The Mediating Effects of Legal Cynicism on Known Risk Factors of Adolescent Gun Carrying

• In Event: Firearm Ownership, Carrying, and Education

Abstract

Since 2020, firearm violence has replaced auto accidents as the number one reason for youth deaths below the age of 19. This firearm violence epidemic has been increasing since 2015 and has had its greatest impact on male adolescents. To address this social problem, researchers and academics have been called on to address this issue. Extensive research has been done to provide numerous intercorrelated risk factors for adolescent firearm violence, in which adolescent firearm carrying has been both a highly correlated risk factor and a proxy for firearm violence in survey data. What has been overlooked as a focal point in research, however, has been the role in which legal cynicism plays between risk factors of adolescent firearm carrying and violence. Using the Pathways to Desistance Longitudinal Study (n=1,170), and structural equation modeling (SEM), this paper assesses the conditioning effects of legal cynicism on adolescent firearm carrying. While controlling for prior firearm carrying, cross-lagged dynamic panel modeling shows that legal cynicism does play a key role in explaining the relationship between known risk factors and adolescent firearm carrying. Policy writers should take this into account as we move forward to address the epidemic of firearm violence on our country’s youth.

Author

• Taylor Tolles, Bowling Green State University