Wait a second!
More handpicked essays just for you.
More handpicked essays just for you.
Poverty is the worst form of violence
Don’t take our word for it - see why 10 million students trust us with their essay needs.
Recommended: Poverty is the worst form of violence
Schools that are located in poverty-stricken areas are affected in numerous ways. One specific example includes school funding; a school cannot operate without funding of some sort. Property taxes from those living in the area near the school are often the number one source of school funding. If the school is located in a poor neighborhood, there is a high probability that that school is not going to receive a large amount of funds. Without adequate access to money, the resources are depleted and so is the quality of the education. Since there are only below average resources in the school, engaging resources and high-quality teachers are nowhere to be found. Interest in education then takes another decrease. Being successful in school, …show more content…
For example, students that are part of low-income families often have to have jobs themselves along with their parents. This means they spend less time studying and being part of extracurricular activities that help further their education. Another example is related to the lack of parental contact and support. It may be necessary for the parents to hold many occupations. The result is students do not have parents around to encourage them to do their homework. The student may then care less about their homework and education in general. When combined, the end result is a student that has inadequate access to a decent education and a person who does not care about education in general. The students then tend to turn their focus from school to areas they feel like they would fit in. Association with gangs can be quite intriguing to individuals who feel that they do not belong. They can provide a sense of familial ties and protection that individuals may not find at home because their parents are constantly working. While not all gangs are violent, it can still be extremely common. Not all people who are in poverty join gangs, but as our reading in chapter six explains we can still see a large correlation between violence and poverty. High stress is often common in people who live in poverty because they may have multiple jobs, lack of good meal, or have poor living conditions. Because of either joining a gang or not, people often turn to violence. If that individual is caught, then they have to deal with the criminal justice system. Here we have now made the full circle and connected the two systems. While we have connected the two systems, the story does not stop there. An example could involve a person that committed a crime that lands them in prison for the rest of their life, but they could have also committed a minor crime. Since they have a
Most people would agree that some violence is in everyone, but it seems that well educated people often find other means to conquer their problems or go about solving them. Through history knowledge has proved to be an unavoidable part of life. As children in the community began dropping out of schools in vast numbers these kids were forced to, willingly or not, gain knowledge elsewhere (1998). A macro cause for the growing numbers of students dropping out of school and joining the gangs, could be that the ideas and values of those gangs quickly spread through the streets and classrooms. This Leads the teenagers to make decisions about wether or not they agree with the
Alex Kotowits’ book, There Are No Children Here, follows two young boys over a course of two years. The environment that the children are raised in is a lower income area that is surrounded by violence, gangs, and crime. The best theory to explain this novel would be strain theory, followed by social disorganization theory. Being raised in poverty generates many issues, which then makes children rebel later in life. Many families experience different types of strain such as experience strain, vicarious strain, and anticipated strain. This not only affects the person who is experiencing strain, but also affects other people who are around them. The novel presents a good example of both general strain theory and early social disorganization theory
Risk factors are centered around parents and caregivers, who is a child’s first form off insight on how relationships and ultimately how the world and its inhabitants function. In many cases, if the caregiver is not emotionally or financially stable, which puts a child at a much higher risk to experience some form of abuse. This concept is prevalent throughout Jorja Leap’s book “Jumped in.” Many of the people who joined the gang life resorted to the hood because their parents were either incarcerated, too drugged out, or dead. This is a form of abuse and this emotional trauma leads the children to turn to find another form of family, which is the “hood.” Community violence is usually a negative result that comes from some form of child abuse at a very early age. As the CDC states “concentrated neighborhood disadvantage (e.g., high poverty and residential instability, high unemployment rates, and high density of alcohol outlets), and poor social connections” are a high risk factor for child to experience abuse. In “Jumped in” one of the characters, Johann speaks about how she felt abandoned by her own mother. She explains how her mother was “no damn good. She left [her] so many times. She never there when [she] need[ed] her… and she makes [her] feel like shit” (JI-Leap). Furthermore, another character explained how his “mother [was] gone and [his] father [he] never knew, [he] knows this, [he] knows [his] neighborhood” (JI-Leap). In addition another high risk factor is unwanted pregnancy by teenagers who themselves are still in the process of development.
One of the most important social factors that contribute to violent death in the United States is poverty/ unemployment. “Poverty can lead to high levels of stress that in turn may lead individuals to commit theft, robbery, or other violent acts” (Taylor, 2006, p.1). Poverty can lead to people with an inferior education meaning that they have less access to quality schools, role models, and jobs. So many people including children and teens are more likely to engage in bad behaviors and associate themselves with gangs due to poverty. Crimes and violent deaths are committed when so impoverished people have a way to obtain material goods. When they want to acquire more goods they will commit more violent acts. Unemployment increases poverty rates and will lead to people committing crimes due to being depressed from having no
These crime-ridden communities (or ghettos) are springing up all through the country, mainly in and around major metropolitan areas. These areas are the most populated, so that means that within these areas are the most people there to be influenced by the crimes committed by fellow people. In Male's reading he shows statistics that prove the fact that once the poverty factor is taken away then teen violence disappears. He later adds, “That if America wants to rid of juvenile violence than serious consideration needs to be given to the societally inflicted violence of raising three to 10 times more youth in poverty than other Western nations.” (Males p386)
Students who live below the poverty line have less motivation to succeed, and their parents are less inclined to participate in their child’s education, often because the parents cannot provide support for their children. Although it’s logical that school districts from poorer communities cannot collect as much funding as the richer communities, people stuck in these low-income communities often pay higher taxes, and still their school districts cannot accumulate as much money.... ... middle of paper ... ...
