Articlegreen2017

The Relationships Among Exposure to Violence, Psychological Distress, and Gun Carrying Among Male Adolescents Found Guilty of Serious Legal Offenses

Joan A. Reid · Tara N. Richards · Thomas A. Loughran · Edward P. Mulvey

38 citations0/0 files storedAnnals of Internal Medicine

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Gun Ownership and Violence Research Crime Patterns and Interventions Posttraumatic Stress Disorder Research

Abstract

BACKGROUND: Gun violence and psychological problems are often conflated in public discourse on gun safety. However, few studies have empirically assessed the effect of exposure to violence when exploring the association between gun carrying and psychological distress. OBJECTIVE: To examine the potential effect of exposure to violence on the associations between gun carrying and psychological distress among vulnerable adolescents. DESIGN: Longitudinal cohort study. SETTING: The Pathways to Desistance study, a study of youths found guilty of a serious criminal offense in Philadelphia County, Pennsylvania, or Maricopa County, Arizona. PARTICIPANTS: 1170 male youths aged 14 to 19 years who had been found guilty of a serious criminal offense. MEASUREMENTS: Youths were assessed at baseline and at four 6-month intervals with regard to gun carrying ("Have you carried a gun?"), psychological distress (Global Severity Index), and exposure to violence (modified version of the Exposure to Violence Inventory). RESULTS: At the bivariate level, gun carrying was consistently associated with higher levels of psychological distress. However, the association between psychological distress and gun carrying diminished or disappeared when exposure to violence was considered. Exposure to violence (as either a victim or a witness) was significantly related to gun carrying at all follow-up assessments, with increased odds of gun carrying ranging from 1.43 to 1.87 with each additional report of exposure to violence. LIMITATIONS: The study sample was limited to justice-involved male youths. Precarrying distress and exposure to violence could not be fully captured because many participants had initiated gun carrying before baseline. CONCLUSION: In male youths involved in the criminal justice system, the relationship between psychological distress and gun carrying seems to be influenced by exposure to violence (either experiencing or witnessing it). Further study is warranted to explore whether interventions after exposure to violence could reduce gun carrying in this population. PRIMARY FUNDING SOURCE: None.

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References

1983The Brief Symptom Inventory: an introductory report 2001Bullying Behaviors Among US Youth 1991Are There Multiple Paths to Delinquency?1998Assessing Exposure to Violence in Urban Youth 2004Theory and Research on Desistance from Antisocial Activity among Serious Adolescent Offenders 2004Operational Lessons from the Pathways to Desistance Project 2014Mental Illness, Mass Shootings, and the Politics of American Firearms 2003Mental health needs of crime victims: Epidemiology and outcomes

Cited by

2023Exposure to gun violence and handgun carrying from adolescence to adulthood 2021A Within-Individual Examination of the Predictors of Gun Carrying During Adolescence and Young Adulthood Among Young Men 2019Psychiatric Disorders and Gun Carrying among Adolescents in the United States 2019Drug Dealing and Gun Carrying Go Hand in Hand: Examining How Juvenile Offenders’ Gun Carrying Changes Before and After Drug Dealing Spells Across 84 Months

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