Skip to Main Content

Language of the Gun: Youth, Crime, and Public Policy

Online ISBN:
9780226316079
Print ISBN:
9780226316086
Publisher:
University of Chicago Press
Book

Language of the Gun: Youth, Crime, and Public Policy

Bernard E. Harcourt
Bernard E. Harcourt
Find on
Published online:
21 March 2013
Published in print:
15 February 2006
Online ISBN:
9780226316079
Print ISBN:
9780226316086
Publisher:
University of Chicago Press

Abstract

Legal and public policies concerning youth gun violence tend to rely heavily on crime reports, survey data, and statistical methods. Rarely is attention given to the young voices belonging to those who carry high-powered semiautomatic handguns. This book recounts in-depth interviews with youths detained at an all-male correctional facility, exploring how they talk about guns and what meanings they ascribe to them in a broader attempt to understand some of the assumptions implicit in current handgun policies. In the process, the book redraws the relationships among empirical research, law, and public policy. Home to over 150 repeat offenders ranging in age from twelve to seventeen, the Catalina Mountain School is made up of a particular stratum of boys—those who have committed the most offenses but will still be released upon reaching adulthood. In an effort to understand the symbolic and emotional language of guns and gun carrying, dozens of these incarcerated Catalina boys were interviewed. What do these youths see in guns? What draws them to handguns? Why do some of them carry and others not? Their often surprising answers unveil many of the presuppositions that influence our laws and policies.

Contents
Close
This Feature Is Available To Subscribers Only

Sign In or Create an Account

Close

This PDF is available to Subscribers Only

View Article Abstract & Purchase Options

For full access to this pdf, sign in to an existing account, or purchase an annual subscription.

Close