Is Gun Crime Learned? Social Learning Theory and Guns

• Main Author: Caffrey, Krista Pearl
• Other Authors: James Burfeind
• Format: Others
• Language: en
• Published: The University of Montana 2014
• Subjects: Sociology
• Online Access: http://etd.lib.umt.edu/theses/available/etd-12182013-064258/

This study examines the relationship between specific childhood experiences and the use of guns in crime in a sample of incarcerated males in American prisons. Two specific childhood experiences are examined: exposure to violence in the home and exposure to guns in the home. Utilizing social learning theory, I argue that adult male felons who used guns in the commission of crimes will have had greater levels of exposure to violence and exposure to guns in their childhood home. Using a data set collected by sociologists James Wright and Peter Rossi, I conducted a binary logistic regression to determine the existence and strength of relationships between the variables. Results show that exposure to violence, as defined in this study, did not predict adult criminal gun usage, but that exposure to guns, and the control variable of race do predict adult criminal gun usage. I then address the limitations of the study and the implications of these findings for the furtherance of social learning theory as well as suggest directions for future research on gun violence.