Adolescents with criminal records may be more likely to carry guns if they have witnessed or experienced violence, a US study suggests. Plenty of previous research has linked gun use among young people to the availability and visibility of weapons in their homes and communities. The current study focused on teen boys found guilty of serious crimes and found every exposure to violence was associated with 43 to 87 per cent higher odds that these young men would carry guns. "Experiencing trauma, whether by witnessing drive-by shootings in the neighborhood or a school classmate being shot, impacts every sphere of an adolescent's life - invalidating expectations of finding safety in the world and shattering optimistic beliefs about the future," said lead study author Joan Reid, a criminology researcher at the University of South Florida in St Petersburg. "Repeated exposure to violence gradually desensitises adolescents to the risks and they become numb to the dangerous reality," Reid added. "Paradoxically, gun carrying makes them feel safer while actually increasing their likelihood of an early death." For the current study, researchers surveyed 1,170 young men ages 14 to 19 who had...
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