Violence is the Enemy of Today’s Youth
When a child observes daily occurrences of violence across: news broadcast, radio, and public incidences, why society is so violent should not be the question, but how society can decrease youth violence should be explored. Today’s youth has an overwhelming burden to bear. Violence has increased in society and youth often are exposed to situations that end in violent acts. The family dynamic has changed significantly in the last 40 years: with increased divorce, single parent households, and blended families the variability for children to be unsupervised allows for increased exposure to violence as well as expressing violence. Societal acceptance of violent acts has also opens the door for children to face more violent situations. The constant growth of drug and weapon use among today’s youth has become a proponent of increased violence against this generation. Violence in society today is caused by decreased parental supervision, societal acceptance, and drug and weapon access.This essay will Understanding why the trend of violence occurs and how it changes the future of youth
The first topic to investigate in the increase of violence in society is family dynamics; children are more likely than ever to face a distracted family. The divorce rate has climbed greatly in the last decade. According to Jennifer Baker of the Forest Institute of Professional Psychology in Springfield, Missouri, “50% of first marriages, 67% of second and 74% of third marriages end in divorce.” (Baker, 2009) This would suggest that many children and their parents are facing extreme stress. When parents divorce they often become preoccupied with the situation, this may leave children fending for themselves or with ...
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...ce to grow and be successful, that is not always a right for today’s children. Parental influence should be the first line of defense to protect children. The increase in youth violence is directly related to demise of family values and structure. Society has allowed technology to take the place of parenting, making excuses rather than being accountable. Schools and communities are facing the end result from children not having the necessities for becoming a confident, loved, and properly discipline individual. It time society takes a whole of today’s youth and demonstrates a better example.
Works Cited
Ande, R. (2009). Gun Violence Among School-Age Youth in Chicago. University of Chicago Crime Lab , 1-3.
Baker, J. (2009). Divorce Rate. Missouri: divorcerate.org.
Foresman, C. (2010). Kids consume media as a full-time job—many getting overtime. ARS .
“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.
According to John Davidson's essay Menace to Society, "three-quarters of Americans surveyed [are] convinced that movies, television and music spur young people to violence." While public opinion is strong, the results of research are divided on the effects of media violence on the youth in this country. Davidson wrote that most experts agree that some correlation between media violence and actual violent acts exists, yet the results are contradictory and researchers quibble about how the effects are to be measured (271). Moreover, Davidson is not convinced that the media is the sole problem of violence, or even a primary problem. He points out that other factors, such as "poverty, the easy accessibility of guns, domestic abuse, [and] social instability" may have a greater impact on a child becoming violent than the influence of the media (277). Even though other forces may be stronger, media violence does have some adverse effects on the members of society. If senseless violence on television and in movies had no effect, it would not be such a hotly debated topic. What type of effects and whom they affect are the most argued aspects of the discussion.
"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.
Juvenile gun violence is an ever-increasing problem in our country. With a wave of school shooting behind us it is time to get this under control. Many studies have been done on how to effectively diminish juvenile gun violence. It is clear that this must be handled on a state and local level with the federal government backing the states. Prevention and law enforcement is the key to successfully eradicate our nation of the ugly stain caused by youth gun violence.
Factors contributing to school violence are numerous, complex, and include the following: poverty, dysfunctional families, lack of paternal involvement, unemployment, truancy, and inner-city environment. Adequate parental supervision and control of these students has weakened, and many students have diminished respect for all forms of authority. As a result, schools are confronted with problems of students possessing weapons, involved with gang recruitment and rivalry, and engaged in drug trafficking. Such problems lead to violent ac...
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...
Pirruzia, T (2011).Review of the Roots of Youth Violence: Literature Reviews. (n.d.). Chapter 1: Biosocial Theory. Retrieved May 1, 2014, from http://www.children.gov.on.ca/htdocs/English/topics/youthandthelaw/roots/volume5/chapter01_biosocial_theory.aspx
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.
Children today are busy with friends, sports, and other circular activities. There are countless opportunities and dreams which most children only imagine accomplishing. What if one day, that was all to change. Suddenly, their life is a complete mess. Children and teens are not mentally prepared to withstand a divorce between the two people they think can get through anything. It is not fair for someone so innocent to have their world completely flipped upside down and their life changed forever. Divorce can change not only the child’s life, but also the way they talk, think, and behave. Focus on the Family points to a decline and a regression in a child’s behavior which includes drug use, crime, and sexual behavior because of divorce. Grades tend to drop and the likeliness of graduation is diminished. “Negative attitudes become apart of their life and fantasies begin to play a role” (2006-2007). According to the author Desia, in her article about how children are affected by divorce, she
Very few youth of today have respect for teachers, elders, or each other. Everyday more and more instances of violent crime are committed by our nation’s youth and children. Shocking accounts of children bringing guns to school as a means of solving problems with a teacher or a fellow student are becoming increasingly frequent. Children are committing crime, which were one thought only committed by adults such as rape, robbery, and murder.
