Doctor of Philosophy / Department of Sociology, Anthropology, and Social Work / W. Richard Goe / This study examined three of the prominent theories of juvenile delinquency to determine principle juvenile firearm carrying behaviors. The theories investigated were Differential Association/Social Learning, Social Control, and Anomie/Strain. The data set used for this research was the “National Survey of Weapons-Related Experiences, Behaviors, and Concerns of High School Youth in the United States, 1996” from the Inter-University Consortium for Political and Social Research at the University of Michigan. This national-level survey of youth was conducted by Joseph F. Sheley and James D. Wright to assemble detailed behavioral and attitudinal data concerning weapons and violence, and was completed by 733 10th and 11th grade male high school students. Comparison logistic regression model analyses were utilized to examine the study’s hypotheses. Findings indicated that juvenile firearms carrying is most influenced by delinquent peers, delinquent friends, and gang membership within the theoretical framework of Differential Association/Social Learning. Social Control Theory has the least explanatory power, while the analysis of Anomie/Strain suggests that vicarious strains (those strains experienced by people close to the juvenile) have even more influence on juvenile firearms carrying than experienced strain. Theoretical integration is recommended for future research attempting to provide greater explanatory and predictive power for serious forms of delinquency like juvenile firearms carrying.

Includes vita. / Title from PDF of title page. / Document formatted into pages; contains 47 pages. / Thesis (M.A.)--University of South Florida, 2002. / Includes bibliographical references. / Text (Electronic thesis) in PDF format. / ABSTRACT: This thesis analyzes the policy effects of several state gun control restrictions in the United States. The study employs the data of gun related crimes and gun control restrictions from Statistical Abstract of Criminal Justice Handbook through five years (from 1995 to 2000). Although many scholars have studied previously gun control policy effects on crimes, they always focus on the total violence level and ignore to compare the policy effects of different gun control laws. The present study examines intensively gun related crimes and compares several gun control policies. Pooled data is employed to access the effects of gun control restrictions, and it is another advancement based on previous studies, which always use cross-sectional or time series designs. / ABSTRACT: These findings partially reject the previous conclusions that gun control laws have no effects on violence and for gun related homicides and robberies; several gun control restrictions like registration, license, and waiting period show some significant policy effects. Contrary to the past study, the permit to purchase, which has been regarded as the most efficient law, produces no significant policy effects. Sale report to police and certain firearm prohibited also have no significant effects. Among control variables, race and urban population exert the obvious influences on the gun violence, and specifically, the density of population affects the gun related homicides and high school graduates affects the gun related robberies. Implications of these findings and potential for future research are discussed. / System requirements: World Wide Web browser and PDF reader. / Mode of access: World Wide Web.

The United States faces an ever-growing public health concern of gun violence, having the highest rate of homicide by firearm use among Western countries. American leaders on this subject have debated for many years on how to address this issue. Such debate, in turn, has brought up the concern of the mentally ill in possession of firearms, especially in light of mass shootings. The goal of this thesis is to determine the existence of a relationship between gun violence and mental illness. The significance of discerning this relationship is multi-faceted in that gun violence psychologically traumatizes its victims and also has been linked with mental illnesses in a stigmatizing manner, thanks to the spotlight on mass shootings by the media. Through literature analysis of the behaviors of those with schizophrenia, bipolar disorder, and alcohol abuse, it was determined that, although increasing a person’s chances for experiencing at-risk behaviors for violence, intrinsic mental disorders such as schizophrenia and bipolar disorder are not statistically associated with gun violence. In fact, not only has it been reported that very few firearm-related acts of violence are linked with those with mental illnesses, but also it has been noted that those with serious psychiatric disorders are victimized more often than a person without mental illness. Consequently, it is critical for physicians, lawmakers, and even the general public to take active measures to ensure that those with mental illnesses are not shamed for their condition and receive the necessary services to lead an ordinary lifestyle among their peers.

