Skip to main content Accessibility help

We use cookies to distinguish you from other users and to provide you with a better experience on our websites. Close this message to accept cookies or find out how to manage your cookie settings.

Close cookie message
×
Hostname: page-component-cd9895bd7-dk4vv Total loading time: 0 Render date: 2024-12-29T21:44:49.638Z Has data issue: false hasContentIssue false

Chapter 7 - Settling the Score in a Zero-Sum Game

Understanding Revenge among Urban Male Youth Overexposed to Gun Violence

Published online by Cambridge University Press:  08 July 2021

By
Deanna L. Wilkinson
Edited by
Holly Recchia  and
Cecilia Wainryb
Holly Recchia
Affiliation:
Concordia University, Montréal
Cecilia Wainryb
Affiliation:
University of Utah
Get access

Summary

Adolescent development is strained by exposure to community violence, especially when shootings and killings happen in public spaces such as the street or popular locations where young people hangout. This chapter examines revenge violence from a situational-transactional framework by focusing on accounts of marginalized urban youth overly exposed to gun violence. Revenge-sparked events are linked to a prior negative interaction. The aftermath of the prior incident can proceed in somewhat predictable ways with participants assessing damage, stewing about the conflict, planning revenge, casting co-offenders, brewing on the issue until the right opportunity comes up, and initiating the revenge incident. Four main themes emerge to illustrate how scripts favorable to seeking revenge or anticipating revenge are internalized by young men living in unsafe urban neighborhoods. Insights about the transactional dynamic of retaliatory violence should be used in formulating holistic community-based solutions, individual-level outreach interventions, and practitioner efforts to reduce urban violence.

Keywords

Revengeyouth violencevictimizationgroup safetysituational-transactional dynamicsconflict resolutionquantity of lawecology of dangerqualitative methods
Type
Chapter
Information
Revenge across Childhood and Adolescence , pp. 161 - 186
Publisher: Cambridge University Press
Print publication year: 2021

Access options

Get access to the full version of this content by using one of the access options below. (Log in options will check for institutional or personal access. Content may require purchase if you do not have access.)

