city junior high schools completed anonymous questionnaires. Logistic regression models were fit for having ever carried a weapon for protection or use in a fight and were stratified by sex and weapon type. RESULTS. Among males, 47% had carried knives and 25% had carried guns. Key risk factors for knife carrying were being threatened with a knife, getting into fights, and disbelief that having a weapon increases the carrier's risk of injury. Gun carrying was associated with having been arrested, knowing more victims of violence, starting fights, and being willing to justify shooting someone. Among females, 37% had carried a knife; knowing many victims of violence and being willing to justify shooting someone predicted knife carrying. CONCLUSIONS. Knife carrying was associated with aggressiveness but did not appear to be related to serious delinquency. Gun carrying within this nonrandom sample appeared to be a component of highly aggressive delinquency rather than a purely defensive behavior. VioLit summary: OBJECTIVE: The purpose of this study by Webster et al. was to estimate associations between beliefs and experiences hypothesized to be related to weapon carrying among youths. METHODOLOGY: This study was quasi-experimental in design. Weapon carrying was hypothesized to be a result of several related factors: an individuals exposure to violence, delinquent activities, beliefs concerning physical abuse and murder under certain conditions, the individuals support of violent acts from peers, behavior patterns showing aggressiveness, and the belief that possessing a weapon could protect an individual from an attack. Baseline data were collected in two public junior high schools in Washington, D.C. as part of a larger study that evaluated the results of a youth violence prevention program. Data were collected from a nonrandom sample of students. The students completed anonymous questionnaires.Students were asked such questions as: "Have you ever carried a gun (knife) with you for protection or to use in case you get into a fight? If your answer was yes, how many times would you say that you carried a gun (knife) for protection during the past two weeks?" Students who had carried a weapon and dichotomous independent variables were measured with bivariate associations with a ninety-five percent confidence interval. A Student's t test was utilized to measure differences in means for continuous independent variables. Logistic regression models were fit for having ever carried a weapon for protection or use in a fight and were stratified by sex and weapon type. FINDINGS/DISCUSSION: Among seventh grade males, forty-eight percent had carried knives, and twenty-three percent had carried guns. Forty-five of eighth grade males carried a knife, and forty percent carried a gun. Key risks factors for knife carrying were being threatened with a knife, getting into fights, and disbelief that having a weapon increases the carrier's risk of injury. Gun carrying was associated with having been arrested, knowing more victims of violence, starting fights, and being willing to justify shooting someone. Among seventh grade females, thirty-one percent had carried a knife; knowing many victims of violence and being willing to justify shooting someone predicted knife carrying. Knife carrying was associated with aggressiveness but did not appear to be related to serious delinquency. Gun carrying within this nonrandom sample appeared to be a component of highly aggressive delinquency rather than a purely defensive behavior. AUTHORS' RECOMMENDATIONS: The authors advocated further research and greater insight into the determinants of weapon carrying which could come from other studies that measure an array of attitudes about weapons. (CSPV Abstract - Copyright © 1992-2007 by the Center for the Study and Prevention of Violence, Institute of Behavioral Science, Regents of the University of Colorado) KW - Urban Youth KW - Urban School KW - Student Attitudes KW - Student Firearms Carrying KW - Student Perceptions KW - Student Weapons Carrying KW - Junior High School Student KW - Late Childhood KW - Early Adolescence KW - Grade 7 KW - Grade 8 KW - Child Attitudes KW - Child Firearms Carrying KW - Child Perceptions KW - Child Weapons Carrying KW - Juvenile Attitudes KW - Juvenile Firearms Carrying KW - Juvenile Perceptions KW - Juvenile Weapons Carrying KW - Weapons Carrying Causes KW - Weapons Carrying Incidence and Prevalence KW - Firearms Carrying Causes KW - Firearms Carrying Incidence and Prevalence