Det svenska samhället har under de senaste åren bevittnat en förändring gällande samhällsvåldets karaktär och kontext. Det finns ett behov av effektiva preventiva åtgärder, vilket i sin tur kräver kunskap gällande det aktuella ämnet. Det huvudsakliga syftet med denna studie var därför att undersöka vilka möjliga faktorer som kan vara bidragande till samhällsvåldets eskalering med fokus på dess förändrade karaktär och kontext, med avgränsning på makronivå. Undersökningen utgick ifrån en kvalitativ ansats med semistrukturerade intervjuer som datainsamlingsmetod. Resultatet visar att orsakerna till samhällsvåldets kontext- och karaktärsförändring är mångfacetterade. Flertalet faktorer har betydelse för samhällsvåldets utveckling. De faktorer studien belyser är organiseringen inom svenska institutionen, förändringar i den kriminella miljön, narkotika samt media. Resultatet visar att dessa faktorer samspelar med varandra där organiseringen av Sveriges institutioner har en stor påverkan på hur de andra faktorerna uttrycker sig i samhället. / Swedish society has witnessed a change in recent years regarding the nature and context of community violence. There is a need for effective preventive measures, which in turn requires knowledge of the subject in question. The main purpose of this study was therefore to investigate what possible factors may be contributing to the escalation of community violence with focus on its changed character and context, with a definition at the macro level. The study was based on a qualitative approach with semi-structured interviews as a data collection method. The result shows that the causes of community violence´s context and character change are multifaceted. Several factors are important for the development of community violence. The factors the study highlights are the organization within the Swedish institution, changes in the criminal environment, drugs and the media. The results show that these factors interact with each other, where the organization of Sweden´s institutions has a major impact in how the other factors are expressed in society.

In the traditional agenda-setting theory, the agenda-setters were the news media and the public has a minimal role in the process of agenda-setting, which makes the public a passive receiver located at the bottom in the top-down agenda-setting dynamics. This study claims that with the development of Information communication technologies, primarily social media, the networked public may be able to set their own agendas through connective actions, outside the influence of the news media agenda. There is little empirical research focused on development and dynamics of public agenda-setting through social media platforms. Understanding the development and dynamics of public agenda-setting may be key to accounting for and overcoming conflicting findings in previous reverse agenda-setting research. This study examined the public agenda-setting dynamics through a case of gun violence prevention activism Twitter network, the #MarchForOurLives Twitter network. This study determined that the agenda setters of the #MarchForOurLives Twitter network are the key Never Again MSD student leaders and the March For Our Lives. The weekly reflected important events and issues and the identified topics were highly co-related with the themes examined in the tweets created by the agenda setters. The amplifiers comprised the vast majority of the tweets. The advocates and the supporters consisted of 0.44% and 4.43% respectively. The tweets made by the agenda setters accounted for 0.03%. The young activists and the like-minded and participatory public could continuously make changes taking advantage of technologies, and they could be the hope in the current and future society.

Syftet med studien var att undersöka hur olika brottsförebyggande aktörer ser på det 364 dagar långa uppehållet av skjutningar som varade i Linköping mellan 28 januari 2022 och 27 januari 2023. Syftet var även att studera hur aktörerna ser på förebyggande arbete mot skjutningar i Linköping på ett övergripande plan. För att studera detta har kvalitativa intervjuer genomförts med sex relevanta brottsförebyggande aktörer i kommunen. Resultatet visade att uppehållet utifrån informanternas beskrivning till stor del berodde på tillfälligheter som lett till avhållsamhet hos de som annars genomför skjutningar. Aktörerna hade dock tilltro till det egna och andra aktörers arbete på området, både preventivt och ingripande, och menade att samverkan mellan aktörerna är fundamentalt i arbetet mot skjutningar. De viktigaste slutsatserna var att det inte går att säkerställa varför uppehållet uppstod, men att aktörernas bilder av uppehållet och vilka åtgärder som fungerar var samstämmiga. Dessa åtgärder avser främst samverkan och närvaro. / The purpose of this study was to examine the perspectives of crime prevention actors regarding the 364-day absence of shootings in Linköping between January 28, 2022, and January 27, 2023. Additionally, the study aims to investigate how these actors perceive preventive efforts against shootings in Linköping. Qualitative interviews were conducted with six relevant crime prevention actors in Linköping to examine these aspects. The findings revealed that, according to the informants' descriptions, the absence of shootings during this period was largely due to coincidental factors that abstained potential perpetrators. Nevertheless, the actors expressed confidence in the effectiveness of their own and other actors' preventive and intervention initiatives, emphasizing the fundamental role of interagency collaboration in preventing shootings. The study concludes that while specific reasons for the absence cannot be determined, actors' perceptions and the importance of interagency collaboration was consistent. The findings highlight interagency collaboration and active presence in crime prevention.

No description available.

