Situational Contexts of Gun Use by Young Males in Inner Cities, Final Report
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The author(s) shown below used Federal funds provided by the U.S. Department of Justice and prepared the following final report: Document Title: Situational Contexts of Gun Use by Young Males in Inner Cities, Final Report Author(s): Deanna Wilkinson Ph.D. ; Jeffrey Fagan Ph.D. Document No.: 194120 Date Received: 05/05/2002 Award Number: 96-IJ-CX-0013 This report has not been published by the U.S. Department of Justice. To provide better customer service, NCJRS has made this Federally- funded grant final report available electronically in addition to traditional paper copies. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. PROPEBTY OF I‘dationai Criminal Justice Reference Service (NCJRS) Box 6COO ci:,ckviiie, MD 20849-6000 SITUATIONAL CONTEXTS OF GUN USE BY YOUNG MALES IN INNER CITIES Final Report Grant 96-IJ-CX-tB8S m-c3 Submitted to: National Institute of Justice Office of Justice Programs U.S. Department of Justice Prepared by: Deanna Wilkinson, Ph.D., Co-Principal Investigator Jeffrey Fagan, Ph.D., Principal Investigator t;t~#k.REPORT January 2000 ‘CI -. This research was supported by Grant 96-IJ-CX-&#$fiom the National Institute of Justice. Additional support was provided by the National Science Foundation, the Centers for Disease Control, and the Harry Frank Guggenheim Foundation. Its contents are solely the responsibility of the authors and do not necessarily represent the official views of Columbia University, the National Institute of Justice, or other supporting agencies or foundations. We are extremely grateful to Dr. Susan A. Wilt of the New York City Department of Health for her facilitation of data collection in the hospital emergency rooms, Dr. Patricia O’Neill of Kings County Hospital and Dr. Daniel Koren of Lincoln Hospital for making the emergency department staff and facilities accessible for sampling and data collection, the staff at the Adolescent Residential Unit at the Rikers Island Correctional Facility for providing access to inmates and facilities for conducting interviews, and to the staff and administrators at Friends of Island Academy for their invaluable assistance conducting this research. This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. RESEARCH STAFF Jeffrey Fagan Principal Investigator Deanna L. Wilkinson Co-Principal Investigator Marlene Pantin Research Assistant Valli Rajah Research Assistant Edward Wilkinson Research Assistant Interviewers Davon Battee Wilson Cruz Vincent Davis Alex Figueroa Richard McClain Jason Macado Michael Perez David Tufino Xavier Tufino Whetsel Wade This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. CONTENTS I. Introduction A. The Epidemic of Youth Violence B. Guns and Violent Events C. Firearms in Context D. The Columbia Youth Violence Study E. ThisReport 11. Conceptual Framework A. Symbolic Interactionism and Youth Violence B. Violence Scripts C. Violence and Adolescent Development D. Social Contexts of Violence E. Situational Contexts of Violence F. Summary 111. Methods 0 A. Research Design B. Neighborhood Selection and Characteristics C. Sample Selection and Characteristics D. Sampling Procedures E. Measures of Individuals and Events F. Validity and Reliability G. Data Collection Procedures H. Data Cleaning and Coding I. Data Analysis IV. Gun and Non-Gun Events A. Type of Weapon and Weapon Use B. Reasons or Sparks of Violent Events C. Competition over Girls, Social Identity and Violent Events D. Self-Defense E. Robbery F. The Drug Business G. Revenge and Retaliation H. Gossip and Rumors I. Territoriality J. Debts and Money This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. a V. Processes and Contingencies of Violent Events A. Location and Setting B. Sorting Out Roles of Participants and Observers C. Drug and Alcohol Use D. The Role of Law Enforcement E. Defining Closure F. The Aftermath of Violent Events G. Summary VI. Guns, Youth Violence and Social Identity A. Guns and Social Norms in an Ecology of Danger B. Implementing Street Codes: Establishing and Maintaining a Violent Identity C. Guns and the Ecology of Danger VI. Conclusions A. Understanding the Epidemic of Adolescent Gun Violence B. Specializationversus Specificity of Theory C. Epistemology D. Guns as Social Toxin E. Policy: Controlling Youth Gun Violence References Appendices A. Issues, Limitations, and Comments on the Research Process B. A Dictionary of Slang Terms in Violence Research