Do The Write Thing: The Cause Of Youth Violence

The research problem

“Most of the research on youth’s perceptions of violence, however, is based on topics and questions defined by researchers. Few studies provide a format that allows youth to express their ideas about youth violence in their own voices. Rather, they report youth’s responses to closed-ended questions about issues in which the researcher is interested. The unique contribution of this study is that it is based on youth’s perspectives on violence in their own words” (Zimmerman et al., 2004). The cause of violence could be for many reasons including peer pressure, family problems, physical and mental health problems as well.

Research design

“This study took place in Flint, Michigan, an industrial city that has suffered significant

The contest was open to seventh-and-eighth-grade students in all seven middle schools in the district. Five of these schools chose to participate. Student participation in the contest was voluntary, but some group incentives were provided. The school with the most entries received an award, every teacher whose class submitted entries was eligible for a drawing for educational materials, and a citywide dance was held for all students who entered the contest. Participating students were instructed to address three questions in their essays: (a) How has youth violence affected my life? (b) What are the causes of youth violence? And (c) What can I do about youth violence? For the purposes of this article, only statements about causes were examined. Institutional Review Board approval was obtained for the study” (Zimmerman et al.,

The results of the research revealed that peer factor was number 1 followed by individual, societal and family factors. The researchers used quote analysis of each of the factors as well.

Summarize the key findings and/or policy issues

“The youth identified 35 causes of youth violence, but most students focused on specific subcategories within each of the four factors: individual, peer, family, and social. Although most students mentioned multiple causes, few identified causes within all four factors” (Zimmerman et al., 2004). The factors were broken down as such:

Peer was identified most often = 235

Societal factors was second = 210

Family = 123

Individual =