Low income students are generally found in low income communities which have fewer resources to devote to their schools. With inadequate funds and resources, these kids are not getting the equal opportunity in education as kids in high income communities. Kids...
Adolescent boy’s health is being affected in many places such as rural and urban areas. "Almost 30% of cities with more than 2,500 people have reported problems with gangs, and more than 80% of cities with more than 50,000 people have reported these problems (Kelly)." Multiple different backgrounds are affected by this type of violence, the most affected percentage are pointed toward African American boys between age 12 and 19. When being a victim of gang violence a person could not only being involved but if they were to witness it they are just as much impacted by it. It is shown to create violence throughout households when they are placed in a community that has a huge percentage of this type of violence. When gangs are talked to be a positive thing the amount of people increases their desire to want to join one. Many adolescent boys think of gangs as a sense of security at school.
The fact that students from lower income families fail to perform as well in school holds no dispute. Growing up with less money has been proven to create a significant disadvantage. Those struggling to pay their bills often are forced to cut back the money spent on food, leaving kids with only the option of cheaper food with poor nutritional value, or sometimes skipping meals. This inhibits the brain from functioning at its best and can leave students more worried about their growling stomachs than their schoolwork (Ladd, Fiske). Low income students face other distractions from their schoolwork including home struggles like in the movie Freedom Writers. A teacher starts a job...
For decades now, there have been educational problems in the inner city schools in the United States. The schools inability to teach some students relates to the poor conditions in the public schools. Some of the conditions are the lack of funds that give students with the proper supplies, inexperienced teachers, inadequate resources, low testing scores and the crime-infested neighborhoods. These conditions have been an issue for centuries, but there is nothing being done about it. Yet, state and local governments focus on other priorities, including schools with better academics. It is fair to say that some schools need more attention than other does. However, when schools have no academic problems then the attention should be focused elsewhere, particularly in the inner city schools.
Low- income children 's school districts often lack the money to provide these children with resources, and therefore the children will not get these resources any other way. Devarics (2011) stated, "Only 22 percent of local districts reported offering pre-kindergarten or other early learning programs for low-income children" (para.8). Denying this resource affects the many children who reside where that 78 percent of local districts do not offer pre-kindergarten, because many go to kindergarten not knowing minimal skills required. As a consequence, this postpones their education even further. Moreover, Davarics (2011) also stated, "Many schools aren 't educationally where they need to be, which ultimately means many students won 't graduate ready to succeed in a career or in higher education," (para.11). Many low-income schools do not offer activities such as, art, music or sports, because of the lack of money, facilities, or staff. They are not supplied with the right tools and have poor access to computers and Internet. They also do not offer rigorous courses at many of these schools, and have less qualified, trained, and less experienced staff that cannot proficiently teach such courses. Going to school with these disadvantages, can make these children unmotivated to continue an education where there will be little educational progress.
One of the reasons young people join street gangs is because of neighborhood disadvantages. A theory that can contribute to why young people might join street gangs is Social Disorganization Theory. Social Disorganization theory assumes that “delinquency emerges in neighborhoods where neighborhood relation and social institutions have broken down and can no longer maintain effective social controls (Bell, 2007).” Social Disorganization contributes to residential instability and poverty, which affects interpersonal relationships within the community and opens opportunities for crimes to be committed. The break down of neighborhood relation and social institutions create a higher likely hood that young people will affiliate with deviant peers and get involved in gangs. When there is lack of social controls within a neighborhood the opportunity to commit deviance increases and the exposure to deviant groups such as street gangs increase. Which causes an increase in the chances of young people joining street gangs. If social controls are strong remain strong within a neighborhood and/or community the chances of young people committing crime and joining gangs decreases.
Additionally, the need for the young people to have a sense of protection mainly drives them to join gangs. Many societies with high reported cases of mob activities frequently see youths linked with a bunch of criminals just for endurance. For many, it is better to connect with the mob than to stay vulnerable and defenseless in their localities (Klein & Maxson, 2006). For many, being connected to a mob guarantees sustenance in case of assault and retaliation for wrongdoings.
There are many different factors that affect education. One such factor is, socioeconomic status. Children who attend school in a wealthier community receive a better education than those students in poor communities. In poor communities, student’s education is not only affected by a lack of resources, but also from teaching methods and philosophies. Urban and poor schools’ students do not receive as equal of an education as their more affluent and suburban counterparts do.
For the most part it is not the students fault as to why they are failing, but the teachers. In run down schools in poor towns, most teachers can only do so much with what they are given. In most cases it leads the teachers to just give up. In David K. Shipler’s The Working Poor: Invisible in America, Shipler states, “It had been a science class, and the teacher had given up and allowed a student who had brought a Nintendo game to plug it in” (Shipler 240). If the teacher ends up giving up or stops caring all together, the student will follow suit. In the student’s mind if the authority does not see it as important, why should they. It is important that the teachers, no matter the school, not give up on the students, for most it is the only the students have to look up to. According to Lyndsey Layton, writer for the Washington Post, just about 11 million children were living below the poverty level (Layton). For that amount of children to be living that low in life is unacceptable, but because of how education is in these areas where the children are living in are bad, they don’t have much hope for their future. Education is the only outlook these kids have for a better future and if that is corrupt or interfered with than there is a really good chance of them not being able to escape the poverty. Although there are millions of teachers that do strive to provide the best for his or her