Situational Contexts of Gun Use Among Young Males

Situational Contexts of Gun Use Among Young Males

This research examines the use of guns among young males. Despite the sharp rise in gun homicide rates among inner city males in the past decade, there have been almost no systematic behavioral studies on the use of guns. Recent advances in research on interpersonal violence have shown the importance of the situational contexts where violent events occur, and the interactive social processes or exchanges that lead up to criminal violence.

We use a processual analysis of crime decision making to explain the use of guns by young males. The framework for the proposed research will examine the situational contexts of gun use, and the dynamic processes of social interactions and systematic transactions preceding violent events. This framework views crimes as interactions between offender and target, situated in specific social contexts that shape the likelihood, course and outcome of criminal events. Recent analyses of crimes as "scripts" further emphasizes the deterministic nature of many violent events.

The research includes interviews with respondents from New York City neighborhoods with high homicide rates of young males 16-22 years of age. Samples include young males recently released on weapons charges, and males from the neighborhoods. The neighborhood samples include young males who have used guns or been victims of gun assaults but who are not involved in the criminal justice system.

The interview protocols examines the dynamics of gun events, including reconstructions of dialogues for the events culminating in gunshots, and the aftermath of those events. The use of guns is situated within specific disputes or other exchanges. The analyses focuses on the systemic patterns that gun assaults follow. These include such processes as identity attacks, "impression management," threats and attempts at conciliation, retaliation and self-defense. The research contributes to the development for a framework for processual analysis of violent events, with implications for the construction of offense-specific "scripts" and decisions for several forms of interpersonal violence.

Morbidity and mortality rates from gun shots have increased sharply in among young African American males ages 16-24. Despite this crisis, there has been little research on factors implicated in the occurrence of homicides. This research identifies the types of interactions that lead to gun use or the avoidance of guns among young males in this population group.

Recent advances in the explanation of crime events have been applied to certain violent behaviors but not to gun use. This research examines the situational and transactional dynamics by which disputes escalate either to lethal gun violence or to non-violent outcomes. The framework for analyzing the use of lethal violence involves cognitive decision making under conditions of angry arousal and fear. Explanations using scripts and processual analyses provide an alternative framework for the study of aggression. This framework represents a distinct departure from deterministic models based on disinhibition or impulsivity, as well as explanations based on emotional disturbance or sociopathology. The framework can be extended and modified for a variety of target selection processes involved in violent events.