Coming of Age as Homicide Survivors: Social Cohesion Moderates Developmental Timing of Homicide-Related Loss on Criminal Attitudes

• In Event: Rethinking Victimization Among the Most Marginalized

Abstract

Using a Street PAR framework, we explore how retrospective reporting of gun homicide-related loss influences criminal attitudes among Black American homicide survivors. We analyze cross-sectional survey data from 657 street-identified Black men (64.7%) and women (35.3%), ages 16-to-54 (M/SDage = 29.81/9.98 years old), who have lost at least one friend (89.3%) or relative (78.5%) to gun homicide. A third (33.6%) reported their first loss occurred in childhood, 42.8% in adolescence, 26.7% in emerging adulthood, and 7.9% after age 25. Participants reside in high-crime neighborhoods in Wilmington, Delaware representing a hard-to-reach, low-income Black population that understands criminal behavior as an adaptation to adverse structural conditions. Results indicate that recall of developmental timing of first gun homicidal loss is associated with current pro-violence attitudes (F(3, 641) = 3.28, p = .020) and anti-snitching attitudes (F(3, 594) = 10.10, p < .001). Those who experienced early violent loss in childhood or adolescence reported greater pro-violence and anti-snitching attitudes than those who experienced loss in adulthood. Additionally, perceived neighborhood social cohesion moderated associations between developmental timing of first homicidal loss and both pro-violence (p = .0004) and anti-snitching attitudes (p = .0016). Social cohesion may help mitigate criminal attitudes among early homicide survivors, highlighting important implications for research on vicarious exposure to violence.

Author

• Brooklynn Hitchens, University of Maryland, College Park