References

Adler, P., & Adler, P. (2008). Of rhetoric and representation: The four faces of ethnography. The Sociological Quarterly, 49, 1–30.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Agnew, R. (2002). Experienced, vicarious, and anticipated strain: An exploratory study on physical victimization and delinquency. Justice Quarterly, 19(4), 603–632.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Anderson, E. (1999). Violence and the inner city street code. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Anderson, E. (1994). The code of the streets. The Atlantic Monthly (May), 81–94.Google Scholar
Anderson, E. (1990). Streetwise: Race, class, and change in an urban community. Chicago, IL: University of Chicago Press.Google Scholar
Bingenheimer, J. B., Brennan, R. T., & Earls, F. J. (2005). Firearm violence exposure and serious violent behavior. Science, 308, 1323–1326.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Black, D. (1983). Crime as social control. American Sociological Review, 48, 34–45.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Black, D. (1993). Crime as Social Control. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Campbell, A., & Gibbs, J. (Eds.). (1986). Violent transactions: The limits of personality. New York: Basil Blackwell.Google Scholar
Copeland-Linder, N., Jones, V. C., Haynie, D. L., Simons-Morton, B. G., Wright, J. L., & Cheng, T. L. (2007). Factors associated with retaliatory attitudes among African American adolescents who have been assaulted. Journal of Pediatric Psychology, 32, 760–770, doi: 10.1093/jpepsy/jsm007CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Cornish, D. (1993). Crimes as scripts. Paper presented at the second annual seminar on Environmental Criminology and Crime Analysis, Coral Gables, FL.Google Scholar
Cornish, D. (1994). The procedural analysis of offending and its relevance for situational prevention. In Clarke, R. V. (Ed.), Crime prevention studies (pp. 151–196). New York: Criminal Justice Press.Google Scholar
de Haan, W., and Nijboer, J. (2005). Youth violence and self-help. European Journal of Crime, Criminal Law and Criminal Justice 13, 75–88.Google Scholar
Eitle, D., & Turner, R. J. (2003). Stress exposure, race, and young adult male crime. The Sociological Quarterly, 44(2), 243–269.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Fagan, J. A., & Wilkinson, D. L. (1998). The social contexts and functions of adolescent violence. In Elliott, D. S., Hamburg, B. A., & Williams, K. (Eds.), Violence in American schools (pp. 55–93). New York: Cambridge University Press. doi: 10.1017/9780511840913.003CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Felson, R. B. (1993). Predatory and dispute-related violence: A social interactionist approach. In Clarke, R. V. & Felson, M. (Eds.), Routine activity and rational choice, Advances in Criminological Theory (Vol. 5, pp. 103–126). New Brunswick, NJ: Transaction Press.Google Scholar
Felson, R. B., & Steadman, H. J. (1983). Situational factors in disputes leading to criminal violence. Criminology, 21(1), 59–74.Google Scholar
Fleisher, M. S. (1998). Dead end kids: Gang girls and the boys they know. Madison, WI: University of Wisconsin Press.Google Scholar
Garbarino, J. (1999). Lost boys: How our sons turn violent and what we can do to save them. New York: Free Press.Google Scholar
Hagedorn, J. M. (1988). People and folks: Gangs, crime, and the underclass in a Rustbelt city. Chicago, IL: Lakeview Press.Google Scholar
Hughes, L., & Short, J. (2005). Disputes involving youth street gang members: Micro social contexts. Criminology, 43(1), 43–76.Google Scholar
Jacobs, B. A. (2004). A typology of street criminal retaliation. Journal of Research in Crime and Delinquency, 41, 295–323.Google Scholar
Katz, J. (1988). Seductions of crime: Moral and sensual attractions in doing evil. New York: Basic Books.Google Scholar
Kaufman, J. (2005). Explaining the race/ethnicity–violence relationship: Neighborhood context and social psychological processes. Justice Quarterly, 22(2), 224–251.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Latzman, R., & Swisher, R. (2005). The interactive relationship among adolescent violence, street violence, and depression. Journal of Community Psychology, 33(2), 355–371.Google Scholar
Luckenbill, D. F. (1977). Criminal homicide as a situated transaction. Social Problems, 5, 176–186.Google Scholar
Luckenbill, D. F., & Doyle, D. P. (1989). Structural position and violence: Developing a cultural explanation. Criminology, 27(3), 419–436.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Miethe, T. D., & Meier, R. F. (1994). Crime and its social context: Toward an integrated theory of offenders, victims, and situations. Albany, NY: State University of New York Press.Google Scholar
Ng-Mak, D. S., Salzinger, S., Feldman, R. S., & Stueve, C. A. (2002). Normalization of violence among inner-city youth: A formulation of research. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 72, 92–101.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Ng-Mak, D. S., Salzinger, S., Feldman, R. S., & Stueve, C. A. (2004). Pathological adaptation to community violence among inner-city youth. American Journal of Orthopsychiatry, 74, 196–208.CrossRefGoogle ScholarPubMed
Oliver, W. (1994). The violent social world of Black men. New York: Lexington Books.Google Scholar
Oliver, W. (1998). The violent social world of Black men. San Francisco: Jossey-Bass.Google Scholar
Oliver, W. (2006). “THE STREETS” An alternative black male socialization institution. Journal of Black Studies, 36(6), 918–937. doi: 10.1177/0021934704273445Google Scholar
Peterson, E. S. L. (1999). Murder as self-help: Women and intimate partner homicide. Homicide Studies, 3(1), 30. doi: 10.1177/1088767999003001003.Google Scholar
Philips, S. (2003). The social structure of vengeance: A test of Black’s model. Criminology, 41, 673–708.Google Scholar
Sharkey, P. (2006). Navigating dangerous streets: The sources and consequences of street efficacy. American Sociological Review, 71, 826–846.Google Scholar
Strauss, A. L. (1987). Qualitative analysis for social scientists. New York: Cambridge University Press.Google Scholar
Sullivan, M. L. (1989). Getting paid: Youth crime and culture in the inner city. Ithaca, NY: Cornell University Press.Google Scholar
Tedeschi, J. T., & Felson, R. (1994). Violence, aggression, and coercive actions. Washington, DC: American Psychological Association.Google Scholar
Topalli, V., Wright, R., & Fornango, R. (2002.) Drug dealers, robbery, and retaliation. British Journal of Criminology, 42, 337–351.Google Scholar
Wainryb, C., & Recchia, H. (2014). Moral lives across cultures: Heterogeneity and conflict. In Killen, M. & Smetana, J. G. (Eds.), Handbook of moral development (2nd ed., pp. 259–278). New York: Psychology Press.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, D. L. (2011). An emergent situational and transactional theory of urban youth violence. In Bishop, D. M. & Feld, B. C. (Eds.), The Oxford Handbook of Juvenile Crime and Juvenile Justice (pp. 336–352). New York: Oxford University Press.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, D. L. (2003). Guns, violence, and identity among African American and Latino youth. New York: LFB Scholarly Publishing, LLC.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, D. L. (2001). Violent events and social identity: Specifying the relationship between respect and masculinity in inner city youth violence. In Kinney, D. A. (Ed.), Sociological studies of children and youth (pp. 235–269). Stamford, CT: JAI Press.CrossRefGoogle Scholar
Wilkinson, D. L., Beaty, C., & Lurry, R. M. (2009). Youth violence—crime or self-help?: Marginalized urban males perspectives on the limited efficacy of criminal justice system to stop youth violence. The Annals of the American Academy of Political & Social Science, 623, 25–38.Google Scholar
Wilkinson, D. L., & Carr, P. J. (2008). Violent youths’ responses to high levels of exposure to community violence: what violent events reveal about youth violence. Journal of Community Psychology, 36(8), 1026–1051, doi: 10.1002/jcop.20278Google Scholar
Wolcott, H. F. (1994). Transforming qualitative data: Description, analysis, and interpretation. Thousand Oaks, CA: Sage Publications, Inc.Google Scholar

Save book to Kindle

To save this book to your Kindle, first ensure no-reply@cambridge.org is added to your Approved Personal Document E-mail List under your Personal Document Settings on the Manage Your Content and Devices page of your Amazon account. Then enter the ‘name’ part of your Kindle email address below. Find out more about saving to your Kindle.

Note you can select to save to either the @free.kindle.com or @kindle.com variations. ‘@free.kindle.com’ emails are free but can only be saved to your device when it is connected to wi-fi. ‘@kindle.com’ emails can be delivered even when you are not connected to wi-fi, but note that service fees apply.

Find out more about the Kindle Personal Document Service.

Available formats
×

Save book to Dropbox

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Dropbox.

Available formats
×

Save book to Google Drive

To save content items to your account, please confirm that you agree to abide by our usage policies. If this is the first time you use this feature, you will be asked to authorise Cambridge Core to connect with your account. Find out more about saving content to Google Drive.

Available formats
×