More than 20,000 children and youth under the age of 20 years old are injured or killed by guns in the U.S. The easy accesses kids have to getting their hands on guns are a major reason why firearms are the second leading cause of death among the youth. The majority of deaths by guns in the youth are homicides. About one-third of them are suicides. Seven percent are unintentional. People living in urban areas such as, older teens, males, African American youth, and Hispanic youth are more likely to be involved in gun homicides. People in rural areas like males and Caucasian youth are more likely to commit suicide. There were 2,711 infant, child, and teen firearm deaths. That’s seven deaths a day.
Violence in teens has not always been so life threatening, but it has been around for a while. Over the years the danger that people are put in has been immense. It has gotten so out of hand that there is no place that is a shelter away from it. There are youth killing other youth almost anywhere; schools, movie theaters, neighborhoods, parties, and parks. The numbers of places are limitless in today’s society. Adults send their children out into the world almost every day not knowing if he/she will get hurt that day or if it will be the child’s last.
When you corrupt the minds of a youth, you destroy their future. As many as three-fourths of children and teens living in high-crime urban areas come into contact with violent acts (Bolling, 2014). Exposure to community violence can negatively affect psychological development and create a stressful environment at home and school. This then can lead to corrupt minds of the youth which could leave them dead or in jail. Family or neighborhood support where the children know they have someone to turn to for advice or a safe haven, helps decrease the amount of violence children come into contact with. A recreational center is a safe place that allows children to have fun and stay off the streets. Without this kind of community support network and safe spaces children can go to, families and children can otherwise be easily overwhelmed by the numerous challenges they face every day. The key to lowering the number of child deaths and reducing the amount of violence they see, is to help them while they are at a young age. The idea is to create several nonprofit recreational organizations in neighborhoods that have widespread violence and make them available for underprivileged children. Parents also play a huge part in the development of the children, therefore, classes would be offered to help with parenting skills to assist in their child’s journey to a better life.
These moments of instability and total breakdown of marriages and relationships become a learned behavior by the children and the cycle repeats itself in adulthood, as they engage in their personal relationships. As the institution of marriage and the family become more fragmented from generation to generation, life in America for children is not as good as we would like to believe. In the article written by Stephanie Coontz “The Way We Never Were: Introduction” is she mentions certain disturbing statistics involving the neglect towards children in America. For example Coontz notes Americas neglect to properly vaccinate children according to statistics our nations “children age two and under is worse than only two Western hemisphere nations, Bolivia and Haiti.” Considering the fact that America has more violence per capita than other established Western nations, this considerable exposure to violent acts has desensitized children leading them to become violent. Examining exposure to violence at a young age shows itself w in our life only and will you will you and you hen the children become adolescents as statistics have shown that “homicide involving American teens have seen a 12% increase in violent crimes in 1984 to 1980.” American teens also have seen an increase in teen
Considering that over 45 percent of marriages today end in divorce, it is crucial to understand recent research regarding the positive and negative effects of divorce on children’s mental health. Studies have shown that although children of broken homes generally have more adjustment difficulties than children of intact families, the distinction between these two groups appears to be much less significant than previously assumed (1). In the case of parental separation, studies suggest that children undergo a decline in the standard of living, exhibit poorer academic performance, engage in increased alcohol/ substance abuse, as well as experience diminishing rates of employment. However, underlying factors must be taken into consideration when assessing the long-term consequence of divorce on children, which happens to be resiliency rather than dysfunction (1). These key contextual factors that influence post-divorce adjustment include parenting styles, custody arrangements, age of the child, financial stability, and most importantly, the nature and magnitude of parental conflict. Persistent, unsettled conflict or violence is linked to greater emotional anxiety and psychological maladjustment in children, whereas negative symptoms like fear and insecurity are reduced when parents resolve their conflicts through compromise and negotiation. Although divorce unveils many risk factors involving a child’s health, it may be more beneficial rather than detrimental to children living in highly discorded families, in which children are able to acquire externalizing and internalizing behaviors (1). The development of coping skills and living in a supportive and empathetic environment are two crucial components for children to manage their ne...