I GUN ACQUISITION and USE by JUVENILES: A
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GUN ACQUISITION AND USE BY JUVENILES: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL APPROACH by DIANE MARANO A Dissertation submitted to the Graduate School – Camden Rutgers, the State University of New Jersey in partial fulfillment of the requirements for the degree of Doctor of Philosophy Graduate Program in Childhood Studies written under the direction of Daniel Thomas Cook and approved by Daniel T. Cook ________________________________________________________________________ Michelle L. Meloy ________________________________________________________________________ Jane A. Siegel Lauren J. Silver Camden, New Jersey January 2014 i ABSTRACT OF THE DISSERTATION GUN ACQUISITION AND USE BY JUVENILES: A PHENOMENOLOGICAL APPROACH by DIANE MARANO Dissertation Director: Daniel Thomas Cook This dissertation examines why and how juvenile males acquire illegal guns, as well as how they use guns, and their feelings about gun violence. Gun violence by juveniles inflicts serious harm on victims, and often destroys the lives of the offenders themselves. Yet little is known about the social and personal circumstances surrounding a youth’s first encounters with firearms, or how these events affect subsequent criminal activity. This project explored how these young men viewed themselves, their worlds, and the role of guns in their lives, through interviews with offenders in the custody of the New Jersey Juvenile Justice Commission. I used a phenomenological approach intended to elicit detailed descriptions that would make possible the construction of theory grounded in the realities and perceptions of the youth themselves. I found that the participants in this study viewed guns as serving multiple purposes in their lives. The young men faced many social and economic challenges, and often considered gun possession and use to be adaptive responses to their circumstances. The primary pathway to gun acquisition ii described by participants was through entry into illegal street activities that exposed the young men to a perceived increased risk of violent victimization, beyond that which pervaded their neighborhoods as a whole. While participants generally reported their initial gun acquisition to be for purposes of protection or defense, many eventually exploited the gun’s potential as a weapon of aggression, particularly for armed robbery, enforcing control over drug-selling territory, or street fighting. Money was among the stated motivations for at least some of the illegal activities of virtually all participants. Many expressed a desire to provide for their own needs and wants in order to decrease the financial burden on their struggling mothers. Participants viewed guns as useful for protection, for economic gain, for acquiring or maintaining respect, for feeling powerful, and for enjoyment as consumer objects. My hope is that insights gained through this research might advance prevention, intervention, and rehabilitation efforts. iii Acknowledgments I would like to express my gratitude to the young men who participated in this study for generously sharing their views with me, and to the staff of the New Jersey Juvenile Justice Commission for making the project possible. At the JJC, I would particularly like to thank Dr. Michael Aloisi for shepherding the project through the institutional channels and facilitating my contact with the superintendents of the programs I visited. I am grateful to Assistant Superintendent Cleophus Hendrix at the New Jersey Training School for all his work in helping to identify potential participants, organizing the recruiting sessions, and introducing me to the residents in such a way that they would be receptive to my project. Likewise, the superintendents and assistant superintendents at the five other JJC facilities I visited graciously welcomed me and paved the way for my interviews, and I am thankful for their hospitality, without which my fieldwork could not have been as productive. I consider myself very fortunate to have had superb faculty to see me through this journey, and I thank my dissertation committee for all their hard work in reviewing and commenting upon the work as it progressed. Dr. Daniel T. Cook, who chaired the committee, guided me throughout the project at every turn in such a way that I always felt secure about the process. I thank Dr. Michelle Meloy for her insights, suggestions, unstinting support, and especially for her open door, of which I took full, and probably unfair, advantage. I appreciate all the help that Dr. Jane Siegel has provided throughout my time in graduate school, both during the writing of this dissertation and during my first and second years, when I had the opportunity to learn a great deal by observing her in