title: Weapon carrying and psychopathic-like features in a population-based sample of Finnish adolescents.
abstract: We investigated the prevalence of juvenile weapon carrying and psychosocial and personality-related risk factors for carrying different types of weapons in a nationally representative, population-based sample of Finnish adolescents. Specifically, we aimed to investigate psychopathic-like personality features as a risk factor for weapon carrying. The participants were 15-16-year-old adolescents from the Finnish self-report delinquency study (n = 4855). Four different groups were formed based on self-reported weapon carrying: no weapon carrying, carrying knife, gun or other weapon. The associations between psychosocial factors, psychopathic-like features and weapon carrying were examined with multinomial logistic regression analysis. 9% of the participants had carried a weapon in the past 12 months. Adolescents with a history of delinquency, victimization and antisocial friends were more likely to carry weapons in general; however, delinquency and victimization were most strongly related to gun carrying, while perceived peer delinquency (antisocial friends) was most strongly related to carrying a knife. Better academic performance was associated with a reduced likelihood of carrying a gun and knife, while feeling secure correlated with a reduced likelihood of gun carrying only. Psychopathic-like features were related to a higher likelihood of weapon carrying, even after adjusting for other risk factors. The findings of the study suggest that adolescents carrying a weapon have a large cluster of problems in their lives, which may vary based on the type of weapon carried. Furthermore, psychopathic-like features strongly relate to a higher risk of carrying a weapon.
authors.affiliation: Clinical Institute, Clinic for Children and Adolescents, Child Psychiatry, University of Helsinki, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Tukholmankatu 8 C 613, 00290, Helsinki, Finland. suvi.saukkonen@helsinki.fi.
authors.forename: Suvi
authors.initials: S
authors.lastname: Saukkonen
authors.affiliation: Child Psychiatry, Forensic Psychiatric Center for Children and Adolescents, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland.|Institute of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Taina
authors.initials: T
authors.lastname: Laajasalo
authors.affiliation: Institute of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Markus
authors.initials: M
authors.lastname: Jokela
authors.affiliation: Criminological Unit, National Research Institute of Legal Policy, Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Janne
authors.initials: J
authors.lastname: Kivivuori
authors.affiliation: Criminological Unit, National Research Institute of Legal Policy, Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Venla
authors.initials: V
authors.lastname: Salmi
authors.affiliation: Clinical Institute, Clinic for Children and Adolescents, Child Psychiatry, University of Helsinki, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Tukholmankatu 8 C 613, 00290, Helsinki, Finland.|Child Psychiatry, Forensic Psychiatric Center for Children and Adolescents, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland.
authors.forename: Eeva T
authors.initials: ET
authors.lastname: Aronen
mesh_terms: D000293:Adolescent; D000294:Adolescent Behavior; D000987:Antisocial Personality Disorder / Q000175:diagnosis* / Q000453:epidemiology / Q000523:psychology; D019548:Crime Victims / Q000523:psychology*; D005260:Female; D005387:Finland / Q000453:epidemiology; D005389:Firearms; D006801:Humans; D007604:Juvenile Delinquency / Q000523:psychology* / Q000706:statistics & numerical data; D008297:Male; D010379:Peer Group; D011159:Population Surveillance; D015995:Prevalence; D012307:Risk Factors; D014505:Urban Population; D054041:Weapons
keywords: Adolescence; Psychopathic-like features; Weapon carrying