Posted on 05/27/2005 5:55:09 AM PDT by mistfree
Study says gun violence is 'infectious' BOSTON, May 27 (UPI) -- A study of Chicago youngsters finds that just as childhood diseases are spread by exposure, so is a tendency to use guns.
Researchers from Harvard Medical School tracked 1,500 children and teenagers from 78 Chicago neighborhoods. They say that young people who have witnessed gun violence are more than twice as likely as those who have not to imitate the behavior.
"Preventing one violent crime may prevent a downstream cascade of 'infections,'" said Dr. Felton Earls, a professor of social medicine at Harvard. "And the lessons learned in Chicago should be broadly applicable. Generalizing this to any large city should be valid."
The researchers believe they have succeeded in finding a cause-and-effect relationship between witnessing violence and becoming a perpetrator.
By studying a large group of young people and interviewing them and their families three times over several years, they were able to compare families where other risk factors were equal.
Copyright 2005 by United Press International. All Rights Reserved.
You break into my house and you are going to get infected.
I wonder if the same logic would ever be published for homosexual behavior...
Maybe it's something in the water in Chicago...
Isn't Chicago gun-free? Seriously, this is like saying that these kids started a fistfight by slamming their face into the bully's hand - repeatedly.
So if one witnesses how dangerous their neighborhood is then they are more likely to protect themselves. Any Valley Girl could figure that out.
Did the kids get to shoot at a "Bobo Doll" like that study done 40 some years ago?
So, some guys from Harvard went to some inner city neighborhoods to study "gun violence".
Did they also go to some suburban neighborhoods?
How about some rural areas where kids still go squirrel hunting after school?
Why did they just stay in the inner cities?
Does anybody think that these Harvard guys started with a bias against guns and went to someplace they knew they could "prove" that their bias was correct?
Do you protect yourself from infection by getting a shot? Or is that how you get infected? I'm confused...
Maybe we should ban Hollywood movies.
Yes, of course, this is ridiculous. The teens who had witnessed gun violence live in the most violent parts of the city and a good portion of them become gang members and sell drugs.
A study about guns in a place where it is illegal to own guns by an organization that would ban guns located in an area where it is almost impossible to buy guns.
Next study site - DC.
Harvard, huh? H-A-R-V-A-R-D! Harvard! Harvard! Wheeeeeeeeeee!
Cripes, if you grow up playing board games, you'll probably play board games as an adult. Way to go, Harvoid. How many hundreds of thousands did somebody pay for that insightful study?
"A study about guns in a place where it is illegal to own guns by an organization that would ban guns located in an area where it is almost impossible to buy guns."
Love it!!!!!
In fact if you took out all the gun deaths caused by persons with criminal records- those who cannot legally possess a firearm-and separated them out from the gun death stats....
I am guessing the rate for those normaly honest citizens engaged in first time violent crime or negligant death with a firearm rates really drop off
Then if you counter with how many lives were saved and crimes like rape, robbery and assaults were stopped...and made this information as widely public as the anti gunners make their propaganda...
There would be a public outcry to make defense gun ownership mandatory
IMO
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