TY - JOUR
T1 - Weapon carrying among inner-city junior high school students
T2 - Defensive behavior vs aggressive delinquency
AU - Webster, D. W.
AU - Gainer, P. S.
AU - Champion, H. R.
PY - 1993
Y1 - 1993
N2 - 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.
AB - 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.
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U2 - 10.2105/AJPH.83.11.1604
DO - 10.2105/AJPH.83.11.1604
M3 - Article
C2 - 8238686
AN - SCOPUS:0027425959
VL - 83
SP - 1604
EP - 1608
JO - American Journal of Public Health
JF - American Journal of Public Health
SN - 0090-0036
IS - 11
ER -