The relationship between exposure to community violence and violent behavior in the social ecologies of incarcerated adolescents

There is great overlap in the adolescents engaged in violent behavior and those exposed to community violence. Much psychological inquiry has focused on understanding the contributions that exposure to urban violence make to aggressive and violent behavior among youth, but the other ways in which these variables may be related have been overlooked. This study compared four alternate models of the manner in which violence exposure and violent behavior are related within the social ecologies of incarcerated inner city adolescents. The first model involved looking at violent behavior as a consequence of community violence exposure. The second model examined the degree to which engaging in violent behavior places one at risk for exposure to community violence. The third model examined the degree to which both violence exposure and violent behavior were consequences of common antecedents. The final model examined whether violence exposure and violent behavior were related because they were components of a syndrome of violence related outcomes. 277 adolescent offenders were interviewed to assess family, neighborhood, cognitive, and peer factors, as well as violent behavior and community violence exposure. Archival data was collected about arrests histories, and census data was used to measure neighborhood characteristics. The hypothesized models were tested using structural equation models. Results suggest that the best way to understand the association between community violence exposure and violent behavior is to consider both as manifestations of a general vulnerability towards violence.