“Influence and Selection Processes in Weapon Carrying during Adolescence: The Roles of Status, Aggression, and Vulnerability.”
By Jan Kornelis Dijkstra, Siegwart Lindenberg, René Veenstra, Christian Steglich, Jenny Isaacs, Noel A. Card, and Ernest V. E. Hodges, 2010.
Criminology 48, 187-220.

This study examined the role of peers in weapon carrying (guns, knives, and other weapons) inside and outside the school. Data stem from a longitudinal study among a high-risk sample of male students (7th to 10th grade; N = 167) from predominantly Hispanic, low-social economic status (SES) schools in the United States. Longitudinal social network models tested whether similarity in weapon carrying among friends is due to peer influence or selection. From a goal-framing approach, we argued that weapon carrying might function as a status symbol in friendship networks, and, consequently, be subject to peer influence. Results indicate that weapon carrying is indeed a result of peer influence. The role of status effects was supported by findings that weapon carrying increased the number of friendship nominations received by peers, whereas it reduced the number of given nominations. Additionally, peer reported aggressiveness predicted weapon carrying one year later. These findings suggest that adolescent weapon carrying emerges from a complex interplay between attraction of weapon carriers for affiliation, peer influence in friendship networks, and individual aggression.

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