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Weapon carrying and psychopathic-like features in a population-based sample of Finnish adolescents

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An Erratum to this article was published on 06 June 2015

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.

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Acknowledgments

The study was supported by grants from the Päivikki and Sakari Sohlberg Foundation, Helsinki University Grants and Helsinki University Central Hospital Research Grants (TYH 2012139, 2013207).

Conflict of interest

The authors declare that they have no conflict of interest. The manuscript does not contain clinical studies or patient data.

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Authors and Affiliations

  1. 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 & Eeva T. Aronen

  2. Child Psychiatry, Forensic Psychiatric Center for Children and Adolescents, Helsinki University Central Hospital, Helsinki, Finland

    Taina Laajasalo & Eeva T. Aronen

  3. Institute of Behavioural Sciences, University of Helsinki, Helsinki, Finland

    Taina Laajasalo & Markus Jokela

  4. Criminological Unit, National Research Institute of Legal Policy, Helsinki, Finland

    Janne Kivivuori & Venla Salmi

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  1. Suvi Saukkonen
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  2. Taina Laajasalo
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  4. Janne Kivivuori
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Correspondence to Suvi Saukkonen.

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Saukkonen, S., Laajasalo, T., Jokela, M. et al. Weapon carrying and psychopathic-like features in a population-based sample of Finnish adolescents. Eur Child Adolesc Psychiatry 25, 183–191 (2016). https://doi.org/10.1007/s00787-015-0724-2

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