Guns

Journal of Contemporary Criminal
Justice
http://ccj.sagepub.com/

Peers and Gun Use Among Urban Adolescent Males : An Examination of
Social Embeddedness
Deanna L. Wilkinson, Marquette S. McBryde, Brice Williams, Shelly Bloom and Kerryn
Bell
Journal of Contemporary Criminal Justice 2009 25: 20
DOI: 10.1177/1043986208328449
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Peers and Gun Use Among
Urban Adolescent Males

Journal of Contemporary
Criminal Justice
Volume 25 Number 1
February 2009 20-44
© 2009 Sage Publications
10.1177/1043986208328449
http://ccj.sagepub.com hosted at http://online.sagepub.com An Examination of
Social Embeddedness
Deanna L. Wilkinson
Marquette S. McBryde
Brice Williams
Shelly Bloom
Kerryn Bell
The Ohio State University, Columbus

Youth gun violence is most often a group phenomenon yet most empirical examinations ignore this fact. Using interview data with 416 violent male offenders from two disadvantaged New York City neighborhoods, this paper examines the roles that the peer contexts play in explaining the nuanced patterns of respondent gun-related behaviors. We hypothesize that respondents who are comparatively more embedded in networks of peers who carry and use guns will also report greater involvement in serious gun violence. We found that guns were equated with self-protection and the most prevalent reason given

Citations: http://ccj.sagepub.com/content/25/1/20.refs.html >> Version of Record - Feb 3, 2009 What is This? Downloaded from ccj.sagepub.com by guest on January 29, 2013 African Americans aged 25 to 34 from 1981 to 2005 (CDC Wonder, 2006). Whether in urban centers or more recently in the nation’s rural heartlands, guns have been 20 Downloaded from ccj.sagepub.com by guest on January 29, 2013 Wilkinson et al. / Peers and Gun Use Among Urban Adolescent Males 21 2001; Zimring, 1999) eighties and nineties (Cook & Laub, 1998; Fagan & Wilkinson, 1998a). Theoretical Framework Dating back to early studies by Sutherland (1927), Shaw and McKay (1931), Short and Nye (1958), and Wolfgang (1958), scholars have consistently found that delinquency often occurs in the context of groups studies of youth delinquency, particularly violent delinquency, have not focused on its group nature (see Conway & McCord, 2002; McCord & Conway, 2005; McGloin, Sullivan, Piquero, & Bacon, 2008; Warr, 1996, 2002 for exceptions). Gang studies would be another exception but even gang studies have generally failed to and criminal behavior (see Reiss, 1986; Warr, 2002 for exceptions). Urban male gun violence in particular is likely to be characterized as a group-on-group phenomenon, Downloaded from ccj.sagepub.com by guest on January 29, 2013 22