Youth Violence
Youth violence is an escalating problem in American society today. There are many different factors that can be blamed for this problem. During the last decade of the twentieth century people began searching for answers to this dilemma which is haunting America. Many tragic school shootings have taken place within the last decade that have gained the attention of the public. As of now, no one can give the right answer to the problem or the reason that it happens because there is no right answer yet and nobody can be sure that they know the cause. All we have to go by are the opinions of different people.
The most popular cause of the problem of youth violence is the media. In “The Erosion of Empathy,” Sissela Bok says,
Few imagine that media violence ‘makes’ someone act out their aggressions. Many factors are at issue, though not all are present in any one case: depression, drugs, anxiety, parental neglect or abuse, access to lethal weapons and instructions about how to construct bombs. … glamorized media violence contributes powerfully to blurring the line between fantasy and reality. Immaturity, anger, fierce enjoyment of media violence, and access to deadly weapons make for a Combustible mix.
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Sissela Bok gets a good point across. Bok’s idea is that there is not just one cause, but that the many factors stated in the quote above put together have influence on youth violence, but she does stress the issue of violence in the media. The media is represented in many different ways including video games, movies, television, magazines, and newspapers.
Some interactive games invite players to assume the role of ‘first person shooters’ and reward them for shooting and eviscerating victims in glory and photo-realistic detail. Youngsters are familiar with films portraying the murder of classmates, parents, and teachers as thrilling. (Bok 247)
Much of this problem dealing with youth violence and the media is blamed on television and movies. “There are also the blood-drenched movies any kid can watch on HBO or network TV and teen cable shows like ‘Buffy the Vampire Slayer’ and ‘South Park,’ where kids’ decent impulses are derided and snuffed out every week.” (Sleeper 250) Children become engrossed in this type of television shows and look forward to the new episode every week. It is hard not to wonder what is going through thes...
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...nguage. 9th ed. Ed. Gary Goshgarian. New York:
Longman, 2000. 261-263.
Includes six letters to the editor of Newsweek magazine. Each are written by a different author and all speak of the shootings in Littleton, Colorado.
Wallaert 6
Males, Mike. “Stop Blaming Kids and TV.” Exploring Language. 9th ed. Ed. Gary
Goshgarian. New York: Longman, 2000. 257-260.
Throughout history it has been believed that children’s behavior is reflected from their parents. When dealing with youth violence this belief is overlooked and media influence is given much emphasis. Explains that juvenile violence begins at home.
Grossfield, Stan. “Not Gun Shy.” Exploring Language. 9th ed. Ed. Gary Goshgarian.
New York: Longman, 2000. 263-267.
Includes photos and edited transcripts of conversations held by Stan Grossfield and gun owners and dealers at Florida’s Palm Beach County gun show in June of 1999.
Sleeper, Jim. “An Issue Beyond Idealogy.” Exploring Language. 9th ed. Ed. Gary
Goshgarian. New York: Longman, 2000. 249-251.
Speaks of the issues concerning youth and violence. Discusses the views of both conservatives and liberals. Gives causes of youth violence.
“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.
Males, Mike. "Why Demonize a Healthy Teen Culture." Los Angeles Times 9 May. 1999. Rpt. in Violence in the Media as "Teenagers Are Not Becoming More Violent." Ed. James D. Torr. San Diego: Greenhaven. 2001. 82-84.
"Teen violence refers to harmful behaviors that can start early and continue into young adulthood" (Teen Violence). As generations continue to pass, the issue of teen violence remains. Why do kids act the way they do? What factors into their violent behavior? Questions like these do not have straight answers; instead, they seek out people's differing opinions. John Leo, Mike Males, Gloria Steinem, Charlie James, Chuck Shelton, Annette Fuentes, and James Garbarino share their opinions about the controversy of teen violence through newspaper and magazine articles. Each article has its own unique points, whether they are strong or weak. "Children in a Violent World" by James Garbarino offers the most convincing causal analysis and helps reveal the problem of teen violence to his readers.
The video hosted by Bill Moyer that we watched in class on March 4th involved violence in the mass media and the effects that it may have on children in modern day society. Video games sometimes display graphic violence as well as violent verbal messages that often convey a message of appeal to children. Movies often combine humor, violence, and/or sex in order to be more appealing to the audience. Usually two or more of these factors are used. Whether it is through these sources or as something as simple as the evening news, violence is everywhere in the media today and displays messages of approval that American society may not realize.
Mass media is a major influence that causes violence in youth culture. According to Hoffman, studies show that children experience an incredible number of violent acts per hour of watching television (Hoffman 11). The advancement in technology such as video games and televisions have aimed children to watch shows with numerous violent scenes. In making this comment, one can infer that violence is becoming a common and unexceptional act for which one can learn that violence is an accepted act in our society (12). Personally, I agree with Hoffman. I visited a websit...
Fear of youth violence is a constant concern by millions of people all over the world. Kids seem to take up more and more space of crimes that are usually committed by adults over the age of 18. "Statistics confirm that more horrendous crimes are being committed by increasingly younger children" (Levine 27). These crimes committed by youth's are caused by many different reasons: Poverty, neighborhoods, schools, parents, and TV, are the main concerns. But what is in most people's minds is what we can do to help prevent this violence. Although there are many different methods for reducing youth violence such as administering harsher punishments and steering kids away from gang influences, the most effective is training in conflict resolution because it gives kids another alternative to fighting. There are many different reasons as to why kids administer violence. Families, neighborhoods, peer groups, television, schools, and your personal factors are the main reasons. According to Joy G. Dryfoos, "Children who demonstrate antisocial behavior come from very non-supportive families at two extremes: either the family is repressive and abusive, or it seriously neglects the child from the early years on" (71). Parental neglect is a strong predictor of violence in a child, and parental rejection is the most powerful predictor. "The closer the child's relationship with his parents, the more he is attached to and identified with them, the lower his chances of delinquency" (Hirschi 71). Neighborhoods and peer groups are also a great influence on kids and their crimes. Growing in an underclass neighborhood is closely related with the risk of delinquency. Not all poor people are criminals, but drugs, guns and poverty are identified as causes o...