Prior literature has investigated the connection between school shootings and factors of familial trauma and mental health. Specifically, experiences related to parental suicide, physical or sexual abuse, neglect, marital violence, or severe bullying have been associated with a propensity for carrying out a mass shooting. Given prior research has shown common histories among school shooters, it follows that a person's violent tendencies can be revealed by their previous communications with others, thus aiding in predicting an individual's proclivity for school shootings. However, previous literature found no conclusions were drawn from online posts made by the shooters prior to the mass shootings. This thesis applies NVivo-supported thematic analysis and Natural Language Processing (NLP) to study school shootings by comparing the online speech patterns of known school terrorists versus those of non-violent extremists and ordinary teenagers online. Findings indicate that out of all the possible NLP indicators, conversation, HarmVice, negative tone, and conflict are the most suitable school shootings indicators. Ordinary people score eight times higher than known school shooters and online extremists in conversation. Known shooters score more than 14 times higher in HarmVice, than in both ordinary people and online extremists. Known shooters also score higher in negative tone (1.37 times higher than ordinary people and 1.78 times higher than online extremists) and conflict (more than three times higher than ordinary people and 1.8 times higher than online extremists). The implications for domestic violence prediction and prevention can be used to protect citizens inside educational infrastructure by linking the flagged accounts to the schools or colleges that they attend. Further research is needed to determine the severity of emotional coping displayed in online posts, as well as the amount of information and frequency with which weapons and killing are discussed.

Syftet med denna studie var att öka kunskapen om motiv som leder till att medborgare organiserar sig mot vapenvåld och för en tryggare ort, efter att en ung man i området skjutits till döds på öppen gata. Vidare var syftet att få en förståelse för hur de mobiliserande processerna tar sig uttryck i Skarpnäck. Studiens frågeställningar har besvarats genom kvalitativa intervjuer med sju medborgare som deltar i mobiliseringen, samt ostrukturerade observationer av mobiliseringens skeende. Studiens data har analyserats med teorin om sociala rörelser, samt Bourdieus kapitalformer i kombination med begreppen fält och habitus. Resultaten visar på att motiven till deltagandet grundar sig i en kombination av faktorer, som exempelvis sociala relationer, platsidentitet och gemenskap. Vidare framkommer det av resultatet att området präglas av bland annat boendesegregation och resursbrister i den kommunala skolan, som på olika sätt bidrar med en distans mellan medborgarna och aktörer inom den offentliga sektorn. Mobiliseringen i Skarpnäck utgörs av ett kritiskt och kollektivt handlade som fokuserar på att kartlägga behov i området, vilket sedermera framförts till Stadsdelsnämnden i form av ett medborgarförslag. / The aim of this paper is to increase knowledge on the motives that lead to citizens organizing against gun violence and for a safer neighborhood, after a young man in the community was shot to death on an open street. Furthermore, the aim of this paper is to gain an understanding of how the process of mobilisation took place in Skarpnäck. The study’s questions have been answered through two research methods; qualitative interviews with seven citizens who took part in the mobilization, as well as by unstructured observations of mobilising events. Theories applied whilst analysing the collected data were social movement theoryand Bourdieu’s theory of capital as well as the terms field and habitus. Results show that citizen participation is motivated by several factors, such as social ties,  place identity and  community. Results also show that the neighborhood, amongst other things, is affected by segregation and lack of resources in the local public school, which in different ways  contribute to a distance between citizens and civil servants in the public sector. Mobilisation in Skarpnäck takes form through critical and collective action that focuses on mapping needs in the neighborhood, which are then presented to the districts committee as citizen proposals.

The Multiple Streams model developed by John Kingdon (1995) and Nikolaos Zahariadis (2007) provides a valuable framework for understanding the nature of policy change. This investigation draws extensively upon the Multiple Streams framework in order to understand the development of gun-control policy initiatives under President Barack Obama. The investigation uses a case-study approach with in-depth analysis of four different mass-shooting events that took place in the United States between 2009 and 2012. Reconstruction of the shooting events and detailed parsing of the Obama administration’s official responses to each incident, when viewed through the Multiple Streams lens, clearly explain why Obama’s aggressive policy initiative was so delayed in its emergence in spite of several shootings and the President’s clearly stated belief that gun-reform was a necessary step for the federal government. While the term “policy change” is broad and may encompass all sorts of governmental responsiveness, the term herein should be interpreted in the narrowest sense: exclusively encompassing legislative initiatives. Ultimately, the investigation concludes that numerous factors, but most prominently concerns about the timing and results of the 2010 Midterm and 2012 General Elections, prevented an aggressive pursuit of gun-reform prior to January 2013. The tragic shooting of 28 people in Newtown, Connecticut, then served as a prime focusing event for the President to aggressively engage a long-standing goal.