Diane Marano: Juvenile Offenders and Guns: Voices Behind Gun Violence

Diane Marano’s scholarly text, Juvenile Offenders and Guns, is a report and analysis of the author’s study of twenty-five juvenile offenders who are incarcerated for gun related offenses. Marano’s book explores the relationship between these offenders and guns through her qualitative research interviews. Through these interviews, several themes emerge including protection, street lifestyles, power, entertainment, and opportunity, that are weaved through the boys’ experiences that influence these juveniles’ consumption of guns and eventual production of violence. One factor, however, predominates and influences the others: masculinity. Marano concludes that these young men’s idea of masculinity and what it means to be a man is central to their relationships with guns. Because of Marano’s research techniques and approach to reporting her findings in the book, readers do not simply take away knowledge and reasons for these boys’ behaviors, they also gain a true understanding of, almost to the point of empathizing with, their decisions in their circumstances. …