Sequencing Between Age of Onset for Gang Membership, Violent Behavior, Violent Victimization, and First Time Gun Carrying for Minority Youth Living in Extreme Poverty

• In Event: Offending Patterns Across the Life Course

Abstract

A large body of research has established that early onset of criminal behavior is a strong predictor of high rate offending and serious violent offending. However, first time gun carrying is both a distinct behavioral marker and a clear inflection point in the development of youth violence. The purpose of this paper is to utilize self-reported measures of gun carrying from a large high poverty sample of minority youth to: (1) describe the age distribution for first time gun carrying; (2) determine if some minority youth living in extreme poverty have early onset for first time gun carrying; and (3) examine the sequencing between age of onset for gang membership, violent behavior, violent victimization, and first time gun carrying.

Authors

• Richard Spano, University of New Haven

• Celia Lo, Texas Woman's University

• Tyrone Cheng, University of Alabama