her roles as teacher and researcher while I worked as a graduate assistant. Dr. Lauren iv Silver’s unflagging enthusiasm for this project helped to carry me through its several phases, and her attentive reading of the early drafts improved the final product immeasurably. The support of the entire faculty, especially Department Chair Dr. Lynne Vallone, as well as my classmates in the Childhood Studies Program made the whole experience a pleasure. v Table of Contents Page Detailed Table of Contents vii Introduction 1 Chapter One - Literature Review: Concepts and contexts 12 Chapter Two – Method: Hearing young voices, seeing young lives 44 Chapter Three – Consuming violence, constructing masculinity 89 Chapter Four – “The streets” as lifestyle 137 Chapter Five – Feelings about producing violence 179 Chapter Six – Negative outcomes, uncertain outlooks 229 Chapter Seven – Conclusion: “A gun is a key to anything you wanna do” 260 Appendices 279 Appendix A – Interview protocol 280 Appendix B – Demographic and data snapshot of participants 283 Appendix C - Background information on individual participants 285 Bibliography 301 Curriculum vitae 312 vi Detailed Table of Contents Page Introduction 1 Talking about guns 3 Contributions of this study 8 Chapters, pathways, and directionality 8 Chapter One - Literature Review: Concepts and contexts 12 Theoretical Foundations and Existing Research 13 Identities and contexts 14 Ecological Systems Theory and PVEST 16 Elements of youth gun involvement 19 Male gender and gun violence 19 Race and gun violence 22 Poverty and gun violence 24 Multiple roles of the gun 26 Popular culture and guns 27 Theories of Delinquency 29 Pathways 31 From victim to offender 35 Peer selection toward and away from weapon carriers 37 Social learning and strain approaches 38 Guns and gun crimes are different 40 Gun acquisition and use research with incarcerated populations 41 Chapter Two – Method: Hearing young voices, seeing young lives 44 vii Research paradigm, approach, and theory 45 Evaluative measures for qualitative research 51 Interviewing incarcerated youth 54 Reflections on my personal interest and perspective 55 Crossing boundaries 59 “Talking the talk” of the juvenile justice system 63 Research questions 64 Choice of research site and access 67 Selection and recruitment of participants 67 Data collection 70 Data analysis 75 Validity 79 Ethics 86 Notes on pseudonyms and quotations 87 Voices 88 Chapter Three – Consuming violence, constructing masculinity 89 Violence exposure and victimization 90 Victimization and violence exposure in public spaces 92 “What you call violence, I call excitement” 98 The structural violence of poverty: The case of Quinto 100 Welcome to my world: narrating capability 102 At the intersection of masculinity, poverty, and race 104 Fathers 110 Dangerous adaptations 114 Negotiating the lure of the good life: popular culture and consumption 115 viii Talking, or not, about a juvenile son’s illegal economic contributions 121 Emotional and social attractions of gangs and the street 128 The lure of the streets 130 A place to construct an acceptable social identity 131 Financial capability, street vulnerability 134 Chapter summary 135 Chapter Four – “The streets” as lifestyle 137 Pathways to gun acquisition 137 Juvenile offenders frame their worlds 138 Peer influence or sphere influence 142 Initial gun acquisition 145 Tony’s Story: Not ‘normal’ for him 147 Getting guns: Old heads, new heads, and “connects” 151 Unpacking “protection” 157 Guns as consumer objects and symbols: “Everybody likes a Glock” 164 Ernie’s story: an unreliable product 169 Guns and identity 172 “Why wouldn’t I have a gun?” 176 Chapter summary 178 Chapter Five – Feelings about producing violence 179 How Quinto got his dignity back 181 A gang shooting Ernie “didn’t want to get into” 186 Framing juvenile gun violence, first from an etic perspective 189 Framing gun violence from participants’ perspectives 193 Sidestepping guilty feelings 195 ix Emotion and “feeling rules” 197 Mixed motivations and the subjective experience of robbery 200 Power to purchase 206 Managing bad feelings about violent offending 208 Doing violence, doing gender, and doing emotion 211 Violence with, and on behalf of, others 215 Gang violence 218 Many roles of violence 221 Anger and alienation – present but not accounted for 223 Bridging the gap between etic and emic perspectives 226 Chapter summary 228 Chapter Six – Negative outcomes, uncertain outlooks 229 Shot for a reason 230 Victimization in offending populations 233 Feeling less fearful, being less safe 236 Living the Code of the Street 238 Participants’ views on their dangerous life worlds 241 Anticipated early death 243 What could have made a difference? 249 From dreams to plans 253 Significance of the gun 256 Chapter summary 258 Chapter Seven