C. Interview Protocol This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. CHAPTER 1. INTRODUCTION Adolescent violence has been part of the urban landscape in this country since its origins. From the waves of immigration in the early nineteenth century, to the formation of ethnic street gangs in the 1890s (O'Kane 1992), to the rise in delinquency and violence rates in the 1950s, fighting has been an integral part of adolescence. Since the 1970s, as rates of non-lethal violence slowly rose, rates of lethal adolescent violence rose sharply (Cook and Laub, 1998). Most of the increase in youth violence involved gun violence (Zimring, 1999). After declining through the mid- 1980's, adolescent violence rose once again, reaching new highs in the early 1990's. Most of this increase was in gun violence. The sharp rise in prevalence in the late 1980's, its rapid diffhion through a generation of teenagers, its sustained high rates for over five years, and its sharp decline nationwide in the past five years, strongly mirrors the natural history of a contagious disease (Cook and Laub, 1998). Whether in the central cities or more recently in the nation's rural heartlands, guns have become a recurring narrative in the character of youth violence for nearly 30 years (Zimring, 1999). The current generation of American teenagers has grown up surrounded by gun violence. Guns have played a significant role in shaping the developmental trajectories and behaviors of many inner-city youths, and until very recently, gun violence was a part of the everday lives of adolescents (Fagan and Wilkinson, 1998). Gun violence also has become fuel for political and social mobilization in the past decade, adding to recurring critiques of the juvenile justice system, and inspiring communities to undertake a wide range of punitive measures more generally toward crimes by adolescents (Feld, 1998; Zimring, 1999). In this report of a four-year study of gun violence among inner-city youths, we review the lessons of this epidemic of youth gun violence in terms of its impact on adolescent development and the role of aggression in everyday life. We examine the role of guns in the lives of young people, and especially in the social and symbolic construction of violent events among adolescents, primarily focusing on males. We show how guns have become an important part of the discourse of social interactions in modern urban life, with both symbolic meaning (power and control), social meaning (status and identity), and strategic importance. Getting and using a gun e against another person has become a rite of passage into manhood, or at least into a respectable 1-1 This document is a research report submitted to the U.S. Department of Justice. This report has not been published by the Department. Opinions or points of view expressed are those of the author(s) and do not necessarily reflect the official position or policies of the U.S. Department of Justice. social identity within this context (Fagan and Wilkinson, 1998). Expressions of shortened life expectancies reflects processes of anticipatory socialization based on the perceived likelihood of victimization fiom lethal violence. Conversely and perversely, carrying firearms seems to enhance feelings of safety and personal efficacy among teenagers. The result is a developmental “ecology of violence,” where beliefs about guns and the dangers of everyday life may be internalized in early childhood and shape the cognitive frameworks for interpreting events and actions during adolescence. In turn, this context of danger, built in part around a dominating cognitive schema of violence and firearms, creates, shapes and highly values scripts skewed toward violence, and underscores the central role of guns in achieving the instrumental goals of aggressive actions or defensive violence in specific social contexts. A. The Epidemic of Adolescent Gun Violence The epidemic of youth gun violence should be viewed in both historical and contemporary eras. Gun violence has been a recurrent theme in youth violence since colonial times. For example, Sante (1991) describes the sometimes deadly and oftentimes comical struggles between the early 19* century street gangs of New York City to control territory and assert their authority. Although not involved in theft, robbery or the “unsavory professions of gambling or tavernkeeping,” these gangs warred regularly over territory with weapons including stones, hobnail boots (good for kicking), and early versions of the blackjack.