TY - JOUR PY - 2003// TI - Serious Youth Gun Offenders and the Epidemic of Youth Violence in Boston JO - Journal of quantitative criminology A1 - Braga, Anthony Allan SP - 33 EP - 54 VL - 19 IS - 1 N2 - Boston, like many other major cities, experienced a sudden increase in youth homicides during the late 1980s and early 1990s. Research evidence suggests that the recent epidemic of urban youth violence was intensely concentrated among criminally active young black males residing in disadvantaged urban neighborhoods rather than all young black males residing in disadvantaged black neighborhoods. Other researchers, however, suggest that there was a diffusion of guns and gun violence from youth involved in street crack markets to youth outside the drug trade who armed themselves primarily for self-protection against the armed criminally active youth. In this paper, criminal history data are analyzed to determine whether the criminal profile of Boston arrested youth gun offenders changed over time and micro-level data on youth gun assault incidents in Boston are examined to unravel whether there were noteworthy changes in the nature of these violent events over time. The results of these analyses suggest that the youth violence epidemic in Boston was highly concentrated among serious youth gun offenders rather than a diffusion of guns away from the street drug trade, gangs, and criminally active youth. (Abstract Adapted from Source: Journal of Quantitative Criminology, 2003. Copyright © 2003 by Springer) Massachusetts 1980s 1990s Urban Violence Urban Youth Homicide Causes Homicide Offender Juvenile Homicide Juvenile Offender Juvenile Violence Violence Causes Socioeconomic Factors Firearms Violence Firearms Homicide Juvenile Firearms Use Juvenile Gang Juvenile Male African American Gang African American Homicide African American Juvenile African American Male African American Offender African American Violence Male Gang Male Offender Male Violence 05-05

LA - SN - 0748-4518 UR - http://dx.doi.org/ ID - ref1 ER -