When families sit down to watch television, they expect to watch family type of shows. Family type shows meaning rated PG or PG13, sitcoms and movies that do not include weapons, killing, foul language, and non-socially accepted actions. When children killing, they start to believe that it is accepted. Do children think that killing and hurting others and themselves have little meaning to the real life, children can become traumatized. Most killers or violators of the law blame their behavior on the media, and the way that television portrays violators. Longitudinal studies tracking viewing habits and behavior patterns of a single individual found that 8-year-old boys, who viewed the most violent programs growing up, were the most likely to engage in aggressive and delinquent behavior by age 18 and serious criminal behavior by age 30 (Eron, 1). Most types of violence that occur today links to what people see on television, act out in video games or cyberspace games, or hear in music. Media adds to the violence that exists today and in the past few decades. It will continue in the future if it is not recognized as a possible threat to our society. When kids go to a movie, watch television, play video games or even surf the web, they become part of what they see and hear. Soaking violence in their heads long enough becomes a part of the way they think, acts, and live. The line between pretend and reality gets blurred.
A study done by the Secret Service and the Department of Education to try and figure out the commonalities in school violence noticed that the most common trait shared was a history of suicide attempts and depression (Olson). That is not to say that every suicidal depressed student is going to become a mass murderer, but it...
There is a strong agreement among American society that violence in the country is on the rise. It is easy to see why this is a strong argument among the American people, especially because of the rising popularity of violent video games and television programs. However, as these violent video games and television shows are creating their own place in our society, the reports of violence among children are escalating. This correlation has been studied extensively in the scientific community in an attempt to discover whether media violence does negatively impact children but there has yet to be a consensus. There is a split between those that believe that children are becoming more violent because they are exposed to violent media and those that believe that correlation is not causation, who argue that media violence does not have any notable effect the youth.
There are many factors that influence youth violence and as well, various effects that it may have on the surrounding world. Homes containing absent parents, a low income, and substance abuse, have negative effects on the children, making them become more at risk for violent behaviour (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013). Children raised in these types of families tend to relay the same behaviour on to their future families and children since the family is the first primary method of socialization (Voisin, 2007, pg 53). A child is at risk for violence if they have been a victim or an observer of violence in their past. Youth violence may also develop if the child has a mental disability, a low intelligence level or is extremely introverted (Centers for Disease Control and Prevention, 2013). Peers and the community also ...
In this day and age the media is always covering breaking stories about juveniles and violence. It seems that every other day there is a headline about shootings or stabbings. There are many things that need to be taken into consideration when analyzing juvenile violence and more specifically juveniles and gun violence. Gun violence is the intentional use of a weapon against a person, group or community that can possibly result in injury, death or psychological harm. There are many factors that need to be analyzed in order to come to a decision about the proper course of action to reduce gun violence amongst juveniles. The things that need to be taken into consideration are gun laws, different uses of a firearm, how youths attain firearms, causes of gun violence and most importantly, the options to combat juvenile gun violence.
Senate Committee on the Judiciary. “Media Violence Causes Youth Violence.” Mass Media. Ed. William Dudley. Farmington Hills, MI: Thompson Gale, 2005. 121-130.
A widely accepted cause of the murders committed by children is violence in the media. The parents of three students killed at a high school in Padukah, Kentucky filed a $130 million lawsuit against the entertainment industry because they believe that violence in the media inspired the boy, Michael Carneal, who killed their children ("Media"). To some extent, these parents are correct in their assumption. On average, children watch television 16 to 17 hours per week, beginning as early as age 2 (Strasburger 129). Furthermore, when video games are added, some teenagers may spend as many as 35 to 55 hours per week in front of the television set (Straburger 129). Within these many hours of television viewing, there are many violent scenes. The National Television Viole...
The regularity and asperity of media violence has dramatically increased over the years. The Media exists in almost every aspect of people’s lives and exposure to violence in the media is becoming a large concern. People are exposed violent acts in the media everyday between video games, movies, and television. Parents are distressed over the fact tha...
With the explosion of technology today, access to the media is at your fingertips, anytime, anywhere, and almost 24/7. Video games, movies, cartoons, daily news, websites, music videos, and even in commercials, violence is everywhere, and it becomes harder and harder to avoid. Violence in the media has been increasing and reaching dangerous proportions. According to Report of the Media Violence Commission, the effects are remarkably consistent regardless of type of medium, age, gender, or where the person lives in the world (336). Many studies and researches reveal the empirical evidence that links violence in movies and television shows to aggressive behavior in children, teenagers, and adults. Increasing aggressive behavior, desensitization to violence, and fear are three types of negative effects contributed to by violence in movies and television shows. The article, “The Influence of Media Violence on Youth” emphasizes that violent television shows, films, and music reveal unequivocal evidence that media violence increases the likelihood aggressive and violent behavior in both immediately, and in the long term (Anderson, Craig A., 81). Violence now has gone into the mainstream. The Hunger Games, one of the top grossing films in 2013 replete with blood, gore and violence. The Walking Dead was once voted highest-rated entertainment program on TV with horrific violent scenes, killing from stabbing into the heads, bloody corpses, and disturbing, haunting images shown in most of the scenes. CBS’ Criminal Minds is television show with series of scary scenarios showing the violent murders of psychopath people. Worst of all, Silence of the Lambs deals with a psychopath who ...