“I don’t know if you’ve ever walked a pit bull. You owe it to your life to walk a pit bull down the street, I’m telling you. It’s like a gun you can pet, it’s the only way to describe it, it’s awesome.” Comedian Bill Burr.

It’s a [--1--]: a gang member strolls the streets walking his big, scary dog. And it’s assumed that the dog is there for protection and as a [--2--]. But now a British study reveals that, for young gang members anyway, the primary reasons for having a dog are not those related to gang activities. The research is in the journal Crime, Law and Social Change. [Jennifer Maher and Harriet Pierpoint, Friends, status symbols and weapons: the use of dogs by youth groups and youth gangs]

Researchers went along with professionals who work with gang members to interview 25 young people in South Wales. They also spoke with animal welfare workers and [--3--]. Most gang members owned a dog and most of the dogs were bull [--4--]. Sadly, some dogs were indeed used as weapons, for fighting other dogs or were simply neglected. But the reasons that the owners themselves discussed for wanting a dog in the first place were mostly something to socialize with friends over and simple companionship.
【視聽版科學(xué)小組榮譽(yù)出品】
stereotypical image status symbol gang outreach pros breeds
養(yǎng)狗交朋友 “不知道你有沒有遛過斗牛犬。你養(yǎng)著一只斗牛犬并帶著它倒街上去遛。我告訴你呀，它就是你可以用來寵愛的武器，就是這種感覺，真的是太棒了?！毕矂⊙輪T比爾?波爾描述道。 這是一個(gè)很老套的畫面：某幫派的一個(gè)成員在街上遛他那嚇人的大狗。而這條狗可能只是起的一個(gè)保護(hù)作用和一個(gè)地位的象征。但是最近一項(xiàng)英國(guó)研究顯示，對(duì)于年輕的幫派成員來說，養(yǎng)條狗最主要的目的其實(shí)跟幫派活動(dòng)沒有什么太大關(guān)系。這項(xiàng)研究發(fā)表在《犯罪，法律和社會(huì)變革》期刊中。[Jennifer Maher and Harriet Pierpoint, Friends, status symbols and weapons: the use of dogs by youth groups and youth gangs] 與幫派打交道的專家們和研究人員一起對(duì)南威爾士25名年輕人進(jìn)行采訪。他們也同動(dòng)物救濟(jì)工作者和幫派外擴(kuò)人員交談。發(fā)部分幫派成員都有一條狗，丙炔大多數(shù)的狗都是斗牛犬的品種。可惜，一些狗確實(shí)是被當(dāng)成武器去攻擊其他狗或者直接被忽視掉。但是狗主人最初養(yǎng)狗的原因大多數(shù)只是想與朋友建立簡(jiǎn)單的社交關(guān)系。